Olivia Wilde Praises Justin Bieber as the ‘Greatest Singer on Earth’

The ‘Don’t Worry Darling’ director argued that people who are good at singing shouldn’t be able to do karaoke in a new episode of SubwayTakes

Olivia Wilde and Justin Bieber. Photo:Jemal Countess/GA/The Hollywood Reporter via Getty

Olivia Wilde has a favorite pop star — but it may not be who you think.

The actress and director, 39, appeared on an episode of SubwayTakes, a one-minute talk show set on the New York City subway, and revealed her very own hot take: people who are good at singing shouldn’t be allowed to do karaoke.

As Wilde delved deeper into her reasoning, host Kareem Rahma asked a hypothetical question that mentioned Justin Bieber, prompting the Don’t Worry Darling director to interrupt.

“The greatest singer on Earth,” she said of Bieber.

Wilde — who famously dated pop star Harry Styles for nearly two years before their split last November — previously made waves back in 2013 after a rash of Bieber fans came after her on X (formerly Twitter) for writing that the then-19-year-old singer needed to “put your f—ing shirt on” after he was photographed sans top out in London.

She later clarified during an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno that she was simply “concerned” about Bieber in the freezing London cold, and that her post was “misunderstood” and was “said with love.”

While Bieber’s take on karaoke remains to be seen, he has made several notable appearances on Carpool Karaoke with James Corden, singing everything from his own hits to Alanis Morissette’s “Ironic,” which he called his “shower song.”

Elsewhere in the SubwayTakes segment, Wilde explained her position, arguing that karaoke simply isn’t made for people who are actually vocally blessed.

Olivia Wilde in May at the 2023 Met Gala. Matt Winkelmeyer/MG23/Getty

“They can go get paid to do that. We in the non-good singing community paid to be able to go and sing. We pay good money to be able to go and sing… badly,” she said. “I’m terrible [at karaoke], but that’s the point. I take pride in being booed off because that’s great. You just get the turnover and that’s the next song now. We don’t need to sit through a cover. If I wanted to hear a cover, I would just listen to the real song.”

She continued: “It doesn’t even matter how good you are. Like there’s no singer good enough that I want to see them do karaoke well.”

The Booksmart director joked that she doesn’t even sing “Happy Birthday” at parties because she’ll “ruin it,” but said her go-to karaoke favorites are “One Way or Another” by Blondie and “California Love” by Tupac Shakur.