Out of tune or out of touch?

Billy Ray Cyrus celebrated President Trump’s inauguration on Monday with a performance that left many fans scratching their heads and feeling let down.

As one of the featured performers at the Liberty Ball—a gala held after the inauguration—Cyrus entertained attendees with his 2019 remix of “Old Town Road,” the catchy anthem from Lil Nas X.

In a surprising move, Cyrus appeared to focus mainly on the music video shown on large screens behind him, only occasionally turning to softly mumble his lyrics into the microphone, which was barely audible over the recording.

Once the video concluded, Cyrus returned for an encore of the same song, performing it in a shaky, spoken-word style instead of the strong vocals featured in the original, while he strolled across the stage inviting audience participation.

He then attempted to perform “Achy Breaky Heart,” the song that catapulted him to fame, but found that his electric guitar wasn’t connected to the sound system.

“Check? Is anyone awake?” Cyrus quipped as he looked toward the back of the stage for assistance. “Do you want me to keep floundering, or should I just leave the stage?” he joked.

A crew member then rushed from backstage to sort out the technical issues while Cyrus kept the audience engaged.

“In life, when you run into tech problems, you just have to keep moving forward,” he advised the crowd, “or as President Trump would say, ‘You gotta fight.’”

As a solution wasn’t arriving, the singer decided to perform an a capella version of the song, maintaining the same low and drawn-out style throughout.

Online viewers wasted no time criticizing the performance, with one user on X labeling it an “epic disaster” and another remarking that it was “possibly the cringiest few minutes in entertainment history.”

Technical glitches were not unfamiliar at the inauguration, as just hours earlier, Carrie Underwood was unexpectedly left to sing acapella when her audio cut out during “America the Beautiful.”

Cyrus, Underwood, and a group of other celebrities faced backlash when it was revealed they would be performing for President Trump, a figure largely rejected by Hollywood since entering politics.

Critics of the newly inaugurated president expressed outrage that performers would align themselves with some of his most controversial views, particularly concerning xenophobia and anti-LGBTQ sentiments, while others defended the decision of artists like The Village People and Nelly to temporarily put aside political differences.