It’s been nearly a week since Mariah Carey’s disastrous performance at Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve. And people are still talking about it.
Carey experienced some technical difficulties (to say the least), which affected her sound and ability to perform along with the pre-recorded tracks of “Emotions” and “We Belong Together.” While she tried to continue the performance things got awkward quick, when the singer became visibly upset. “Well, happy New Year! We can’t hear. I’ll just get through the moment, OK?” she told the crowd before adding, “I’m trying to be a good sport here.”
Meanwhile, on Twitter, viewers trolled Carey for pretty much summing up how a good portion of the nation felt at the close of the year: sour.
“Everybody is hating on Mariah Carey but she gave 2016 the exact performance it deserved,” one fan tweeted.
“Ohio State should thank Mariah Carey. They no longer have the worst performance of the night,” wrote another user.
Now, Carey’s manager, Stella Bulochnikov, has sounded off on the sour note that kicked off 2017, telling E! News, that “The country deserved better than that.”
Though word is Carey hasn’t spoken with her co-host of the night, Ryan Seacrest, since the debacle, her rep added that the superstar doesn’t hold him responsible for what happened — including the part where Carey didn’t have an opportunity to reshoot for the West Coast.
“They came to me and said, ‘What do you want us to do?’ I said, ‘I want you to cut the west coast feed, I want you to edit the West Coast feed, I want you to do right by Mariah,'” said Bulochnikov. However, she explained that TV exec Michael Schimmel told her they couldn’t do that.
“It’s disgusting that they wouldn’t edit a better performance for west coast and say, ‘Hey, listen we’re so sorry that we had a mechanical problem but we love you, Mariah, we’re grateful to you Mariah, we’re going to do anything we can to give America the right performance.’
“No one even ran out to say to us, hey would you please reshoot? Can you hang back for a few minutes? And can we shoot something else? And we would’ve stayed on that stage and shot it, but nobody ran out…There’s not a human being on the planet that could change my mind that they didn’t do this for a viral moment for ratings and that’s my problem,” Bulochnikov said.
Bulochnikov also didn’t hold back when responding to Carey’s former manager and ex-husband Tommy Mottola’s criticism of the performance, telling the entertainment news outlet, “I’m sure he’s jealous because Mariah Carey is conquering every single medium despite him. … So I’m sure Tommy Mottola can’t handle it. I’m sure he’s jealous because nobody’s worked for him in 15 years and he decided to crawl out of his cave and dust himself off. And you know what my response is? He can just shut the f— up and mind his own business. He should shut the f— up and mind his own business, he has some nerve.”
Carey appeared to brush it all off, writing on Instagram, “S—happens. Have a happy and healthy new year everybody! Here’s to making more headlines in 2017.”
