Adam Levine Receives Major Backlash for New Year’s Eve Performance

It’s barely 2024 and social media claimed its first victim of backlash and one of the first trending topics.

Adam Levine Receives Major Backlash Over Maroon 5 New Year's Eve Performance

On Sunday (Dec. 31) Maroon 5 performed during CNN’s New Year’s Eve Live with Andy Cohen and Anderson Cooper. Apparently fans and viewers weren’t impressed with M5’s frontman, Adam Levine’s vocal performance. The band performed a full concert for fans in the Bahamas, with portions of the show were recorded for the telecast.

“Who hired Adam Levine to sing on NYE?” one user wrote. Another added, “Watching Adam Levine perform is giving me second hand embarrassment and I can’t explain it.” One viewer even made the comparison of Levine’s voice to John Mayer’s cats at his cafe. Some people even admitted that they are on social media “for the Adam Levine slander.”

The band performed some of their biggest chart toppers including “This Love,” in which Levine does sound out of breath at one point and has the crowd sing the chorus to the song.

Watch clips of the band’s performance, below.

Honestly @CNN with @Andy & @andersoncooper is even worse…… holy shit are we watching the demise of @adamlevine lmaooo #newyearseve #liveperformance #awful @maroon5 pic.twitter.com/iY4jHuPUKy

— j.cole (@colettaPUMPS) January 1, 2024

Although the majority of reactions were puns and memes making fun of his vocals, some fans were shocked at his performance level but stressed that at least they were performing live and not lip syncing.

adam levine singing a high c before maroon 5’s concert last night pic.twitter.com/N95aXIfNLT

— behadam (@behadamposts) December 31, 2023

Ironically, just hours before they took the stage, Levine posted a video to his Instagram Stories of him with a vocal coach. “I just found out that I can sing a high ‘C,’ I don’t know what that is but it’s awesome.” He then proved his vocal ability by hitting an extremely high note. The band also performed in Jacksonville, Fla. on Dec. 30 and sounded different, with Levine singing the difficult notes in their hit, “Sugar.”

See some punny and epic social media reactions to Levine’s performance, below.

Paul Anka singing better than Adam LeVine is not something I had on my 2024 bingo card

— Robert Kahne (@rkahne) January 1, 2024

Me listening to Adam Levine singing “This Love” on #CNNNYE: pic.twitter.com/BScGzHAAnu

— Tyler Dilbeck (@tyldil204) January 1, 2024

Adam Levine sounds uh… horrible. #CNNNYE pic.twitter.com/G7lrgfTGQd

— 🅐🅤🅢🅣🅘🅝 (@DatDudeAG) January 1, 2024

When was the last time Adam Levine hit a note? #CNNNYE pic.twitter.com/yu9m7FtMSY

— Amanda Gail (@amandagail200) January 1, 2024

*Adam Levine singing on tv

My mom: What happened to him?

— Lexa 💫 Missing 5SOS 🌸🤍 (@_FUCKLIKEADEMON) January 1, 2024

Adam Levine is sounding like the year he had 🫣

— Autumn 🍂 (@Autumn_Grayson) January 1, 2024