Why Ryan Seacrest Is Happy Yet Nervous About Mariah Carey’s NYE Return
Ryan Seacrest is both anxious and excited about Mariah Carey’s return to Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve, a year after the singer’s controversial performance.
In an interview with People, Ryan Seacrest admitted that he was surprised that Mariah agreed to go back on the live program again. He, however, was confident that she will be able to give a much better performance this time around. The host revealed that for this year, the artists did more rehearsals to make sure that the event will pass without any unfortunate mishap.
“There are so many different variables that have to work out and, unfortunately, last year it didn’t go as planned. But when I first heard about it, I took a minute to think and went, ‘Wait, this is a great idea.’ It wasn’t the most obvious idea, but it’s great. We can’t do anything else. So we’re happy about that.”
Earlier this month, Dick Clark Productions and ABC confirmed that Mariah will be back on the Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve stage. Her controversial performance last year, along with her scathing remarks to the productions that followed soon after, convinced fans that the Grammy-winning songstress will never go back on the same stage again.
Back then, she claimed that Dick Clark Productions neglected to fix technical issues before she came on stage resulting to her playback equipment stopping in the middle of the show. On a recorded statement on Twitter, Mariah said that the productions “foiled” her and saw the performance as an “opportunity to humiliate her.” She also accused them of capitalizing circumstances beyond her control.
“It’s not practical for a singer to sing live and be able to hear themselves properly in the middle of Times Square with all the noise, the freezing cold, the smoke from the smoke machines, thousands of people celebrating—specially when their ear monitors were not working at all. Listen, guys—they foiled me. Thus, it turned into an opportunity to humiliate me and all those who were excited to ring in the new year with me,” she previously said.
The production company, however, vehemently denied Mariah’s accusations. Although there were “very rare” instances where technical difficulties occur, they made it clear that DCP had “no involvement in the challenges” associated with Mariah’s performance last year.
A year later and it clearly seems that no love is lost between the singer and Dick Clark productions. In a joint statement released to E! News, both parties insisted that they are ready to move forward and have the same goal of providing America an incredible night of music and celebration.
