It’s official! Mariah Carey‘s New Year’s Eve performance will go down in history is one of the most awkward LIVE performances EVER!
As the legendary diva hit the stage, she appeared to be frustrated while she fumbled with her earpice. She went on to ‘perform’ to the album version of her hit songs but her lip-syncing was totally out of sync.
Carey has since blamed Dick Clark productions for the lackluster performance, stating that technical failures in her Time Square New Years Eve performance left her with a faulty earpiece and no monitors to display the lyrics to her Number 1 hit ?Emotions?.
Just FYI, if Mariah’s excuse sounds familiar, it’s because it’s been used before…
[FLASHBACK: Mariah Carey Blames Disgruntled Techs of Leaking Christmas Performance Audio (VIDEO)]
More details about Mariah’s latest ‘sound issue’ + watch full video below…
Following Carey’s performance on Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest, the singer’s manager, Stella Bulochnikov, issued the following statement to Billboard:
“We told them [the stage managers] that the in-ears were not working 10 minutes before the performance,” Bulochnikov says.
“They then changed the battery pack, and they were still not working on the frequency four minutes before the show. We let them know again, and they just kept counting her down and reassuring her that they will work as soon as they go live, which never happened — at which point she pulled them out but could not hear the music over the crowd.”
She continues: “After the show, I called [Dick Clark Productions’] Mark Shimmel and I said, ‘What the f— happened?’ He said, ‘Let me call you back,’ then called me back and confirmed the in-ears were not working and asked if I would make a joint statement. I said, ‘No way.’ I asked him to cut the West Coast feed. He said he could not do that. I asked him why would they want to run a performance with mechanical glitches unless they just want eyeballs at any expense … It’s not artist friendly, especially when the artist cut her vacation short as a New Year’s Eve gift to them.”
Meanwhile, a production source told Billboard that Carey “had ample time to rehearse and chose not to,” instead using a body double to rehearse in her place earlier in the day and that at the time, “all was working” on the technical side.
Dick Clark Productions also provided a statement Sunday evening (Jan. 1), refuting the claims from Carey’s camp:
As the premier producer of live television events for nearly 50 years, we pride ourselves on our reputation and long-standing relationships with artists.
To suggest that dcp, as producer of music shows including the American Music Awards, Billboard Music Awards, New Year?s Rockin? Eve and Academy of Country Music Awards, would ever intentionally compromise the success of any artist is defamatory, outrageous and frankly absurd.
In very rare instances there are of course technical errors that can occur with live television, however, an initial investigation has indicated that dcp had no involvement in the challenges associated with Ms. Carey?s New Year?s Eve performance.
We want to be clear that we have the utmost respect for Ms. Carey as an artist and acknowledge her tremendous accomplishments in the industry.
Mariah’s horrible performance has now been dubbed an adequate close to 2016…
Rain drop
Drop top
Mariah Carey's career ended before the ball droppedhttps://t.co/2s017ONWgI— Men's Humor (@MensHumor) January 2, 2017
Mariah’s response…
Shit happens 😩 Have a happy and healthy new year everybody!🎉 Here's to making more headlines in 2017 😂 pic.twitter.com/0Td8se57jr
— Mariah Carey (@MariahCarey) January 1, 2017