The holidays are a magical time of year, filled with age-old traditions and celebrity appearances. Perhaps the most iconic of these traditions is the Christmas tree lighting in Rockefeller Center, set to the sound of Mariah Carey’s usually angelic voice. However, this year, Mariah Carey must have come down with a cold or something, because her vocals sounded like she was trying to do an impression of a dying cat. The performance sounded bad with the music, but it sounded even worse in a video that isolated her vocals. Check out the cringe-worthy vocals-only version of the performance below, just make sure your volume isn’t too high.

Usually, the common complaint about Christmas and New Year’s Eve concerts is lip syncing, but perhaps we should be thanking artists who choose to go that route. It might be disappointing to hear the same version of a song you can buy on iTunes for a dollar, after waiting outside in the cold for hours, but if the alternative is god-awful singing, maybe we should cut Ashley Tisdale and her fellow lip sync-ers a break.