Kicking 2017 off on a sour note

Mariah Carey

Stars make it a point to perform on New Year’s Eve, to get into a busy groove for the new entertainment season coming up. Sadly, however, the savvy scheme has turned out to be counterproductive for superdiva Mariah Carey, whose Dec. 31st appearance on “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve 2017” countdown at New York’s Time Square, telecast on ABC, was a big botch.

“Technical difficulties” were officially cited as the reasons for the blunder, because they made it hard for the famous singer to hear and sing in time and on tempo to her recorded accompaniment.

But, viewers weren’t mollified, because a sound check is SOP preparation for any televised performance on location, so if it wasn’t done, Mariah’s production team was to be held partially liable for the extended and unmusical gaffe.

Having seen in Mariah’s TV docu series what an “anal” perfectionist she can be, we can only imagine the heads that rolled after that major booboo, which was viewed by millions!

The fact that it happened to as big a star as Mariah only exacerbates its horror and hubris—and, as cynically expected, her detractors have pounced on the traumatic “humiliation” as a sign that she’s an over-the-hill sensation.

The worst dissers even sneer that her long-running career has officially ended—and the most vicious tweet even cited her as the very last stellar fatality of 2016! Ouch. Do people have to stoop that low?

They say that misery loves company, and it must be true in Mariah’s case, because Ryan Seacrest, the host-producer of the countdown show, also got his share of the bad vibes going around that night: On his way to the show’s venue, he got trapped in an elevator!

Being a savvy producer, Seacrest didn’t allow the problem to unmake his day—in fact, he used it to his advantage, sending out video clips and “updates” from his “area of temporary containment.” Perhaps he could give Carey a tutorial in—transforming crisis into opportunity?

What’s up next for the momentarily sidelined Mariah? Sorry to disappoint her “ill-wishers,” but she isn’t the type to stay down permanently for the KO count. Once, she injured her arm, but didn’t cancel a subsequent performance and instead “incorporated” the incapacitated arm into her performance costume—as a novel “fashion statement!”

She also refuses to allow anybody to upstage her—that includes stars like the late Whitney Houston, rowdy fans and even one of her own back-up singers, whom she once famously instructed to shut up because, “You’re singing my part, baby!”

Mariah is so sure of herself that she doesn’t flinch even when a perceived rival is a similarly major star—like, she still insists that there was a time she didn’t know who J Lo was. And she’s similarly adamant about believing that Madonna is “no longer relevant.”

Trouble is, in being so assertive, Mariah has made many enemies, who could get back at her in unsavory and vindictive ways, as her career continues to face challenges.

She should instead choose her battles wisely, and channel her assertive energies in a positive rather than a bitchily negative direction!