Mariah Carey slammed for botching Times Square countdown show

January 02, 2017 | 10:51

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Singer Mariah Carey dropped the ball at her Saturday night (Dec 31) performance headlining the New Year countdown at New York's Times Square.

Mariah Carey performs during a concert in Times Square on New Year's Eve in New York, Dec 31, 2016. (Photo source: Reuters/Stephanie Keith)

From the beginning, there were signs that something was already awry: As Carey made her entrance through a tunnel of feathers, singing the New Year classic Auld Lang Syne, it appeared that her lips were not quite in sync with the vocals.

By the time it came to her 1991 hit single Emotions, Carey had let her emotions get better of her and stopped singing altogether.

"We can't hear," she said, apparently referring to a faulty earpiece that would have fed her her backing track.

"We didn't have a check for this song," she told her audience of about a million revellers, who had packed Times Square to usher in the new year. "We're missing some of the vocals, but it is what it is.

"I'm just going to let the audience sing."

A representative for the singer confirmed there were technical difficulties.

Her performance was roundly slammed on social media, with Britain's Piers Morgan declaring on Twitter that he had "zero sympathy" for Carey. "You get paid millions to sing 2 b***dy songs & lip-sync? Pathetic," he tweeted.

One Twitter user quipped: "With 15 minutes remaining before the New Year, 2016 claimed its final victim: Mariah Carey’s career."

Another chose to give credit to Carey's backup dancers: "Mariah Carey's backup dancers deserve Oscars for their performance of having to act like nothing was wrong."

Carey herself took to social media after the performance. "S**t happens," she tweeted. "Here's to making more headlines in 2017."

CNA

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