ACCUSATIONS FLY FOLLOWING MARIAH'S
NEW YEAR'S EVE MELTDOWN

The fallout from Mariah Carey’s disastrous performance on Dick Clark’s Rockin’ New Year’s Eve spilled over into the new year, as Carey’s reps blamed dick clark productions for failing to cover for the artist and re-airing the embarrassing segment three hours later on the West Coast.

The singer, beset by an audio-equipment malfunction while on stage at Times Square and live on ABC, was unable to salvage her headlining performance, the situation made that much more mortifying when her prerecorded vocal could be heard after she stopped singing. Carey’s reps subsequently accused dcp of sacrificing her dignity in the service of ratings.

In a statement issued late on New Year’s Day, dcp refuted the Carey team’s allegations of sabotage: "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."

According to one of Carey’s reps, her earpiece wasn’t working prior to the performance and her team informed production of the problem but was essentially brushed off. “Production said it’s because they didn’t work well in the tent and to go up to stage,” the rep told TheWrap. “Once on stage, [Mariah] told the stage manager that the ears were not working but production decided to just go live instead of cut to commercial to fix the problem.”

TheWrap also revealed that Carey had done a full rehearsal at 3pm ET on Saturday, which “went totally fine” and turned up “no issues with sound.” Carey had also rehearsed on Friday evening at Alvin Ailey—“she did not ‘wing’ this performance,” her rep insisted.

As for showing the botched performance on the West Coast, dcp said there wasn’t sufficient time to create a new segment to air in its place.

Carey was philosophical in a post-show tweet:

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