Mariah Carey Sabotaged? Accusations Fly After Disastrous NYE Performance

Mariah Carey’s manager is blaming the producers of the NYE event in Times Square after Carey delivered a disastrous performance.

Mariah Carey performed “Auld lang syne,” “Emotions,” and “We Belong Together” as part of her New Year’s Eve performance during Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve on December 31.

Mariah finished “Aud lang syne” without any problems.

She sang only a few notes of “Emotions,” while the entire music track played — it appeared that the singer could not hear the music through her earpiece.

The singer did manage to get through the dancer-interaction segments of “Emotions” without any problems.

Mariah executed a choreographed lean and a lift with one of her male dancers. The singer let him hold onto her raised leg as she stared into his eyes, even releasing a nervous giggle. Later she allowed him to hold onto her as she leaned back.

She also made a sarcastic comment to the audience at the end.

“That was.. amazing,” said Mariah Carey.

At the beginning of the third number, “We Belong Together,” Mariah can be heard saying something to her dancers along the lines of “this is the album version, so just…”

Mariah seems hopeful that she will be able to make it through this track as she knows the album version well and it shouldn’t be too hard to mouth the words, even with an unreliable earpiece.

“We Belong Together,” begins well, but around 4:51 Carey drops her arm suddenly and grimaces. It appears that her earpiece has malfunctioned again.

The third number was, in the end, arguably the most cringe-worthy of all. The vocal track of “We Belong Together” played through (it may even have been the vocal track plucked straight from the album), while Mariah’s lips did not move in time with it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fg2zIw5qZY

It appears that Carey had planned to sing “Emotions” but lip sync through “We Belong Together.”

Because her earpiece was broken and she could not hear the music track, in the first instance, or the music-plus-vocals track, in the second instance, she was not able to either sing “Emotions” or move her lips in time with the lyrics of “We Belong Together.”

The New York Times reports that Ms. Carey’s manager, Stella Bulochnikov, is accusing the show’s producers of failing to fix the technical problems that plagued the performance.

Mariah’s manager says the producers were aware of the technical problems but did not fix them.

Carey’s manager blasted the people at Dick Clark Productions for their self-interested and ungrateful behavior. Carey’s manager claims that they chose to ignore the technical problems and then show Mariah’s messy performance “to get ratings.”

“I will never know the truth, but I do know that we told them three times that her mike pack was not working and it was a disastrous production… I’m certainly not calling the F.B.I. to investigate. It is what it is: New Year’s Eve in Times Square. Mariah did them a favor. She was the biggest star there, and they did not have their [act together].”

The producers issued a statement on Sunday night. Dick Clark Productions accused Ms. Bulochnikov of defaming them, insisting they would never compromise the performance of an artist.

“[Any suggestion that we] would ever intentionally compromise the success of any artist is defamatory, outrageous and frankly absurd.”

Sources close to Mariah Carey told the press that she and her team “repeatedly complained to execs at Dick Clark Productions that her ‘inner ears’ — aka earpieces — were NOT working.”

Gothamist reports that Mariah Carey’s team emailed Dick Clark Productions saying “This is sabotage.”

“Carey’s team believes that Dick Clark Productions created the situation for higher ratings, and allegedly emailed DCP saying, ‘This is sabotage.'”

Ms. Bulochnikov became Mariah Carey’s manager in 2015, according to Bustle. The hard-driving Russian reportedly once told Page Six to “f*** off” when she was asked to comment about Mariah. Stella embraces her image as a demanding and results-oriented manager — her Instagram profile tagline reads, “Woman. Mother. Producer. Flame thrower. Russian dictator. Fearless. Brooklyn girl. We go hard.”

Woman’s Day claims that Stella may have been partly to blame for Mariah’s split from James Packer.

Packer reportedly “couldn’t stand” Ms. Bulochnikov and her controlling personality.

“He cannot tolerate her dictator style… She’s a constant in their lives and can be very abrasive. He can’t cop her at all.”

Mariah’s ex-husband Nick Cannon and her kids are standing by her, saying that they are proud of Mariah and the way she handled the incident, reports Hollywood Life.

An insider told the publication, “She’s one of the hardest working women in showbiz and Nick has no doubt that she gave it her all. She’s doesn’t deserve all the hate she’s getting. Nick wants Mimi to know that to him and their kids, she’s their hero. All three of them are proud of her and thought she looked absolutely stunning last night.”

[Featured Image by Eugene Gologursky/Getty Images]