Let’s start this off by stating the obvious: Patti LaBelle is an all-time great, one of the best singers we’ve ever heard.
But what you’re about to watch — or, hopefully, rewatch — is perhaps the funniest, most disastrous performance I’ve ever seen. And we should watch it every year.
Let’s go all the way back to 1996. The singer was invited to the National Christmas Tree Lighting to perform Donny Hathaway’s This Christmas before President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary Clinton came out on stage.
What transpires is just incredible. Here are a few reasons why this should become annual viewing with the other holiday movies you love to watch:
1
It all starts out so good
The thing about this is all the potential: LaBelle comes out, the band strikes up Hathway’s legendary number and her gorgeous voice vamps before the first verse.
But around the 0:55-minute mark … those hands wave at the cue card holder.
And that’s when you know something is very, very wrong.
2
WHERE ARE HER BACKGROUND SINGERS?!
Randomly yelling “where my background singers?!?!” throughout the day
— STREAM THE NICOLE KIDMAN AMC AD (@ChrisTrampy) December 23, 2022
Uh-oh. She was supposed to have background singers. And she knows they’re not there.
I try to imagine the, uh, conversation that happened between LaBelle and the trio after this thing is over.
3
The cue cards are all wrong
Patti LaBelle at the christmas tree lighting but with an extra angle showing how bad the cue card operators were pic.twitter.com/Rsi7rk1peE
— adam moussa (@adamjmoussa) December 5, 2022
At the 1:03 mark, this is where it all goes off the rails. She doesn’t know all the lyrics and whoever’s holding the cue cards has them all in the wrong order.
So she’s left to improvise. And so she sings: “I’m gonna ad-lib all I can. Because I don’t have the right words and I have no background singers.”
Also, she sings that lyric BEAUTIFULLY.
4
Every "WOO!"
Reminder that as of Friday it’s officially the start of Patti Labelle “where are my background singers? Woo!” season for those who celebrate.
— Alex (@JockJockGoose) November 25, 2021
Sometimes, all you can do is “WOO!” Also, there’s an exasperated “Oh my God.”
5
But the background singers show up!!
Two screengrabs:
That’s the “pretend like nothing’s wrong” look. And there’s LaBelle’s reaction:
6
Introducing the soloist is also rough
7
She claims she doesn't remember it
This is from five years ago on Watch What Happens Live:
There you have it. Many reasons to watch this beautiful disaster every single holiday season.
