Blame Game Begins After Disastrous Mariah Carey New Year’s Eve Performance

Mariah Carey's manager has taken event producer dick clark productions to task in the wake of a glitch-ridden performance on Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest in Times Square on Saturday night.

Carey was a headlining artist at the event and took stage shortly before midnight, but apparent issues with her in-ear monitor and the vocal track for the show left her unable to perform.

Following the show Stella Bulochnikov, Carey's manager, issued a statement to Billboard, laying the blame at dcp's feet.

"We told them [the stage managers] that the in-ears were not working 10 minutes before the performance," Bulochnikov told Billboard. "They then changed the battery pack, and they were still not working on the frequency four minutes before the show. We let them know again, and 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."

Bulochnikov then told Billboard that dcp's Mark Shimmel refused to cut the performance from the feed for the West Coast, which would air several hours later. According to Bulochnikov, dcp wanted "eyeballs at any expense."

According to Billboard, a source at dcp denies that this conversation took place.

In a subsequent statement released to Billboard, dcp said:

"As the premier producer of live television events for nearly 50 years, we pride ourselves on our reputation and long-standing relationships with artists. To suggest that dcp, as producer of music shows including the American Music Awards, Billboard Music Awards, New Year’s Rockin’ Eve and Academy of Country Music Awards, would ever intentionally compromise the success of any artist is defamatory, outrageous and frankly absurd. In very rare instances there are of course technical errors that can occur with live television, however, an initial investigation has indicated that dcp had no involvement in the challenges associated with Ms. Carey’s New Year’s Eve performance. We want to be clear that we have the utmost respect for Ms. Carey as an artist and acknowledge her tremendous accomplishments in the industry."

Billboard also reported that several sources with knowledge of the event said the technical glitch was due to Carey's techs having the in-ear monitor set to the wrong frequency.

via CelebrityAccess