Live TV always allows the possibility of disaster, and Mariah Carey unfortunately learned the hard way on last night's taping of Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve in Times Square. Things started a bit shaky with a rendition of "Auld Lang Syne," in which Mariah's mouth seemed to be out of sync with the accompanying vocals, but it got a whole lot weirder from there.
When her 1991 single "Emotions" began, instead of singing along to the instrumental, Carey came up with some off-the-cuff banter, suggesting she was covering for some kind of technical difficulties. The whole "not-singing" thing persisted for the entire song, with Mariah giving off the impression that her on-stage monitor was not working, meaning she couldn't hear herself. "We can’t hear, but I’ll just get through the moment, okay,” she said. It was a strange thing to watch unfold, and didn't get much better when Carey then performed "We Belong Together" with an overwhelming backing track, once again not putting a whole lot of effort into lip syncing.
Of course, the diva that she is, the singer saved herself some embarrassment with a sarcastic closing comment, "It just don't get any better."
Naturally, Twitter had a field day with what might be the last meme or 2016 and the first of 2017.
But the best commentary came from Mariah herself.