Mariah Carey was 'mortified' by New Year's Eve flub

Mariah Carey is convinced late TV personality Dick Clark would have been as "mortified" as she was by the technical mishaps which derailed her live New Year's Eve performance.

The superstar was among the performers booked to appear live in New York's Times Square for Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest broadcast, but she stumbled through her three-song set on Saturday night (31Dec16) after struggling to hear her backing tape.

Mariah eventually gave up singing altogether and spent the rest of her stage time just grooving with her backing dancers.

Her aides subsequently accused show producers of orchestrating the sound issues to create "a viral moment", prompting a furious response from Dick Clark Productions officials.

On Monday (02Jan17), her manager Stella Bulochnikov addressed the controversy via EW.com, dismissing reports suggesting Carey didn't bother to soundcheck before the performance, and laying the blame for the drama at the feet of sound engineers and stage managers who assured the star her broken microphone pack would work.

Now Mariah has reflected on the live flub, insisting the creator of the Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve special would never have let a musician struggle like she did on air.

"All I can say is Dick Clark was an incredible person and I was lucky enough to work with him when I first started in the music business," she told EW.com. "I'm of the opinion that Dick Clark would not have let an artist go through that and he would have been as mortified as I was in real time."

The embarrassing incident has made the Hero hitmaker rethink her staffing plans for future live telecasts.

She declared, "It's not going to stop me from doing a live event in the future. But it will make me less trusting of using anyone outside of my own team.

And Mariah is thankful to have the continued support of her loyal fans after her festive season ended on a sour note.

The singer added, "My true fans have been so supportive and I am so appreciative of them and everybody in the media that came out to support me after the fact, because it really was an incredible holiday season that turned into a horrible New Year's Eve."

Veteran entertainer Marie Osmond watched Mariah's New Year's Eve performance and has offered the singer a few words of support, stating, "I think people enjoy seeing people have problems, which is kinda sad... High five to her for not walking offstage.

"When you can't hear, you can't hear! I don't care what people think you can hear, you don't know what to sing to, you don't know what pitch to sing in... She was in a really bad predicament. I think she gave it her best shot... and she's gotten a lot of publicity from it, so, awesome!"