FILE – In this Dec. 31, 2016, file photo, Mariah Carey performs at the New Year’s Eve celebration in Times Square in New York. Carey told Entertainment Weekly in an interview published online Jan. 3, 2017, that she was was “mortified” in “real time” during the disastrous live performance in which she stumbled through several songs. Photo by Greg Allen/Invision/AP, File
Mariah Carey says she was “mortified” in “real time” during her disastrous live performance moments before the ball dropped on ABC’s “Dick Clark’s Rockin’ New Year’s Eve.”
Carey spoke to Entertainment Weekly in her first interview since the show in which she stumbled through her songs. At many points she stopped singing, even while a prerecorded vocal track played in the background.
Carey’s publicist blamed show producer Dick Clark Productions earlier this week for not addressing technical difficulties before the performance, including a malfunctioning earpiece. Carey reiterated that stance to EW and praised the late Clark.
“I’m of the opinion that Dick Clark would not have let an artist go through that and he would have been as mortified as I was in real time,” she said.
While she described the night as “a horrible New Year’s Eve,” Carey said the experience wouldn’t stop her from doing another live television performance.
“But it will make me less trusting of using anyone outside of my own team,” she added.
Dick Clark Productions has called the Carey camp’s claims “absurd” and said an internal investigation showed the company it had no involvement in the issues affecting Carey’s performance.
“Rockin New Year’s Eve” co-host Jenny McCarthy defended Dick Clark Productions on her SiriusXM radio show Tuesday , saying “for Mariah to defame them was so incredibly insulting.”
“The truth of the matter is Mariah didn’t do a sound check,” McCarthy said.
Instead, Carey rehearsed her stage movements but stood off to the side while having a stand-in do a sound check, according to McCarthy.
As a television personality, McCarthy said she initially empathized with Carey during what she described as “a complete train wreck.”