Mariah Carey's Manager & Dick Clark Productions Butt Heads on Troubled New Year's Eve Performance 
 
 Following Mariah Carey's troubled performance on Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest, the singer's manager, Stella Bulochnikov, has issued a statement to Billboard. 
 
 Carey's headlining set, leading up to midnight, went downhill when she got to “Emotions" and “We Belong Together," during which she said she could not hear through her in-ear monitors. 
 
 "We told them [the stage managers] that the in-ears were not working 10 minutes before the performance," Bulochnikov says. "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." 
 
 She continues: "After the show, I called [Dick Clark Productions'] Mark Shimmel and I said, 'What the f--- happened?' He said, 'Let me call you back,' then called me back and confirmed the in-ears were not working and asked if I would make a joint statement. I said, 'No way.' I asked him to cut the West Coast feed. He said he could not do that. I asked him why would they want to run a performance with mechanical glitches unless they just want eyeballs at any expense ... It's not artist friendly, especially when the artist cut her vacation short as a New Year's Eve gift to them." (A source on the DCP side denies that this conversation ever happened.) 
 
 BWR-PR's Nicole Perna, a rep for Carey, previously told Billboard that "production set her up to fail." But a production source told Billboard that Carey "had ample time to rehearse and chose not to," instead using a body double to rehearse in her place earlier in the day and that at the time, "all was working" on the technical side. 
 
 Dick Clark Productions also provided a statement Sunday evening (Jan. 1), refuting the claims from Carey's camp: 
 
 "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." 
 
 So what happened and who is to blame? Billboard has spoken with multiple sources involved with the show and one indisputable fact is that there was an issue with Carey's in-ears. According to two insiders, the audio feed was "set to the wrong frequency." Both sources say the fault was on Carey's tech team, which seems to support repeated claims by DCP that all was functioning properly on the show production end. 
 
 Could the show have cut to commercial, or to host Ryan Seacrest while the sound issues were worked out? Maybe, but such a proposition is tricky when the artist is two minutes into a six-minute performance, says a source. As for cutting the performance from the west coast broadcast, a backup segment would have had to be ready and Billboard has not yet been able to ascertain whether such a clip existed. 
 
 Reporting by Adelle Platon and Shirley Halperin. ||||| The fallout from Mariah Carey's headline-making New Year's Eve performance continues. 
 
 Carey's manager, Stella Bulochnikov, is doubling down on accusations against the producers of Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest in a new interview with ET. 
 
 "I'm furious," Bulochnikov told ET's Carly Steel on Wednesday in Studio City, California. "She cut her vacation short. She came there to have a festive moment, not a disastrous moment." 
 
 The singer suffered technical difficulties after hitting the stage just before midnight on Saturday in New York City, eventually causing her to walk off stage. After the show, Carey tweeted: "S**t happens. Have a happy and healthy new year everybody. Here's to making more headlines in 2017." 
 
 Shit happens 😩 Have a happy and healthy new year everybody!🎉 Here's to making more headlines in 2017 😂 pic.twitter.com/0Td8se57jr — Mariah Carey (@MariahCarey) January 1, 2017 
 
 
 
 WATCH: Mariah Carey's New Year's Eve Performance: Dick Clark Productions Denies Sabotage, Ryan Seacrest in Shock 
 
 "They could have cut to a commercial, they could have edited the west coast feed to make her look good," Bulochnikov suggested. "So when we say words like sabotage, I'm not saying you intentionally decided, 'Hey! We're gonna sabotage Mariah Carey tonight.'" 
 
 While Bulochnikov made it clear that she doesn't believe DCP intentionally sabotaged Carey's performance, she still insisted that "it happened!" 
 
 Bulochnikov went on to challenge the production decision to air the moment again on the west coast feed, saying: "There are a myriad, a million ways to fix the feed for the west coast, because the people deserve better." 
 
 DCP previously released a statement saying that they "had no involvement in the challenges associated with Ms. Carey's New Year's Eve performance" after Bulochnikov stated that "a production issue" and "technical difficulties" were to blame for the moment. 
 
 On Wednesday morning, ET asked DCP executive vice president of television, Barry Adelman, for his side of the story. "We have no comment on this," he said. "I think the statements have been made." 
 
 
 
 WATCH: Jenny McCarthy Says It's 'Completely Unfair' for Mariah Carey to Blame Others for 'Train Wreck' NYE Performance 
 
 Carey voiced her displeasure with the situation on Tuesday, telling Entertainment Weekly: "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 songstress added that she would be wary of working with external crews on future performances. 
 
 "It's not going to stop me from doing a live event in the future," she said. "But it will make me less trusting of using anyone outside my own team." 
 
 
 
 WATCH: Mariah Carey Plagued by Technical Difficulties During Live New Year’s Eve Performance 
 
 Related Gallery ||||| Mariah Carey blamed Dick Clark Productions for her disastrous New Year's Eve performance in a audio statement to fans that the singer tweeted Sunday morning. 
 
 In the 90-second recording, Carey said of the Rockin' Eve production staff, "they foiled me" and turned her Times Square performance "into an opportunity to humiliate me." 
 
 "It's a shame that we were put into the hands of a production team with technical issues who chose to capitalize on circumstances beyond our control," Carey said in Sunday's statement. 
 
 
 
 Carey's New Year's performance, which immediately went viral, featured the singer grappling with technical problems during her song "Emotions"; instead of singing the track, Carey instead spoke to the crowd about the technical difficulties while still carrying on with the planned choreography. "We Belong Together" was similarly marred with sound issues. 
 
 Related Mariah Carey's Manager Lashes Out at 'Rockin' Eve' Producers "They just want eyeballs at any expense," singer's manager says of Dick Clark Productions after West Coast feed shows disastrous performance 
 
 Carey's statement comes after both the singer's manager and representative placed blame for the incident on the producers of Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve. Carey's manager Stella Bulochnikov was especially upset that Carey's performance wasn't removed from the West Coast feed. 
 
 
 
 "I haven't really addressed the situation that happened on New Year's Eve, and in time I will. But for now, I want everyone to know that I came to New Year's Eve in New York in great spirits and was looking forward to a celebratory moment with the world,” Carey said in Sunday's recording. 
 
 "It's not practical for a singer to sing live and be able to hear themselves properly in the middle of Times Square with all the noise, the freezing cold, the smoke from the smoke machines, and thousands of people celebrating, especially when their ear monitors are not working properly." 
 
 A faulty in-ear monitor has since been cited as the cause for the nightmarish performance, with both Carey's team and Dick Clark Productions pointing the finger at the other party for the technical issue. 
 
 "Listen guys, [DCP] foiled me, thus it turned into an opportunity to humiliate me and all those who were excited to ring in the New Year with me," Carey said Sunday. "Eventually, I will explain this in greater detail than I can give here." 
 
 In a statement following the Carey team's accusations, Dick Clark Productions said, "To suggest that DCP … 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." 
 
 However, Carey continued to criticize the production team in an interview with Entertainment Weekly Tuesday. 
 
 
 
 "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," Carey said. "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 drama of 2016's final moments continues to spill into 2017 in the form of an ongoing battle over just went wrong with Mariah Carey's New Year's Eve performance. Carey herself tweeted "S--- happens" to fans, alongside a GIF of her shaking her head, after an appearance on ABC's New Year's Rockin' Eve that included bungled renditions of "Emotion" and "We Belong Together" in which the Carey sang only small portions of the songs as a pre-recorded track played in the background. Carey's rep tells Billboard that the singer took the performance "very seriously," so much so that she rehearsed for three hours on the 30th and again at 3pm on the big night, with no sound issues surfacing on either occasion. "A shame that production set her up to fail," rep Nicole Perna concludes. Carey's manager Stella Bulochnikov tells Billboard stage managers were alerted that the "in-ears" weren't working four minutes before showtime; reassurances the ear pieces would function once live were bogus so Carey "pulled them out but could not hear the music over the crowd." Bulochnikov suggests production "just want[ed] eyeballs at any expense." Dick Clark Productions swung back in a statement released to the AP Sunday night: "To suggest that dcp (Dick Clark Productions) ... would ever intentionally compromise the success of any artist is defamatory, outrageous, and frankly absurd." It said its initial investigation found no evidence of technical errors. An unnamed production source counters Perna's rehearsal claims, saying Carey used a body double during Saturday's rehearsal. (Josh Groban tweeted, then deleted, a diss about Carey.)