Music  

Mariah Carey’s mic malfunctions mar NY New Year’s show

By AFP

01 January 2017   |   3:41 pm

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The huge malfunction happened during her performance on "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve With Ryan Seacrest," billed as "the last big performance of 2016 by Mariah Carey."

Mariah Carey performs during New Year’s Eve celebrations in Times Square on December 31, 2016 in New York.<br />ANGELA WEISS / AFP

Mariah Carey surely must be hoping that her 2017 goes better than 2016 ended.

The pop music superstar endured what can only be described as a massive technical meltdown during her New Year’s Eve performance late Saturday — a fiasco witnessed by thousands in New York’s Times Square and millions more across the United States.

The huge malfunction happened during her performance on “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve With Ryan Seacrest,” billed as “the last big performance of 2016 by Mariah Carey.”

But the sound system malfunctioned badly from the opening notes of her performance of “Auld Lang Syne,” leaving the singer flummoxed and visibly defeated.

Wearing a flesh-tone sequined leotard and stiletto platform shoes, Carey paced along the front of the stage while her backup dancers performed acrobatic moves, in what was supposed to have been the evening’s headlining event minutes before the ball dropped to mark the start of the new year.

“I’m going to let the audience sing, OK?” a frustrated Carey could be heard to say at one point during the number. “I’m trying to be a good sport.”

An audio track of her singing could be heard, even as her mike simultaneously picked up the sound of her voice call for technical assistance.

“That was — I’m leaving,” Carey, 46, said in the microphone as the first number ended.

She stayed — but things did not go better during her performance of “Emotion,” one of her biggest hits, and she halfheartedly mimed her way through the number.

Hours later, Carey posted a rueful tweet, summing up the disastrous event.

“Shit happens,” she wrote on Twitter Sunday, with a frownie face emoticon.

“Have a happy and healthy new year everybody! Here’s to making more headlines in 2017.”