An ONTD original. Mods, I compiled this list myself so the source is me.
Glee covers will always get divisive reactions among watchers of the show. While the series has m managed to breathe new life into old songs or put unique spins on popular songs every now and then, there have been times wherein the performances don't quite hit their marks... And then there are instances wherein even long-time fans (meaning people who hate Glee more than anyone else) think “Why (did they even bother)?” Here's a top 10 list in the OP's opinion, of the worst performances in Glee. Of course, these are all subjective and commenters are invited to post the ones that have scarred their minds in the same way.
12) A House is Not A Home
Even back in season 1, Glee was not exempt from criticism. One of the biggest complaints about the show was that Cory Monteith (Finn) could not sing, when he was supposed to be the ~lead singer whose voice would save the Glee Club. Now, Kurt's part in this song is fine; however, when it gets to Finn's section, the autotuning is so obvious and terrible you immediately want to turn it off. His trademark constipated singing expression doesn't help either.
11) Time of My Life
After getting complaints of so many Finn/Rachel duets, Glee decided to switch it up by having different vocal powerhouses perform at Sections for a change. And since Glee writers don't follow logic or reason, they decided that those 'vocal powerhouses' were Sam and Quinn, the most boring couple alive. Together, they created a whole new shade of beige with their rendition of “Time of My Life”.
10) Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend/Material Girl
To prove that it had at least a smidgen of continuity, Glee brought back the annual boys vs girls mashup competition. But they also decided to prove how lazy they were by making the girls sing an existing 'mashup' that they didn't create themselves: Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend/Material Girl from the Moulin Rouge musical. And even worse, the song isn't even an actual mashup. It has one line from Material Girl, and added dialogue that only makes sense in the context of the movie. Naturally, on the show, it just seems like another random mess.
9) At the Ballet
Because Cory Monteith entered rehab, his storyline was cut from the series at the last minute, and his scenes had to be replaced. As usual, Glee filming was delayed, with the writers churning out scripts hours before they were meant to be acted out. Meaning with nothing to replace Finn's scenes, they settled with featuring the entire version of At the Ballet. Now, Broadway on Glee isn't a bad thing... But this number features Kurt, Rachel and Santana singing lyrics that barely match their personalities, with Sarah Jessica Parker joining in. And they stand... And stand... And stand... For an incredible 5 minutes long. It's the longest (and most boring) number in Glee yet. And as usual, the childhoods talked about in their song are never mentioned again, meaning the song had no point.
8) Fighter
The writers decided to finally usher Blaine into a main character role by giving him a storyline that had wasn't related to Kurt... But they dropped the ball when they also decided to give him a Christina Aguilera song to sing about his brother. Aside from having the worst segue into a song ever, everyone and their mom knows that giving Darren Criss a song like this to sing was a big mistake. And the cheesy visuals make everything even worse. Yay for having him shirtless for his brother (?!?!?!) at least?
7) Loser Like Me
Glee was criticized for not having original songs, so the showrunners stepped in and... Yeah, starting to notice a pattern here? If there's anything they're good at, it's making bad things worse. Ryan Murphy and co proved that in a laughable attempt to compose original songs that would serve as the Glee club's secret weapon for the Regionals. How would the judges even know it's an original song? What if they just assumed that they don't know what song it is? Second, their outfits are terrible. Third, there's nothing challenging about the song's tune. And worst of all, it's full of questionable lyrics that sound like weird innuendo ('Cos I know one day you'll be screaming my name / And I'll just look away) or are just plain cringeworthy (L-O-S-E-R / I can only be who I are)
6) Candles
ONTD likes to deny that it ever shipped Kurt and Blaine back in the day, but let's face it: it was popular, and everyone was happy when they first got together because seeing a gay couple come together on a hit tv show was a huge thing. However, already showing signs of decay, the show almost ruined their big episode by giving them the worst duet ever.
a) It was a breakup song. Who sings a break up song when they get together?
b) Ryan Murphy insisted on arranging the song himself and the end result was a terrible, terrible-sounding POS that made Kurt and Blaine sound awful together
c) It was meant to be an incredible number that would give them a good chance to win Regionals. (Yeah right)
To this day, even diehard Klaine fans hate that song and performance.
5) Roots Before Branches
Glee started delving into soap opera territory by including a teenage wedding plot that everyone knew wouldn't even push through. The storyline was widely hated, yet it ate up the entire season finale. Characters who were graduating/departing, instead of getting their chance to shine, were pushed to the sidelines in favor of scenes of Rachel and Finn arguing over what chairs to have during their wedding. In the end, Finn let Rachel believe he was driving her to the wedding, only to drop her off at the train station and practically force her to go to New York despite her wishes. Then, suddenly remembering that there's supposed to be a song every 2.3 minutes on the show, Rachel and Finn burst into song. In the middle of their breakup/goodbye. There are plenty of Finn/Rachel duets to hate just because they're so frequent, but this one takes the cake because of Finn's dramatic train-chasing and Rachel struggling like always to squeeze out a single tear as she makes weird singing faces at the camera.
4) Creep
Glee's reputation was already in the toilet at this point, with people insisting that it was now butchering every song it could get its hands on. No one ever thought the show would dare to touch Radiohead, of all things, but somehow Ryan Murphy decided that “Creep” would be the perfect song to summarize Rachel and Brody's breakup (upon her finding out that he's a prostitute). It makes sense, right? Because Brody's a creep, get it? Hurr hurr. This poppified version of Creep features Rachel oversinging (as usual) and melodramatically running through hallways while Brody looks sad (and no one cares).
3) Sweet Transvestite
Many say that the Rocky Horror Picture Show “tribute” ep was the one wherein the show officially went off the rails. Ryan Murphy was planning for John Stamos to play Frank-N-Furter, but Fox shot down that idea. Rather than drop the storyline for decency's sake, Murphy instead made Mercedes Frank-N-Furter and allowed for a heavily censored version of the play on the show, resulting in this nonsensical mess wherein pronouns are fucked up and "transexual" is awkwardly replaced with "transensual".
2) Bad
Desperate for ratings, Glee hyped up the Michael Jackson tribute episode like no other, especially the “Bad” performance, which was supposed to be the ultimate showdown song between ND and the Warblers. But like everything else in Glee, “Bad” was a complete letdown. The lighting was terrible (that's not the youtube video's fault, seriously, the lighting really is that dark in the show) and everyone was shuffling around awkwardly. Great “choreography”. Also, everyone was sick of the Warblers at this point, who became evil for some inexplicable reason. This performance showed just how far Glee had fallen.
1) Gangnam Style
You'd think the writers were trying to get the show canceled by thinking up of shit like this, but nope; wanting to cash in on the song's popularity, the showrunners had Finn Hudson (the replacement coach) suggest that the club perform a “foreign number” because that would surely make them win (???). So poor Tina finally got her competition solo... And it was Gangnam Style. It was made worse by the fact that she had to sing it a stereotypical “cutesy” Asian accent that's not present in the actual song. And ND thought they still had a chance at winning.
![]()
Glee covers will always get divisive reactions among watchers of the show. While the series has m managed to breathe new life into old songs or put unique spins on popular songs every now and then, there have been times wherein the performances don't quite hit their marks... And then there are instances wherein even long-time fans (meaning people who hate Glee more than anyone else) think “Why (did they even bother)?” Here's a top 10 list in the OP's opinion, of the worst performances in Glee. Of course, these are all subjective and commenters are invited to post the ones that have scarred their minds in the same way.
12) A House is Not A Home
Even back in season 1, Glee was not exempt from criticism. One of the biggest complaints about the show was that Cory Monteith (Finn) could not sing, when he was supposed to be the ~lead singer whose voice would save the Glee Club. Now, Kurt's part in this song is fine; however, when it gets to Finn's section, the autotuning is so obvious and terrible you immediately want to turn it off. His trademark constipated singing expression doesn't help either.
11) Time of My Life
After getting complaints of so many Finn/Rachel duets, Glee decided to switch it up by having different vocal powerhouses perform at Sections for a change. And since Glee writers don't follow logic or reason, they decided that those 'vocal powerhouses' were Sam and Quinn, the most boring couple alive. Together, they created a whole new shade of beige with their rendition of “Time of My Life”.
10) Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend/Material Girl
To prove that it had at least a smidgen of continuity, Glee brought back the annual boys vs girls mashup competition. But they also decided to prove how lazy they were by making the girls sing an existing 'mashup' that they didn't create themselves: Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend/Material Girl from the Moulin Rouge musical. And even worse, the song isn't even an actual mashup. It has one line from Material Girl, and added dialogue that only makes sense in the context of the movie. Naturally, on the show, it just seems like another random mess.
9) At the Ballet
Because Cory Monteith entered rehab, his storyline was cut from the series at the last minute, and his scenes had to be replaced. As usual, Glee filming was delayed, with the writers churning out scripts hours before they were meant to be acted out. Meaning with nothing to replace Finn's scenes, they settled with featuring the entire version of At the Ballet. Now, Broadway on Glee isn't a bad thing... But this number features Kurt, Rachel and Santana singing lyrics that barely match their personalities, with Sarah Jessica Parker joining in. And they stand... And stand... And stand... For an incredible 5 minutes long. It's the longest (and most boring) number in Glee yet. And as usual, the childhoods talked about in their song are never mentioned again, meaning the song had no point.
8) Fighter
The writers decided to finally usher Blaine into a main character role by giving him a storyline that had wasn't related to Kurt... But they dropped the ball when they also decided to give him a Christina Aguilera song to sing about his brother. Aside from having the worst segue into a song ever, everyone and their mom knows that giving Darren Criss a song like this to sing was a big mistake. And the cheesy visuals make everything even worse. Yay for having him shirtless for his brother (?!?!?!) at least?
7) Loser Like Me
Glee was criticized for not having original songs, so the showrunners stepped in and... Yeah, starting to notice a pattern here? If there's anything they're good at, it's making bad things worse. Ryan Murphy and co proved that in a laughable attempt to compose original songs that would serve as the Glee club's secret weapon for the Regionals. How would the judges even know it's an original song? What if they just assumed that they don't know what song it is? Second, their outfits are terrible. Third, there's nothing challenging about the song's tune. And worst of all, it's full of questionable lyrics that sound like weird innuendo ('Cos I know one day you'll be screaming my name / And I'll just look away) or are just plain cringeworthy (L-O-S-E-R / I can only be who I are)
6) Candles
ONTD likes to deny that it ever shipped Kurt and Blaine back in the day, but let's face it: it was popular, and everyone was happy when they first got together because seeing a gay couple come together on a hit tv show was a huge thing. However, already showing signs of decay, the show almost ruined their big episode by giving them the worst duet ever.
a) It was a breakup song. Who sings a break up song when they get together?
b) Ryan Murphy insisted on arranging the song himself and the end result was a terrible, terrible-sounding POS that made Kurt and Blaine sound awful together
c) It was meant to be an incredible number that would give them a good chance to win Regionals. (Yeah right)
To this day, even diehard Klaine fans hate that song and performance.
5) Roots Before Branches
Glee started delving into soap opera territory by including a teenage wedding plot that everyone knew wouldn't even push through. The storyline was widely hated, yet it ate up the entire season finale. Characters who were graduating/departing, instead of getting their chance to shine, were pushed to the sidelines in favor of scenes of Rachel and Finn arguing over what chairs to have during their wedding. In the end, Finn let Rachel believe he was driving her to the wedding, only to drop her off at the train station and practically force her to go to New York despite her wishes. Then, suddenly remembering that there's supposed to be a song every 2.3 minutes on the show, Rachel and Finn burst into song. In the middle of their breakup/goodbye. There are plenty of Finn/Rachel duets to hate just because they're so frequent, but this one takes the cake because of Finn's dramatic train-chasing and Rachel struggling like always to squeeze out a single tear as she makes weird singing faces at the camera.
4) Creep
Glee's reputation was already in the toilet at this point, with people insisting that it was now butchering every song it could get its hands on. No one ever thought the show would dare to touch Radiohead, of all things, but somehow Ryan Murphy decided that “Creep” would be the perfect song to summarize Rachel and Brody's breakup (upon her finding out that he's a prostitute). It makes sense, right? Because Brody's a creep, get it? Hurr hurr. This poppified version of Creep features Rachel oversinging (as usual) and melodramatically running through hallways while Brody looks sad (and no one cares).
3) Sweet Transvestite
Many say that the Rocky Horror Picture Show “tribute” ep was the one wherein the show officially went off the rails. Ryan Murphy was planning for John Stamos to play Frank-N-Furter, but Fox shot down that idea. Rather than drop the storyline for decency's sake, Murphy instead made Mercedes Frank-N-Furter and allowed for a heavily censored version of the play on the show, resulting in this nonsensical mess wherein pronouns are fucked up and "transexual" is awkwardly replaced with "transensual".
2) Bad
Desperate for ratings, Glee hyped up the Michael Jackson tribute episode like no other, especially the “Bad” performance, which was supposed to be the ultimate showdown song between ND and the Warblers. But like everything else in Glee, “Bad” was a complete letdown. The lighting was terrible (that's not the youtube video's fault, seriously, the lighting really is that dark in the show) and everyone was shuffling around awkwardly. Great “choreography”. Also, everyone was sick of the Warblers at this point, who became evil for some inexplicable reason. This performance showed just how far Glee had fallen.
1) Gangnam Style
You'd think the writers were trying to get the show canceled by thinking up of shit like this, but nope; wanting to cash in on the song's popularity, the showrunners had Finn Hudson (the replacement coach) suggest that the club perform a “foreign number” because that would surely make them win (???). So poor Tina finally got her competition solo... And it was Gangnam Style. It was made worse by the fact that she had to sing it a stereotypical “cutesy” Asian accent that's not present in the actual song. And ND thought they still had a chance at winning.
