Can't Escape these vocals! Enrique Iglesias goes viral for awkward autotune fail as fans quip star sounds like 'Kermit the Frog' - after announcing retirement from album recording

Legendary singer Enrique Iglesias recently announced his retirement from recording albums after an extraordinary career in music - but lately he has been stunning fans for an entirely different reason.

Enrique, 48, was mercilessly mocked after video of his awkward, autotuned performance last month surfaced online, with fans comparing the iconic musician to Kermit the Frog and speculating his voice technology had failed.

The artist has been traveling the country with fellow musical icons Ricky Martin and Pitbull as part of their Trilogy Tour, and the video captured him singing his popular love song Escape - but a version unlike fans have ever heard before. 

'Someone said Enrique Iglesias sounds like kermit the frog in this video and now i can't unhear it,' one person tweeted of video capturing the artist singing Hero.

Another joked the performance 'cured' her of her decades-long infatuation with the star: 'I have officially been cured of my 20+ year crush on Enrique Iglesias.'

'Is this an impersonator? What happened to Enrique Iglesias?' one asked. 

For one fan, the performance sounded more like amateur hour: 'It's giving karaoke night.'

'He belongs on a cruise ship entertainment show.. on the last day of the trip.. as passengers are leaving the boat,' she wrote.

'omg I thought yout put some joke audio over the video,' one TikTok user wrote.

'I'm just gonna pretend that this is Enrique's twin,' another posted.

Enrique's latest tour date comes after he maintained he is keeping his promise to stop recording new music after the release of his upcoming 11th studio album.

With the focus now on Final (Vol 2) in recent months, when the second Final installment finally drops in February it will have come more than two years after its predecessor.

The Final volumes are reportedly the last the Hero star will release in the traditional album form.

In a step up to the promotional push, the pop superstar provided a timeline for the album's release, and then opened up about what that meant for his career.

'It's finished. It's actually coming out in February,' Enrique told Today. 'It’s completely finished. What I want to do is shoot one or two videos right before the second leg on the tour and launch it.'

Enrique would go on to reiterate that his upcoming studio album, Final (Vol 2), will in fact be his last.

'I’ve been working on this album for quite a bunch of years. And for me it was always like I said, my final album… this is it. I don’t think — no, I know, I won't be doing any more albums.”

Fans of the Bailando crooner will get a chance to catch the singer in action during his ongoing current tour.

Since mid-October, Iglesias has been out on the road with Ricky Martin and Pitbull for The Trilogy Tour.

A month into the triple-headed concerts, it was announced that the tour was being extended with 18 new shows taking place in 2024.

The trio of stars, who have all reaped the rewards of being a big-time pop star, are all well acquainted with each other after having shared the stage while out on tour together.

Iglesias and Pitbull previously went on tour in 2017, while Iglesias and Martin also teamed up in 2021 for their own series of gigs.

The Madrid, Spain native has been open and honest in recent times about the Final volumes being his last release in the traditional album form.

'It might be my final album. It's not something that I have been thinking about for the past few months. It’s something that I have been thinking about for the past few years,' Iglesias shared during an Instagram chat with Ricky Martin and Sebastian Yatra, as reported by The Reporter in September 2021.

'There’s going to be Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, but they're final. I'm in that moment in my life, that chapter in my life, where I think it's the right time to put it out and I've been thinking about this since 2015.'

Despite the news, fans can be rest assured that Iglesias has insisted he won’t stop making music altogether. He promised that was not the case, and that he would be dropping singles, and other projects will still come.

'For me, in my life, I think this is that final one,' he affirmed of his decision.

'I'm never going to stop writing songs because I love writing songs, but I'm going to do it in a different way – meaning they don't necessarily have to be packaged as an album – so this project to me is important,' he explained at the time.

In a sign he will still be active somewhat, Iglesias released the first Vol. 2 single, Así Es La Vida, featuring Argentinian singer Maria Beccera, in October.