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Oprah Winfrey reveals one of her biggest career 'mistakes': 'It was bad'

Oprah Winfrey reveals one of her biggest career 'mistakes': 'It was bad'
© Cover Media / © Cover Media

Oprah Winfrey has opened up about what she considers to be one of the biggest mistakes of her career.

The legendary broadcaster reflected on the regret during Thursday's episode of Baby, This Is Keke Palmer, admitting she wishes she had never recorded the theme song for The Oprah Winfrey Show.

In 1998, Oprah released Run On, her own version of the traditional Black spiritual, as both a single and the programme's new theme song. However, the track was only used temporarily before being replaced.

When host Keke Palmer brought up the song during the interview, Oprah admitted she still cringes when she thinks about it.

"Girl, please," she said. "OK. That is one of the mistakes of my career."

Oprah continued, "What had happened was, I was trying to decide, 'Am I going to end the show or not end the show?' And then I had a little talk with Jesus, and Jesus said, 'You gotta keep going.' And so I said, 'You know, there's this song. It's an old spiritual.'"

The 72-year-old explained that she even took singing lessons before recording the track, but they failed to improve her vocal abilities.

"And then we realised, I can't sing," she joked, "even though I took the singing lessons."

Oprah went on to recall that the recording also featured a church choir providing backing vocals, although she admitted it still wasn't enough to save the performance.

"It was bad. You know it was bad," she concluded.

Despite Oprah's regret over the theme song, The Oprah Winfrey Show went on to become a television phenomenon, airing for 25 seasons before coming to an end in 2011.

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