Oprah Winfrey dropped in on the “Baby This Is Keke Palmer” podcast recently, hitting some high notes about her 25 years on her daytime talk show and having some fun being reminded about one thing that was off key.
With more than 50 years in the media business, going from journalist to an actor, entrepreneur and a singer, Winfrey’s been showered with accolades like two Emmy awards, a Tony, and even a Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2013.
But Winfrey says one of those roles is a part of her career that she regrets.
She made the confession on Keke Palmer’s podcast on July 21, when the “Akeelah and the Bee” star reminded her of it.
In a video of the two of them standing on the set, Palmer sang “I think I’ve gotta run on” which is a lyric from Winfrey’s single “Run On.”
It was briefly the theme song for Winfrey’s “The Oprah Winfrey Show” and only stayed the theme song for one season.
As soon as Winfrey heard Palmer sing it, the camera panned over, showing her with one hand on her hip and the other on her face.
Though Palmer smiled brightly and jumped, Winfrey with her eyes closed, said, “Girl, please.”
“OK, that is one of the mistakes of my career,” she added.
Palmer tried to persuade her that “it wasn’t that bad,” but Winfrey insisted that it was.
Explaining the backstory with the song she said, “What had happened was, I was trying to decide am I gonna end the show or not end the show,” she said. “And then I had a little talk with Jesus, and Jesus said, ‘You gotta keep going.’”
Winfrey said she had an idea of an old spiritual and thought of “I think I’m gonna run on.”
Palmer, still trying to give her some encouragement said, “Well you got to give them that slave hymn sometimes.”
But the “Color Purple” star continued, “No, and then we realized I can’t sing even though I took the singing lessons.”
Palmer said “It wasn’t bad,” but Winfrey begged to differ, responding, “It was bad.”
The 72-year-old later added, “You just saying that ’cause you looking at me right now. It was bad. It was pretty bad.”
Winfrey continued by saying she and her team thought maybe they could add a choir to sing “Run on, run on” to lift the song up a bit.
Palmer said, “Sometimes backup vocals will do that.”
Winfrey said, “It didn’t work this time.”
Fans couldn’t get enough of the moment in the comments.
One fan who was hoping Palmer would ask Winfrey about the song said, “I want to see Keke Palmer sing this to Oprah” and posted a clip of the music video to “Run On.”
Someone else commented, “She did,” then added a meme of Winfrey looking annoyed.
Oprah Daily’s account posted the clip of Winfrey and Palmer and wrote, “Now we need the remix with Keke on it.”
Another person added, “Whitney would be cackling in her seat right now.”
One fan commenting on the song said, “I actually loved it. I thought it was pretty good.”
But someone else wrote, “Let it be bad Keke because it was.”
“Run On” replaced Patti Labelle’s “Get With the Program” as the intro music in the talk show’s 13th season.
Some 28 years later, social media started buzzing about Winfrey’s turn as a singer because the topic resurfaced when an old clip of her interview with the late Whitney Houston went viral.
In the Nov. 25, 1998, interview, Winfrey asked the “How Will I Know” singer what her favorite song is, and Houston teased the talk show host by singing, “I think I’ve gotta run on.”
After ditching the song at the end of the 13th season, Winfrey went back to using instrumentals as her theme song.
“The Oprah Winfrey Show” ended in 2011 after a 25-season run.
