{"id":460314,"date":"2026-02-07T19:46:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T19:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/460314\/"},"modified":"2026-02-07T19:46:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T19:46:11","slug":"mariah-careys-olympics-opening-ceremony-performance-dubbed-disastrous-as-viewers-question-why-she-was-booked","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/460314\/","title":{"rendered":"Mariah Carey\u2019s Olympics opening ceremony performance dubbed \u2018disastrous\u2019 as viewers question why she was booked"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mariah Carey\u2019s<\/a> performance at the opening ceremony of the 2026 Winter Olympics <\/a>has sparked criticism, with some viewers taking issue with her apparent lack of enthusiasm.<\/p>\n

On Friday, spectators packed the historic San Siro Stadium in Milan<\/a>, Italy, for the festivities<\/a> that officially mark the start of the games. After two large production numbers, the \u201cFantasy\u201d singer, 56, took the stage.<\/p>\n

Wearing a wintery silver-and-white dress, Carey stood under a single spotlight as she sang a version of Domenico Modugno\u2019s popular 1950s classic \u201cNel blu, dipinto di blu\u201d, better known as \u201cVolare,\u201d before jumping into her song \u201cNothing Is Impossible\u201d from her 2025 album, Here For It All.<\/p>\n

On social media, several users questioned her involvement and why the Huntington, New York-born artist had been selected to perform in Italy. Some also questioned if she was lip-syncing, as she did not appear to put a lot of effort into reaching her iconic whistle note.<\/p>\n

\u201cLaura Pausini, thanks for making this boring ceremony a bit better after the disastrous playback from Mariah Carey,\u201d one person wrote on X after the act following Carey took the stage.<\/p>\n

\"Mariah<\/p>\n

Mariah Carey shocked viewers as her performance at the 2026 Winter Olympics opening ceremony was called \u2018disastrous\u2019 by people on social media (Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\u201cIs Mariah Carey part Italian? I\u2019m not sure why an American singer is there, unless, maybe she\u2019s super popular in Italy?\u201d another person asked on the platform.<\/p>\n

\u201cUsually the host country only features talent from their country. Great Britain had Bowie, Annie Lennox, & others\u2026 don\u2019t recall any American singers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Others accused Carey of lip-syncing.<\/p>\n

\u201c#Olympics2026 when was the last time Mariah Carey didn\u2019t lip sync a performance. Doing it in Italian is a new twist,\u201d a person on X wrote. \u201cBut there is a lot of singers that could have given something much more authentic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another person agreed, writing, \u201cMariah Carey so obviously lip syncing. Wasn’t tryna hide it a single bit. Ruined what has been a decent opening ceremony thus far.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Independent has contacted Carey\u2019s representatives for comment.<\/p>\n

In addition to Carey, other well-known performers<\/a> included Laura Pausini, who sang the Italian National Anthem, and Andrea Bocelli, who last performed at the closing ceremony of the 2006 Winter Games in Turin.<\/p>\n

The theme of this year\u2019s opening ceremony was \u201cHarmony\u201d to represent the two Italian cities that serve as 2026 hosts: Milan and the mountain town of Cortina d\u2019Ampezzo.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s Winter Olympics will run until the closing ceremony on February 22 with 116 medal events across the 19 days in Italy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mariah Carey\u2019s performance at the opening ceremony of the 2026 Winter Olympics has sparked criticism, with some viewers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":460315,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[13541,49,48,75,188215,10690,341,187820,7467],"class_list":["post-460314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-2026-winter-olympics","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-laura-pausini","tag-mariah-carey","tag-music","tag-opening-ceremony","tag-performance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=460314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460314\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/460315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}