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Raw mic feed performances from Adele and Sia to Kurt Cobain and Hole

Christopher Hooton
Monday 23 November 2015 07:25 EST
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Adele performing 'Hello' on SNL
Adele performing 'Hello' on SNL (NBC)

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Adele fans collectively lost their minds over the raw mic feed from her performance of 'Hello' on SNL over the weekend (25,000 shares and counting on our story), impressed by how well her live vocals match up to those on the recording.

In an age when it's easy to do a hundred vocal takes, autotune them and feed them through software plug-ins that disguise any imperfections, it's always quite intriguing to hear live vocals isolated - a much better indicator of how well the artist in question can actually sing.

There's a ton of them on YouTube, generally uploaded when they're either exemplary or completely awful.

For instance...

Sia absolutely crushing 'Chandelier' like only she can:

Katy Perry doing a pretty solid 'Hot n' Cold' given she's drowning in 5000 decorative felt dice:

Courtney Love supposedly "murdering" 'Celebrity Skin' with Hole (uploaded by a sneaky sound engineer at the show), though to my ears her vocals are fine. That guitar though....

Ariana Grande proving she's the heir apparent to Mariah Carey:

Having said that, the famously high C-hitting diva did once ruin Christmas:

Britney also got a drubbing for this performance:

The Adele one that got everyone squeeing with delight:

Kurt Cobain. Okay, so this wasn't a live one, but showcases his characterful voice so nicely:

Same deal with Alice In Chains' late frontman Layne Staley:

And just for fun, Cheryl Cole completely forgetting she was supposed to be doing live vocals that night:

Eek.

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