LeAnn Rimes clearly upstaged X-Factor contestant Carly Rose Sonenclar during their finale duet before blaming the teen singer for her own drunken appearance on stage.
Rumors had been swirling that the X-Factor finale would be filled with stars, and each of the final contestants had the chance to belt it out alongside some of the best in the business.
However, despite the celeb appearances the finale is still supposed to be another chance for the finalists to shine… not a free concert for the big name crooners – apparently LeAnn Rimes wasn’t aware of that.
Rimes teamed up with 13-year-old Carly for her duet as they performed the country star’s hit “How Do I Live.”
Instead of focusing on harmonizing with the youngster and making sure she shined on the higher notes, Rimes seemed to be battling the songstress from New York, easily out performing her.
The entire performance seemed to be more like the battlegrounds on The Voice rather than a harmonious finale duet that the audience was expecting.
However, Carly Rose Sonenclar made one thing very clear – she wasn’t going to be upstaged without a fight.
The teenage singer definitely managed to hold her own next to the country star and at certain points in the song hit the notes just as beautifully as her celebrity counterpart.
Towards the end of the performance, LeAnn used a little more than her vocals to get Sonenclar out of the spotlight as she grabbed her arm, pulled her close, and threw her hair in the teenager’s face.
Even these antics didn’t stop the little girl with a big voice from singing her heart out down to the very end of the song.
“I love this girl so much, she is such an amazing talent,” Rimes said although we’re not sure if she even heard Carly over her own powerhouse vocals.
Despite having to battle for some spot light, the X-Factor contestant still claimed that the duet was “one of the most fun moments” she’s had on the X-Factor stage.
Perhaps the fun came from the fact that she knew she held her own against the 30-year-old “Cant’ Fight The Moonlight” songstress or maybe it was just fun to be performing with a seemingly drunk celebrity?
After the duet left the stage social media and tabloids were set ablaze with rumors that the country star was drunk during the performance.
The rumors seemed to be justified by her unusual antics and constant swaying back and forth on stage as if she was going to fall over at any moment.
So how did Rimes explain her drunken behavior? It was the 13-year-old’s fault of course.
“I was trying to help this 13-year-old girl who was having some trouble with the song,” she told TMZ after they inquired about her sobriety on stage.
According to the “Please Remember” singer, the young girl was having a tough time with the song and she was simply doing her best to try to get her through it.
Even her lawyer stepped in saying, “LeAnn was not performing the way she would normally perform, because she was on stage with a young girl.”
Well we can’t say we agree because the constant swaying and playing with her hair as if she was in the middle of a bedroom fantasy didn’t really help the young girl hit the notes or perform better.
Sources also reported that self-proclaimed stone cold sober performer dropped a plate a food backstage although she had barely even moved a few feet after making it.
Of course, some people are just clumsy but you have to admit that the food spill in combination with the strange performance doesn’t really help Rimes sober plea.
Either way the judges were more than impressed with the youngster who even had Simon admitting that her performances throughout the night definitely made her a likely winner for the competition.
“Well you are here to try and win this tonight, aren’t you?” he asked the pint sized vocalist after her performance.
Her mentor Brittney Spears confirmed the statement with a confident, “We are going to win this.”
