Random Most Career-Ruining Performances (12 items)

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  (#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. 
• 

  (#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. 
• 

  (#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. 
• 

  (#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.
• 

  (#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. 

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