Mariah Carey Returns to New Year’s Rockin’ Eve 9 Years After Snafu

Mariah Carey brought the house down with a powerful New Year’s Eve performance.

The Grammy winner, 56, sang “Obsessed” during the Wednesday, December 31, broadcast of Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve With Ryan Seacrest.

While Seacrest, 51, and Rita Ora hosted the ABC special live from New York City’s Times Square, Carey performed in Las Vegas for an adoring crowd. She strutted onstage in a sparkly silver-and-pink minidress and silver boots, her hair falling over her shoulders in beachy waves. Carey’s performance went smoothly, as the Grammy-winning diva hit every note, backed by a team of dancers and singers.

“Happy New Year!” she said afterward.

The annual show also featured performances by Chappell Roan, Post Malone, Demi Lovato, 50 Cent, Maren Morris, Chance the Rapper, New Kids on the Block and KPop Demon Hunters stars Ejae, Audrey Nuna and Rei Ami.

In 2016, Carey famously suffered technical difficulties during the New Year’s Rockin’ Eve broadcast. During her rendition of “Auld Lang Syne,” fans noticed the audio track did not match up with what she was singing.

Carey then got frustrated when she couldn’t hear her backing track for her second song, “Emotions,” and told the audience, “We didn’t have a [sound] check for this song, so we’ll just say it went to No. 1 and that’s what it is, OK?”

When Carey attempted to perform “We Belong Together,” the original version played, leading her to stand uncomfortably and not sing before she stopped completely and exited the stage.

Carey and her team later claimed that her earpiece was not working and Dick Clark Productions sabotaged her performance for ratings, which the company denied. Days after the headline-making incident, Carey personally addressed the ordeal in an Entertainment Weekly interview.

“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 said in January 2017. “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.”

Despite the snafu, Carey insisted her experience didn’t scare her off from performing live on TV.

“It’s not going to stop me from doing a live event in the future,” she noted. “But it will make me less trusting of using anyone outside of my own team.”

Carey ultimately made a triumphant return to perform at New Year’s Rockin’ Eve again the following year. In a joint statement announcing her comeback, Carey and Dick Clark Productions said in December 2017, “We can all agree that last year didn’t go exactly as planned and we are thrilled to move forward together to provide America with an incredible night of music and celebration.”

Carey’s subsequent performance of her hits “Vision of Love” and “Hero” went off without a hitch.