Adam Levine Receives 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.

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.

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.

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.