Mariah Carey manager reveals 'what really happened' during New Year's Eve show at Times Square

'They wanted a viral moment at any expense'

Mariah Carey’s performance on Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve in Times Square was - by nearly all accounts - a disaster, the singer suffering major technical difficulties throughout.

Numerous sources have spoken out about the incident, a representative for Carey telling Billboard that the “production set her up to fail.”

Soon after, Dick Clark Productions hit back, saying the accusation that it “would ever intentionally compromise the success of any artist is defamatory, outrageous and frankly absurd”.

A source added that Carey “had ample time to rehearse and chose not to,” instead bringing in a body double to do her sound check for her.

Now, in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Carey’s manager Stella Bulochnikov - who was apparently by the singer’s side throughout the event - has attempted to clear up what exactly happened.

First, Bulochnikov addressed accusations Carey skipped the rehearsal, saying a dance stand-in was used for the musical number but adding that Carey watched from the side with her ear-pack on.

At that time, Carey spoke out about the sound being ‘choppy’, something she was promised would be addressed but was continually dismissed by the production team who eventually brought her another pack that also didn’t work.

During the performance, because there was no sound and her ears were filled with the pieces, Carey could only hear the ‘chaos’ of Time Square and no music.

“On the third song when she could hear her track playing it was so bad she said, ‘F**k it, I’ve had enough,’” Bulochnikov told the publication.

“When she pulled her ears out, they should have cut to commercial. That says to me they wanted a viral moment at any expense. And that’s not a company with integrity for 50-something years. That’s not who Dick Clark was. He loved artists.”

Bulochnikov also spoke about accusations of lip-syncing, saying: “It’s not lip-syncing. Lip-syncing is when people don’t sing at all. This is what people should understand. Every artist sings to a track, especially in circumstances like that when it’s really loud and impossible to have a great musical performance. You’re not singing at the Philharmonic.”

The manager finished the interview by claiming the production team were yet to formally apologise to Carey, adding: “That’s disgusting. We live in this viral world where anybody will do anything for a viral moment.”

Dick Clark Productions has yet to comment again on the situation.