Should an odd performance be forgot, and never brought to mind?
Fans and haters continue to weigh in on the last musical “scandal” of 2016 — Mariah Carey’s epic fail on live TV on New Year’s Eve.
The diva appeared to drop the ball while appearing on Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest in New York City’s Times Square.
She fumbled her way through “Auld Lang Syne,” “Emotions” and “We Belong Together.”
In “Emotions,” she complained: “We can’t hear, but I’ll just get through the moment.”
As Carey paced the stage and awkwardly held the mic out of the crowd, she said: “We’re missing some of this vocal, but it is what it is.
“We didn’t have a [sound] check for this song, so we’ll just say it went to No. 1, and that’s what it is.”
Carey appeared to give up trying to conceal her lip-syncing during “We Belong Together” — repeatedly moving the microphone away from her mouth.
Singer Josh Groban tweeted: “Any time one of the greatest voices of my generation lip syncs, an angel loses its wings.” (Groban later deleted the tweet because, he said, he is “not out to diss artists.”)
In a statement to Billboard on Sunday, Carey’s manager Stella Bulochnikov said producers of the show ignored complaints that Carey’s in-ear monitors were not working properly.
"They just kept counting her down and reassuring her that they will work as soon as they go live, which never happened -- at which point she pulled them out but could not hear the music over the crowd,” said Bulochnikov.
She accused producers of milking the mishap for ratings because they refused to cut Carey’s embarrassing performance from the West Coast broadcast of the show.
Dick Clark Productions fired back with a statement of its own, calling Bulochnikov’s allegation “defamatory, outrageous and frankly absurd.”
According to reports, Carey sent a stand in to sound-check. But the superstar's rep Nicole Perna told Billboard that Carey rehearsed for her performance for three hours on the night before the show and again on the afternoon of New Year's Eve and there were “no sound issues.”
Carey initially brushed off the brouhaha with a tweet. “S**t happen. Have a happy and healthy new year everybody! Here’s to making more headlines in 2017.”
The Twittersphere was less forgiving.
“With 15 minutes remaining before the New Year, 2016 claimed its final victim: Mariah Carey’s career,” read a tweet by @nicole_ginzy.
“I tried to sing along to Mariah Carey but even Mariah Carey can't sing along to Mariah Carey,” tweeted @Ambergeckle.
@MatthewKick said: “Mariah Carey lost her lip sync battle.”
But @therealelp admitted: “i don’t think i’ve seen anyone ever give less f**ks than mariah carey lip syncing on tv tonight and it makes me like her more.”
We love her more, too!