The TV company involved have strongly denied the accusation.

Mariah Carey‘s management have reportedly accused a TV production company of “sabotaging” the singer’s disastrous New Year’s Eve performance in New York’s Times Square, after technical problems led to the singer walking off stage in footage that quickly went viral.

As TMZ reports, sources close to Carey claim they repeatedly complained to executives at Dick Clark Productions about technical difficulties ahead of the show. It’s clear during the performance that technical gremlins seem to be upsetting the R&B icon, as she removes her earpiece and talks on the mic about poor monitoring. In an interview with Ryan Seacrest an hour earlier, Carey even points to her earpiece and claims, “it’s hard for me to hear you.”

Having complained to the production office after the interview, she was reportedly reassured that the earpiece would be on a different frequency on stage. Further concerns and complaints were similarly dismissed, Carey’s team claims. Finally, when onstage her teleprompter, featuring song lyrics and stage cues, is said to have stopped working.

All this has led to Carey’s team allegedly accusing Dick Clark Productions of sabotage, in a bid to boost ratings. Meanwhile the production company have dismissed the claims as “silly”, arguing that Carey used a stand-in to do a soundcheck, and that the eight monitors on stage should have been adequate to hear the music. They have also suggested that Carey changed her story, initially saying her backing track was incorrect before blaming technical difficulties. Watch the offending performance below and judge for yourself.

Carey visibly (and audibly) struggled through her set, forgetting lyrics and doing a bad job of lip-synching, but afterwards she tackled the calamity head, telling critics that “shit happens.”

https://twitter.com/MariahCarey/status/815452528238358529