Mariah Carey NYE Performance: Rep Blames Technical Issues

Even the best singers have bad days. In the case of “Butterfly” songstress Mariah Carey, her day took a turn for the bad in front of thousands of people during “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest” on Saturday night.

Carey was lip syncing to “Auld Lang Syne” in Times Square on New Year’s Eve, but the performance was very awkward and did not seem cohesive.

As far as her rep is concerned, people can blame the incident to technical issues. “Unfortunately there was nothing she could do to continue with the performance given the circumstances,” the rep told the Associated Press, according to Entertainment Weekly.

Fans already noticed something was amiss in the performance while Carey was singing “Auld Lang Syne,” but when it came to the second song, “Emotions,” Carey appeared to be confused since her earpiece wasn’t working properly. She told the audience: “We can’t hear, but I’ll just get through the moment.”

“We didn’t have a [sound] check for this song, so we’ll just say it went to No. 1, and that’s what it is,” she later said on stage.

As the third song “We Belong Together” rolled about, Carey was hopeful that the technical glitches would have been resolved. Unfortunately, things were still messy so she decided to just dance along with her back-up dancers instead of singing.

The incident would be quite embarrassing for any singer, but Carey seemed to take it in stride. Even though the pre-recorded track kept playing in the background, Carey stopped singing and just walked off the stage. “It is what it is,” she told the audience before leaving, according to CNN. “It just don't get any better.”

Later, Carey decided to poke fun at herself on her social media page by posting a GIF of herself shrugging and showing an indifferent expression.