Notoriously bad concerts in the history of music

Two Madonna fans in New York City sued the 65-year-old pop icon for starting a concert in New York two hours late. The Dec. 13, 2023 show was scheduled to start at 8:30 pm, but Madonna didn’t come on stage until after 10:30, according to the lawsuit. The concert continued until 1 am, leaving the fans "stranded" with "limited public transportation" or other options to get home.

While Madonna may not be the only performer who has started a concert late, the lawsuit has generated debate over whether or not it’s ok to leave the audience waiting for hours. Does that make it a bad concert experience?

While the following artists may not have been sued for their performances, some argue that they are among the worst performances in modern times. Should that be considered a breach of contract too?!

During the 2007 Super Bowl, Christina Aguilera not only pushed her voice to the extreme, making it difficult to hear, but she also mixed up the words of the American national anthem. Her attempt at improvisation to catch up made the disaster only worse.

The concert is legendary, but it had one of the funniest and misfire bass throws of all time. During the show, Krist Novoselic decided to throw his bass above his head. However, he didn't catch it and the instrument landed right on top of his head. Afterward, Kurt Cobain, who was no stranger to damaging equipment, destroyed some amps with the head of his guitar at the end of the show.

Even the best have their worst moments… In 2010, the diva appeared on stage as if she was in a trance. As we all kind of knew, the star had serious problems with addiction. During this show, she had trouble finishing her songs and holding the notes. Yet, the audience kept applauding and encouraging her, showing their love. The scene is truly touching, but also sad. Whitney Houston would die two years later.

She was about to lip-sync 'Emotions' during the New Year's concert in 2017 in New York when the soundtrack failed to start. Furious, Mariah Carey then refused to sing live. She decided that "We're going to let the audience sing" while grumbling throughout the song. Sadly, the same happened with 'We Belong Together.' As a result, her show only lasted six minutes... the longest in history!

It's not a surprise that rap group PNL is lost without its vocoder. And that's exactly what happened during its 2017 concert in Brussels. When they performed their song 'Naha,' the engine that transformed their voices broke down, forcing them to sing live, a capella, and terribly.

2007 was a difficult year for the singer. She was dealing with mental health problems and fighting for the custody of her children. The performance took place in September of that year at the MTV Video Music Awards. In her state, Britney Spears was clearly not ready to go back on stage. It was also noticeable that she had taken something before her performance.

The public of the Haze nightclub in Las Vegas is not the quietest. So what did Kelly Rowland do? She started screaming her song from the first notes. The audience didn't understand anything she sang, and the ex-Destiny's Child also irremediably derailed her voice and chained together false notes. A beautiful carnage.

The song had already begun ten seconds before Katy Perry mounted the stage. She then tried to lip-sync the tune, getting completely disoriented. The organizer of the event walked on stage and apologized: "There was a slip-up, but as we are live, if you don't mind, we can restart, what do you think ?" The star then restarted her act, which was an elegant solution to an embarrassing situation.

Known for her temper and not on the greatest terms with her former Pussycat Dolls colleagues, Nicole Scherzinger had the bad luck of a broken microphone while singing Whitney Houston's 'The Greatest Love Of All' on live television. She 'solved' the issue by snatching the microphone from her duet partner, Jahmene Douglas, and continuing awkwardly as a solo act. Very sympathetic!

We laugh about it, but the incident could have been serious for the diva. As she descended from the stage to get closer to the audience, her long golden hair got stuck in one of the ventilators. She struggled as best she could to get loose until a security guard came to the rescue and cut the fuse. The notable thing here is that Queen B. never interrupted her show. She continued to sing as if nothing had happened and without a false note.

This scene is also legendary. In the middle of a concert, Katy Perry plays the flute on a cover of 'Big P...pin' by Jay-Z. But as she takes the instrument away from her mouth, the sound of the flute continues, bringing the deception to light… She then has to admit, that no, she doesn't know anything about playing a flute.

This performance is quite sad, especially because we now know that a few weeks later the singer would be dead. Amy Winehouse rarely went on stage sober, but during this concert in June 2011, we saw her stagger, throw her microphone stand, cross her arms, then simply refuse to sing. The fans, worried, tried to help her by singing the words for her, but nothing got the concert going. She ended up leaving the stage.

Announced on stage at 8 p.m., Lauryn Hill arrived more than 2.5 hours late at her Parisian concert in November 2018. Her impatient and angry audience let her know their displeasure by booing her throughout her performance. The concert would barely last an hour and the singer's mediocre performance only made the fans angrier.

The singer arrived on stage without a microphone and began to lip-sync the song. Clearly, however, lip-syncing was not her talent.

This one you should look up on YouTube. George-Alain from the program 'Star Academy' had a very nonchalant attitude in 2002. It reached the pinnacle when he had to cover The Ketchup song by the group Las Ketchup. He mumbled, barely moved, and missed the chorus. It's hilarious material.

Image: Star Academy Official / YouTube

It could have been funny but was really kind of embarrassing… In 2009, in front of the mayor of Meaux, Véronique Sanson sang a funny song that turned out to be way off the mark. “I absolutely have to fart," she sang, "I absolutely have to s***." Two endless minutes…