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Not everyone is feeling the warmth of John Legend‘s 2019 version of “Baby, It’s Cold Outside.” On Tuesday, Legend and Kelly Clarkson performed the updated Christmas classic during The Voice‘s Top 10 results show, and their duet was met with decidedly mixed results from viewers. While many enjoyed Legend’s woke “Baby, It’s Cold Outside,” which puts a modern, consent-forward spin on the controversial original lyrics, others didn’t appreciate the “politically correct” rendition. As one angry Twitter user put it, “Leave your PC b.s. for your own music please!”
Holiday purists have dismissed Legend’s updated “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” track since it first debuted in November, but the singer and Voice coach didn’t let the backlash affect his performance on Tuesday night. From behind a ruby red piano, Legend played the iconic melody, but his lyrics were totally modern. Rather than establish the original story of a man manipulating a woman into staying at his home (with some sketchy spiked cider), the man in the song encourages his crush to drink as much or as little as she’d like — “It’s your body, and your choice” — showers her with compliments, and books her an Uber home. “I ought to say no, no, no,” sang Clarkson. “But you really ought to go, go, go,” replied Legend.
Even with the updated Lyrics, Legend’s woke “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” is still sexy, largely due to its jazzy background track (it doesn’t hurt that Legend and Clarkson have great chemistry, either). But steamy undertones or not, Legend and Clarkson’s performance was slammed by many viewers as “PC bs.” Dozens of people responded to The Voice‘s original tweet criticizing the updated version, with one writing, “Had to change and ruin a classic bc of the #MeToo movement. Ugh!”
However, not everyone hated Legend and Clarkson’s performance. For every negative tweet, there’s one praising the duo, and some fans even admitted to enjoying the performance after coming in skeptical.
Watch John Legend and Kelly Clarkson perform the woke “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” in the clip above. The Voice airs every Monday at 8/7c and Tuesday at 9/8c on NBC.
