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Mariah Carey‘s performance Saturday night during Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve With Ryan Seacrest went haywire when a vocal track malfunctioned and threw off the singer’s lip syncing onstage.
The technical issue occurred while Carey was preparing to sing her hit “Emotions.”
“I’m trying to be a good sport here,” a visibly frustrated Carey said as she stopped singing and tried to find her place, explaining to the crowd that her vocal track was missing and she couldn’t hear through her ear piece. She opted to “let the audience sing.”
And now, for the grand finale, 2016 is taking out Mariah Carey live on stage pic.twitter.com/kfBJxXjepB
— The Ostrich (@ALostrich) January 1, 2017
Her follow-up performance of “We Belong Together” similarly ended with the singer pacing the stage and refusing to continue lip syncing, as certain pre-recorded bits of her signature high notes rang out. “It just doesn’t get any better,” she said as she closed her set.
Carey had suffered from a tight and difficult rehearsal schedule earlier in the night and was unable to hear through her in-ear monitor for most of her set, according to a source.
The source told Billboard, “She didn’t have the kind of time that she usually gets for her “Mariah-ness.’”
Even Milli Vanilli is embarrassed by Mariah Carey’s debacle. pic.twitter.com/8179cHu7jA
— Jimmy Traina (@JimmyTraina) January 1, 2017
Carey was set to headline the show at 11:30 p.m. ET just before the ball dropped in New York’s Times Square at midnight.
The singer later tweeted about the incident, jokingly writing, “Shit happens. … Here’s to making more headlines in 2017.”
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
Shortly after her rocky performance ended, viewers took to Twitter, calling Carey’s career 2016’s “final victim.”
With 15 minutes remaining, 2016 claimed its final victim: Mariah Carey’s career
— Cabot Phillips (@cabot_phillips) January 1, 2017
Ohio State should thank Mariah Carey. They no longer have the worst performance of the night.
— Dave Zangaro (@DZangaroCSN) January 1, 2017
Operator: “911 what’s your emergency?”
Person: “Mariah Carey just bombed Times Square.”— Todd Hall (@toddycst) January 1, 2017
Final death of 2016, Mariah Carey’s career
— Matthew Kick (@MatthewKick) January 1, 2017
Maybe Mariah Carey didn’t give the performance that 2016 wanted, but she gave the performance 2016 deserved.
— beth loves cake, so (@bourgeoisalien) January 1, 2017
I feel like mariah carey set the bar for 2017 really low so now we’re all gonna look good next year. Thank you queen of sacrifices
— NICK (@iconickkk) January 1, 2017
I’m choosing to believe Mariah Carey’s performance was an artistic reinterpretation of the 2016 Presidential election.
— Chanda Powell Fowler (@snarkystiletto) January 1, 2017
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