IT’S not officially Thanksgiving until the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade begins.
Fans from all over will be watching the live telecast of the beloved holiday parade, where anything can happen – including cringe moments.
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Racking in around 25 million views per year, the Macy’s Parade has taken place each Thanksgiving for the past 96 years.
This year, the show starts early, and also features a performance by Oscar, Emmy, and Grammy award winner Cher.
To ring in the holidays, she will be performing a brand new holiday song for the millions of parade attendees.
There will be 17 other performers, including Pentatonix, Jon Batiste, Chicago, Jax, and more.
To add to the list of musical entertainment, 11 marching bands will be present at the parade, including several high school and college marching bands.
The parade will also feature 25 giant balloons, such as Spongebob and Gary, Stuart the Minion, Smokey Bear, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Bluey, and Paw Patrol.
Seven of the balloons are new, including Beagle Scout Snoopy, Blue Cat and Chugs, Kung Fu Panda’s Po, Leo, Monkey D. Luffy, the Pillsbury Doughboy, and Uncle Dan.
With so much activity over the three-hour telecast, it may be no surprise that some of the celebrity performances have gone viral for all the wrong reasons.
MARIAH CAREY
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Mariah Carey sparked concern last year after fans said she looked terrified during her Thanksgiving Day Parade performance.
The singer closed out the famous holiday event with her classic song All I Want for Christmas is You.
Several took to X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, to express worry for the talented vocalist as she seemed uneasy at the New York City event.
“Mariah Carey looked terrified and or animatronic in that parade at the end, hope she’s okay wherever they’re keeping the real Mariah,” one wrote.
“Is Mariah Carey ok?? She just stood there… like literally did not move!!! I’m confused & truly hope she’s ok. I get that they are all lip-syncing. Just hope she’s.. ok!?!?!” a second agreed.
PAULA ABDUL
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Paula Abdul’s performance last year wasn’t much better – with many roasting it online.
The Grammy Award-winning singer performed her hit Straight Up during Thursday’s festivities.
But some fans ridiculed her for allegedly using autotune and attempting to tap-dance in high heels.
One critic tweeted: “Oh Paula Abdul, you don’t need to dance anymore. Stick to judging people. We love you! #MacysParade.”
“Paula Abdul pretending to perform a wildly auto-tuned version of ‘Straight Up’ and Flava Flav cheering from the crowd during the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is cinema,” wrote a second person.
A third detractor wrote: “God help me but Paula Abdul lip-syncing while also tap-syncing during the Thanksgiving Day parade is killing me!”
SEAN PAUL
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Lip Syncing has long been a staple of the parade, with some singers taking to it easier than others.
Sean Paul is a Grammy-winning Jamaican dancehall rapper and reggae artist who was slammed last year for his awkward attempt.
The singer first rose to fame with the Dutty Cup Crew in the 90s before hitting the big time when he kicked off his solo career in 2000.
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He has released seven solo studio albums, and has been nominated for nine Grammy Awards, winning one in 2004.
Prior to entering the mainstream, he scored several hit singles in Jamaica in 1996 and steadily attracted international attention – becoming a dancehall superstar.
But last year, he may as well have traded his mic in for a phone – after many viewers slammed him and accused him of phoning in his performance.
“The hold Sean Paul has on white women while lip syncing a song that came out 17 years ago.” one person tweeted.
Another lamented: “Everyone has to lip sync at the Macy’s Parade .. It’s been like that.”
While a third added plainly: “This singing was so dumb.”
RITA ORA
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Rita Ora’s performance in 2018 was so bad, Macy’s issued an apology, while also coming up with an excuse.
“During today’s NBC broadcast of the #MacysParade several recording artists experienced technical difficulties that negatively impacted their performance,” the retailer tweeted. “We apologize and want fans to know these issues were out of the artist’s control.”
Rita was ripped earlier online for visibly lip-syncing.
The vitriol was so intense, her fellow musical artists came to her defense.
John Legend became a legend himself when he sarcastically shared: “Fun fact. We all have to lip sync on this parade because the floats don’t have the capacity to handle the sound requirements for a live performance.
“Hope y’all enjoyed it anyway. Know that if you come to my shows, the vocals are 100% live!”
Rita retweeted his message, tacking on one of her own.
“Fun fact @johnlegend thank you for clarifying what I was about to also tweet. It’s annoying for us but anyway!
All my shows are 100 percent live always have been! When you come to a ORA show get ready!”
HODA KOTB
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It’s not just the singers that have turned heads on the parade.
NBC anchor Hoda Kotb dropped the ball as she tried to introduce a giant balloon of a character from Dragon Ball Z.
The 2019 parade introduced the anime character Goku in his Super Saiyan Blue form.
It was supposed to be a promotion for the Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot video game, but viewers instead were distracted by Hoda’s butchering of the name.
Hoda announced the game as “Kah-Kah-Rote”, and instantly seemed amused by her potty sounding pronunciation.
She started to laugh, and couldn’t even finish reading her script.
Eventually, she just gave up, and there was a long pause where no sounds were being made by the hosts at all.
But every few beats, you could faintly hear Hoda cracking up off camera.
Fans on X were quick to point it out.
“Why did the script even call for her to say Kakarot?” one fan begged to know.
Another added: “Bro she sounds so unenthused.”
While a third cried: “She’s just trying to pronounce these weird Japanese words that are just a jumble of letters to her.”
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