Meryl Streep recalls singing like ‘sh*t’ during first Only Murders in the Building appearance

Meryl Streep has revealed that she almost derailed the singing aspect of Only Murders in the Building Season 3 thanks to her nerves.

Only Murders in the Building — Hulu’s popular original series — has seen quite a few A-list guest stars since it first debuted in 2021.

However, the biggest was undoubtedly Meryl Streep who played Oliver’s (Martin Short) love interest and leading lady of his Broadway show Loretta.

Streep had to perform a few numbers during the season thanks in part to the in-show musical, but apparently the entire singing aspect was almost derailed thanks to her case of nerves.

Streep battled nerves in “sh*itty” first singing take

While speaking at the For Your Consideration event on the Paramount lot, Streep recalled how nervous she was when recording her first song for Season, which caused her to give a less than stellar performance when singing her character’s career defining lullaby.

“It was beautiful and I thought, ‘Wow, oh man, I hope I can do this.’ And I was very nervous and we went in to record it — you record it first so you can fake sing it on the day so you can do it over and over and all the takes match — but I was really nervous in the recording session,” Streep explained.

She continued her story stating, “I just said, ‘I can’t do it,’ and I was shitty, really bad in the beginning and I thought, ‘It’s because you’re nervous. People have an idea of what they’re going to hear and if it’s not that, [it will] come crashing down and [they will] think, ‘How can we get rid of her? She called up and asked to be in this and it’s so bad.’ [But,] after they left the room, I was great.”

As the nanny’s lullaby is one of the turning points for the majority of Season 3’s cast, it’s nice to know that Streep managed to get over her fears quickly.

Her time as a Broadway star on Only Murders in the Building wasn’t the first time Streep had to show her vocal prowess.

Streep’s best singing performances (according to fans) is as The Witch in Into the Wood and as Donna Sheridan in Mamma Mia!