Pop divas have to stick together! Mariah Carey does not want Fergie to listen to the haters after her jazz-inspired performance of the National Anthem at the NBA All-Star Game was criticized on social media.
“Darling, nobody needs to listen to that,” Carey told TMZ on Sunday, February 18. As previously reported, the former Black Eyed Peas singer’s rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” at the Staples Center in Los Angeles was panned by fans and even some famous faces just hours earlier.
“This All Star opening is confusing me,” Khloe Kardashian tweeted on Sunday. “WTF is going on? Anyone?”
NBA commentator Charles Barkley called the performance “different” and added that he “needed a cigarette after that.”
Many of the NBA players on the sidelines also seemed unimpressed by Fergie’s performance and Twitter did not hold back, with many users calling it “criminal” and “the worst rendition ever.”
Roseanne Barr, who was criticized for her performance (that included the comedian spitting and grabbing her crotch) of the National Anthem at a San Diego Padres game in 1990, chimed in and said her rendition was “better.”
“Who saw Fergie’s national anthem performance at the NBA All Star Game? I think mine was better lowkey,” the Roseanne star tweeted.
Carey, meanwhile, is no stranger to criticism after a live performance. Following a series of technical difficulties on Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve With Ryan Seacrest on December 31, 2016, the Grammy winner returned to the Times Square stage to redeem herself the following year.
“She was ready to play,” a source told Us Weekly at the time about her 2017 performance. “She wanted to prove herself.”
As for Fergie, she has yet to respond to the criticism.
