Mariah Carey slammed for lip-syncing while singing in Italian during ‘awful’ Winter Olympics opening ceremony performance

American singer Mariah Carey is receiving backlash for her apparent lip-syncing during the Opening Ceremony for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan.

Carey donned a flowing white dress in the early portion of the event to mark the start of the 25th Olympic Winter Games.

However, her performance of the classic tune ‘Volare’ was lampooned on social media for what appeared to be the 55-year-old’s poor attempt to fake her way through singing the tune.

Carey appeared to put little effort into her ‘attempts’ to reach the top of her vocal range and was seen, at times, to be moving her lips slower than what was being heard in the San Siro.

Almost instantly, social media began savaging the New York native for the lack of effort.

‘I haven’t seen a worse lip sync performance than this in years,’ one upset user on X tweeted out while Carey was still on stage.

‘Some of the most awful lip syncing by Mariah Carey [facepalm emoji] come on Italy, you have your own singers!!’ another user posted.

Another post read, ‘Witnessing Mariah Carey at the #Olympics2026 Opening Ceremony…she is stiff, lip syncing and looks like she’s reading off a teleprompter.’

‘mariah carey lip syncing looks awfully off,’ one user posted. 

One user posted, ‘The worst part is that Mariah Carey isn’t even trying to hide the fact she’s lip syncing.’

‘Mariah Carey ain’t even singing this s**t smh hate lip syncing,’ wrote another upset commenter.

Another posted, ‘Mariah Carey is lip syncing at the f***ing Olympics.’

‘I’m very confused why American Mariah Carey is lip syncing at the Opening Ceremony in Milan,’ one user wondered.

While Carey doesn’t have any Italian heritage – as she was born to a father with Irish ancestry and an Afro-Venezuelan mother – she is trained in opera and is capable of an impressive vocal range.

Still, her inclusion drew some confusion when it was initially announced in December.