Mariah Carey’s Rep Discusses *That* New Year’s Performance, Claiming Star Was ‘Set Up To Fail’

Mariah Carey’s representative has spoken out about that less-than-great New Year’s Eve lip-sync performance, claiming that the star is not to blame for what happened.

A video of Mariah’s performance on the catchily-titled ‘Dick Clark’s Rockin’ New Year’s Eve with Ryan Seacrest’ show quickly went viral for all the wrong reasons on Sunday (1 January), but apparently, Mariah wasn’t at fault.

BWR-PR’s Nicole Perna has taken aim at the production company behind the show, slamming claims the ‘Fantasy’ superstar was unprepared and stating she rehearsed for three hours, without problems, the night before.

“She was not ‘winging’ this moment and took it very seriously,” she told Billboard. “[It’s] A shame that production set her up to fail.

“They told her it would be fine once she was on stage.

“However, that was not the case and they were again told that her ear piece was not working. Instead of endeavouring to fix the issue so that Mariah could perform, they went live.”

“Any allegations that she planned to lip sync are just adding insult to injury.”

However, a source from the Dick Clark productions company has hit back, telling Variety: “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 (Dick Clark Productions) 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.”

Meanwhile, the singer was busy addressing the incident on Twitter, shrugging it off in a fantastically Mariah fashion:

What a woman.