Random Most Career-Ruining Performances (12 items)

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  (#1) Milli Vanilli

  • Band/Musician

  Milli Vanilli rocked the charts in the late '80s before a live performance exposed the pop duo, proving they weren't just two good-looking European gentlemen with amazing voices. The truth was revealed when a backing track began to skip during a performance on MTV. The moment spurred speculation about the authenticity of the group's vocals.

  Soon after, their manager revealed they were, in fact, lip-syncing and that session singers had recorded the album. As a result, the duo had their Grammy award taken away; Milli Vanilli was effectively over.

  "It’s like working with smoke and mirrors, nobody knew what was going on for a long time," the group's backup singer, Linda Rocco, later said of the incident.

  Rob Pilatus and Fab Morvan, the faces of the duo, attempted a genuine comeback a few years later but were unsuccessful. 
• 

  (#2) Ashlee Simpson

  • Band/Musician

  Ashlee Simpson, sister of pop star Jessica Simpson, had begun to get her own music career off the ground when she landed a prized spot as a musical guest on Saturday Night Live in 2004. "Pieces Of Me," the first song of the buzzed-about performance, went well enough. But when Simpson took the stage for her second song, the backing track for the first song, "Pieces Of Me," began to play instead.

  Stunned, Simpson performed a brief jig before running off stage. The show went to commercial a minute later. 

  "I’ll hold my head high and say I think it was silly of me to do it, silly of me to blame the band, I was just so f*cking embarrassed," she later said in a statement, blaming the incident on acid reflux and her voice being shot.

  Simpson's subsequent single release did poorly, as did the album that followed. Her musical career never got back on track. 
• 

  (#3) Lindsay Lohan

  • Actor

  In 2004, actress Lindsay Lohan began her musical career with a scandal: lip-syncing on national television. Lohan was performing two songs from her album when she was caught on camera, apparently forgetting to move her mouth along with the vocals that were playing.

  Reps for both Lohan's record label and Good Morning America denied that she lip-synced. Label rep Kim Jakwerth said in a statement:

  She did not lip-sync. Lindsay sang 100 percent live. Her band played 100 percent live. The background singers were 100 percent live. Yes, on the first song there were background tracks, which were not on the second song.

  The scandal was the beginning of the end for Lohan's musical endeavors, as she never quite recovered enough to keep pursuing a singing career. 
• 

  (#4) Michelle Shocked

  • Band/Musician

  Folk singer Michelle Shocked derailed her career in 2013 after ranting about gay marriage on stage in San Francisco, CA. The singer, whose own sexuality has been fairly ambiguous over the years, said, "When they stop Prop 8 and force priests at gunpoint to marry [homosexual people], it will be the downfall of civilization, and Jesus will come back."

  Backlash immediately ensued, and Shocked went on the Piers Morgan show to set the record straight, but was unable to undo the damage that had been done. She faded into obscurity soon after. 
• 

  (#5) Guns N' Roses

  • Band/Musician

  Guns N' Roses' MTV VMA Awards performance in 2002 was meant to be something of a comeback for the group, with Axl Rose fronting a new lineup and hoping to reclaim the band's reputation after nearly a decade of dormancy.

  That wasn't mean to be, however, thanks to Rose's particularly bad vocal performance and downright bizarre appearance. The legendary hard rock frontman sported braids in his hair and ran across the stage almost unable to breathe properly enough to sing well.

  It was a strange performance that set the tone for the band's Chinese Democracy, which was almost as spectacular a failure as the VMA performance. It was such a disappointment that a fan created a version of the broadcast with another performance synced over the video just to see what could have been. 
• 

  (#6) Sinéad O'Connor

  • Band/Musician

  Sinead O'Connor's 1992 Saturday Night Live performance is routinely considered one of the most shocking incidents in music history. During a performance of a version of Bob Marley's "War," the Irish singer shouted, "Fight the real enemy," and tore up a photo of the Pope John Paul II.

  The unplanned protest sparked incredible backlash and effectively ruined O'Connor's mainstream career. She later admitted the American public might not have been as familiar at the time with the Catholic Church's history of sexual assault as people in Ireland were, saying:

  In Ireland we see our people are manifesting the highest incidence in Europe of child abuse. This is a direct result of the fact that they're not in contact with their history as Irish people and the fact that in the schools, the priests have been beating the sh*t out of the children for years and sexually abusing them.

  Two weeks after her SNL performance, O'Connor was booed off the stage of the Bob Dylan 30th Anniversary Tribute concert.
• 

  (#7) The Everly Brothers

  • Band/Musician

  The Everly Brothers' disastrous 1973 performance spelled the end of the Everly Brothers. Don Everly allegedly showed up wasted to the infamous Los Angeles show and derailed everything by forgetting lyrics throughout the performance. Phil ultimately smashed his guitar and left the venue, effectively ending the brothers' musical partnership.

  They patched things up 10 years later, but never quite stayed on great terms prior to Phil's passing in 2014.

  "I loved my brother very much," Don wrote in a statement after his brother's passing. "I always thought I’d be the one to go first... The world might be mourning an Everly Brother, but I’m mourning my brother Phil Everly."
• 

  (#8) Women

  • Band/Musician

  Indie band Women had perhaps one of the most intense on-stage breakups of all time. While performing in Victoria, British Columbia, in 2011, the band - who had gained serious steam following two critically acclaimed albums - erupted into an intense fight.

  "Pat started throwing punches at his brother [Matthew Flegel] during their set-up and soundcheck. Full on 'break it up' brawl between the brothers," Aidan Knight, who attended the show, said. "Chris announced on-stage that it would be their 'last show as a band' and they were planning to play without Pat. Not sure how that would've worked."

  The band canceled their tour following the brawl, then announced a hiatus. Unfortunately, they were never able to mend their relationship and guitarist Christopher Reimer passed in 2012. 
• 

  (#9) Robin Thicke

  • Band/Musician

  Robin Thicke's quest to reconcile with his wife took center stage during an awkward performance at the the BET Awards in 2014. The singer's attempts to win back his wife, actress Paula Patton, was already documented on recordings and in live performances. However, his BET performance, in which he opened his song by telling Patton that he loved and missed her, was a bizarre turn.

  Thicke and Patton were married for nine years before cheating rumors prompted Patton to move on from the "Blurred Lines" singer. Following the BET performance, Thicke's career never quite got back on the right track.

  He retreated from the spotlight for some time before returning with a single that did reasonably well, but he hasn't been heard from in a major way musically since. His last album was, fittingly enough, 2014's Paula. 
• 

  (#10) The Chicks

  Politics are always a risky stance for celebrities and musicians. In one of the most infamous controversies, the Dixie Chicks derailed their massive career in a matter of seconds after speaking out against the George W. Bush administration during a performance in London.

  "Just so you know, we're on the good side with y'all. We do not want this war, this violence, and we're ashamed that the President of the United States is from Texas," singer Natalie Maines said at the time.

  The group faced intense backlash after the comments, as country music fans boycotted the group's albums and staged protests at concerts. The group attempted to quell the fire though an interview with Diane Sawyer, but their reputation never recovered fully among their country audience.

  However, they were able to make a successful crossover-comeback a few years later. 
• 

  (#11) Fear

  • Band/Musician

  It was a performance that should've seemed like a bad idea from the start. In 1981, John Belushi, a fan of the Los Angeles hardcore punk scene, struck up a friendship with the band Fear. After an attempt to get them involved in his movie Neighbors fell through, Belushi promised the group, known for their song "I Don't Care About You (F*ck You)," a performance slot on Saturday Night Live.

  Belushi negotiated with then-showrunner Dick Ebersol by promising that he'd return to the show for a guest appearance.

  The band's performance on Halloween 1981 was true to the punk scene, but unheard of for national network television. What started as a minor moshpit morphed into a full-on riot, with much of the set being destroyed. Though it was rumored that it cost $200,000 to repair damages, a spokesman later set the record straight.

  "We had to pay $40 in labor penalties. That was the extent of it," spokesman Peter Hamilton said. What it did do was cement Fear's legacy while simultaneously ending any prospects of a mainstream crossover. 
• 

  (#12) Janet Jackson

  • Band/Musician

  Janet Jackson's performance with Justin Timberlake is legendary for its "malfunction" instead of the music. The duo took the stage during the Super Bowl Halftime Show in 2004, when a "wardrobe malfunction" derailed the entire thing and essentially cost Jackson her career.

  Spokespersons initially labeled the live television moment, in which Jackson's breast was exposed after Timberlake tore open a portion of her top, as a "wardrobe malfunction." It was ultimately revealed the stunt was a calculated move by both artists.

  "To this day, despite some ambiguity about who knew what, I think we were relatively convinced that somehow those producing the show knew what was going to happen," FCC Chairman Michael Powell said years later.

  As a result of the controversial incident, Jackson was blacklisted from radio stations and her album sales suffered greatly, while Timberlake's solo stardom began to rise to where it is today. Jackson's career never truly recovered from the incident. 

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