Mariah Carey tried to sing “Auld Lang Syne” on New Year’s Eve, but admitted that she doesn’t know all the lyrics. The beloved singer shared a self-deprecating video on social media, where she sang the beginning of the song before bursting out laughing. She said, “I don’t know what it is like … I was never able to pronounce it correctly!”
Carey recorded herself for the New Year’s Eve video, confusing fans for being outside in the snow. She was just a few feet from a door – presumably from her home – wearing a sparkling formal top while singing with all her heart to the surrounding trees. However, like many revelers on the last night of the year, Carey had to forge a few lines of old music. With no crowd to mask the missing syllables, Carey had to deal with his lack of knowledge.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! 🎉❄️❤️ (sorry for the camera work 😂) #Long ago pic.twitter.com/gUqEe0JvO4
– Mariah Carey (@MariahCarey) January 1, 2021
“I love you. Happy New Year! Let’s hope for better days, better days in 2021 and beyond,” said Carey, partially singing the end of his video. Fans loved the clip, in some cases because it was not filtered. They praised Carey for singing for them, although she couldn’t write the right lyrics.
“THIS LOOKS LIKE THE STUDIO VERSION! Thanks for blessing our 2021 already Mariah!” a fan commented. Another wrote: “Mariah could you shoot a video clip for ‘Auld Lang Syne’ just with that extravagant vision”, while a third added: “OK, but can we talk about that tone and in the freezing cold ???”
“Auld Lang Syne” is a Scottish folk song, first published as a poem in 1788 by Robert Burns. Today is a classic New Year’s Eve anthem throughout the English-speaking world. It is also common to sing at funerals, graduations or other occasions that involve some kind of formal farewell.
Carey can be forgiven for not understanding the lyrics, which are translated or adapted into the common English of the ancient Scottish West Germanic language, still spoken in parts of Scotland and Ireland today. The title roughly translates to “a long time ago”, although some linguists say it more precisely means “a long, long time ago”. Burns’ adaptation is over 200 years old, so it even sounds very different from modern English.
According The Burns Encyclopedia by Maurice Lindsay, Burns sent his poem to the Scottish Musical Museum in 1788, admitting that it was not an original composition. he wrote: “The following song, an old song, from ancient times, and which was never printed, not even in manuscript, until I took it from an old man.” Traces of “Auld Lang Syne” have been found in songs and writings prior to Burns in hundreds of years.