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. ||||| Mariah Carey's Rep Says 'Rockin' Eve' Producers 'Set Her Up to Fail' 
 
 But a 'New Year's Rockin' Eve' source refutes the singer's claims. 
 
 Mariah Carey’s troubled performance on Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest has left many people asking the question: What happened? 
 
 The singer’s three-song set began promising enough with “Auld Lang Syne,” but went downhill with “Emotion” and “We Belong Together.” Carey claimed during the latter that she couldn’t hear through her monitors. The situation quickly devolved in front of 1 million revelers and a worldwide television audience on ABC. 
 
 Carey took the evening’s performance seriously, rehearsing the night before the show for three hours, according to her representatives. She then rehearsed at 3 p.m. on New Year’s Eve with “no sound issues.” 
 
 “She was not ‘winging’ this moment and took it very seriously,” BWR-PR's Nicole Perna tells Billboard. “A shame that production set her up to fail.” 
 
 The rep says Carey alerted production and the stage managers that her ear piece was not working. “They told her it would be fine once she was on stage,” she says. “However, that was not the case and they were again told that her ear piece was not working. Instead of endeavoring to fix the issue so that Mariah could perform, they went live.” 
 
 Carey was intent on honoring her commitment and therefore took the stage, essentially “flying blind,” the rep continues. As for singing to a track, “it is not uncommon for artists to sing to track during certain live performances.” 
 
 Adds the rep, “Any allegations that she planned to lip sync are just adding insult to injury.” 
 
 But a production source paints a different picture, telling Billboard that Carey, "Had ample time to rehearse and chose not to." The insider adds that Carey used a body double to rehearse in her place earlier on New Year's Eve day and that, even though the singer did not do a vocal run-through, "all was working" on the technical side. 
 
 "The music was provided by her team, there were no fewer than eight audio monitor wedges in front of her and the dancers had no problem syncing up to the music." 
 
 Speaking to the New York Times, audio producer Robert Goldstein of Maryland Sound International, which worked on the event, said, "Every monitor and in-ear device worked perfectly. I can’t comment beyond that and don’t know what her nontechnical issue may have been.” 
 
 Any claim of sabotage for ratings, as TMZ alluded to in a story published New Year's Day, "Doesn't make sense," says the production source, emphasizing that Dick Clark Productions' foremost concern is the artist. "Why would they risk the reputation of a company that's been around since 1957?" 
 
 Billboard has reached out to Perna and Carey's manager Stella Bulochnikov for further comment. ||||| Tommy Mottola Blames Mariah Carey's Professional Team For Botched NYE Performance 
 
 Mariah Carey should ditch her advisers and “hire more seasoned and respected professionals” in light of her disastrous New Year’s Eve performance. That’s the line according to her ex-husband, Tommy Mottola. 
 
 Mottola, the one-time Sony Music chairman who helped guide Carey from a 19-year-old backup singer to one of the most popular singers on the planet, weighed in on her awkward appearance at Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve With Ryan Seacrest. Carey should take some of the rap for her epic-fail, but only for choosing the wrong support team, he suggests. 
 
 Describing Carey as a “global icon and a treasure with incredible talent,” Mottola admits the snafu “could’ve happened to anyone.” And it should never have happened in the first place. And nor should her participation in the reality TV show Mariah’s World. 
 
 “My only advice is that she should hire more seasoned and respected professionals to surround her and help her with her career,” he wrote in a letter to the New York Post’s Page Six column. 
 
 Carey made global headlines with her headlining set which, leading up to midnight, went careening downhill as she got to “Emotions" and “We Belong Together." With the pop star apparently unable to hear through her in-ear monitor, she removed it completely. Then, unable to follow the backing track over the noise of the crowd, Carey eventually abandoned singing and lip-syncing all-together as she became frustrated, addressing the crowd, “I’m trying to be a good sport here.” 
 
 Both camps deflected blame and presented conflicting explanations for what went wrong. The singer and her reps said the in-ear monitors were faulty (and that action wasn't taken on prior warnings) and BWR-PR's Nicole Perna told Billboard that "production set her up to fail." 
 
 Dick Clark Productions issued its own statement claiming, “To suggest that dcp ... would ever intentionally compromise the success of any artist is defamatory, outrageous and frankly absurd,” and insiders previously told Billboard that Carey’s tech team had her in-ears “set to the wrong frequency” and that she had used a body double for rehearsals earlier in the day. 
 
 Mottola, who recounted how he romanced, wed and later divorced Carey in his tell-all 2013 book Hitmaker: The Man and His Music, argued that Mariah’s World was an unnecessary distraction which “does absolutely nothing for her integrity, her credibility, or her massive talent.” 
 
 He added, “She should take a step back, think carefully and figure out what to do next.” 
 
 Carey’s manager Stella Bulochnikov reportedly fired back: “Really? Tommy is a relic. Did he give you that statement from a rotary phone?” 
 
 Billboard reached out to a rep for Mottola for additional comment.
– 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.)