Olivia Wilde Calls Justin Bieber the ‘Greatest Singer on Earth’
Olivia Wilde attends the Kering Caring For Women Dinner at The Pool on September 12, 2023 in New York City. Justin Bieber performs with Daniel Caesar onstage at the Coachella Stage during the 2022 Coachella Valley Music And Arts Festival on April 15, 2022 in Indio, California.
Olivia Wilde has a problem with good singers doing karaoke. While appearing on an episode of SubwayTakes, a one-minute talk show set in a New York City subway cab, the actress and director revealed her hot take: Good singers shouldn’t do karaoke. Wilde, 39, told host Kareem Rahma on the Wednesday (September 20) episode that she loves being booed off stage when she does karaoke because “that’s the point!” When Rahma asked Wilde what if Justin Bieber were to sing karaoke, she interjected to state: “The greatest singer on Earth.”
Though Wilde famously dated Harry Styles for nearly two years before their split last November, he did not seem to cross her mind during the segment. However, Wilde seemingly came for Bieber back in 2013 when she wrote on Twitter at the time that he needed to “put your f—ing shirt on” after he was photographed shirtless. Appearing on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Wilde clarified her tweet, saying, “It’s so cold there and I was concerned. I have a 19-year-old brother in London, and it’s freezing! And if I saw him without a shirt, I would tell him to put it on.” She then quipped that “people misunderstood and thought it was mean-spirited.”
Elsewhere in SubwayTakes segment, the Don’t Worry Darling director explained that karaoke isn’t made for people who are vocally blessed. “They can go get paid to do that,” she says. “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.” The mother of two proudly admits she’s terrible and being booed off is great because 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.”
As for what Wilde’s go-to karaoke favorites are, she lists Blondie’s “One Way or Another,” and surprisingly, she likes to sing “a lot of Tupac.” The shocked host asked which song, to which Wilde says the only one usually available is “California Love.” When Rahma quizzes Wilde about knowing “Changes” when he raps it, Wilde joins in and tells him the song title right away.
James Corden's 10 Best Carpool Karaoke Segments
With the Late Late Show ending this week, so will all its fun segments. Carpool Karaoke has become a fan-favorite since it began eight years ago, featuring a multitude of guests. On the final segment featuring a longtime friend of host James Corden, Adele asked him to dish on his favorite past moments and hardships.
Corden admitted that it was really hard to book celebrities to take part in the series. “No one would do it,” he said. “Everyone on planet Earth said ‘no.'” And when he finally got Mariah Carey on board, she only agreed to be on the segment — not to sing. This was a crucial part of the series, of course, so Corden did the best he could do: try to bait her into singing. As 1995’s “Always Be My Baby” begins playing in the car, Mariah immediately knew what he was up to.
Playing coy, Corden said with a huge grin, “It’s a new car, so I don’t know how to change the radio station.” The diva hummed along nonchalantly at first, even telling the television host that she wasn’t going to sing. “I’m not singing today, I was up all night,” she said at the time. Then all of a sudden, Carey began to sing along to the song. Sixty episodes later, the Carpool Karaoke series became a success. As Adele described in the final segment, “there’s been some bloody brilliant ones and a few s— ones, obviously.”
After Mariah, Corden had Justin Bieber (four times), Stevie Wonder, Elton John, Sia, Selena Gomez, Bruno Mars, Lady Gaga, Madonna, Britney Spears, and so many more.
See which 10 Carpool Karaoke segments we think are the best below:
Laila Abuelhawa is the Top 40 and Hip-Hop pop culture writer for Beasley Media Group. Being with the company for over three years, Laila's fierce and fabulous red-carpet rankings have earned her a feature on 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert!' Her favorite stories are those surrounding the latest in celebrity fashion, television and film rankings, and how the world reacts to major celebrity news. With a background in journalism, Laila's stories ensure accuracy and offer background information on stars that you wouldn't have otherwise known. She prides herself in covering stories that inform the public about what is currently happening and what is to come in the ever-changing, ever-evolving media landscape.
