Mariah Carey addresses infamous New Year’s Eve meltdown in candid confession

Mariah Carey has opened up about her infamous New Year's Eve meltdown that saw her lose the plot after attempting to lip-sync.

The singer had an epic meltdown in front of millions after botching her headline performance at America's biggest New Year's party as she reeled in 2017.

She burst into tears in front of millions of viewers, crying: "I'm trying to be a good sport here."

It's believed the wrong song was played and Carey couldn't hear what she should have been singing on stage.

As many as 2 million people, surrounded by a ring of 40-ton sand trucks and some 7,000 police, gathered in the "Crossroads of the World" to watch the glittering sphere complete its minute-long drop, marking the beginning of 2017.

But now more than three years after the fact, the mum-of-two has given her take on the hot "scandal" during a chat with Trevor Nelson on his BBC Radio 2 show Rhythm Nation.

Quizzing the singer on THAT meltdown, Trevor said: "This public apparent meltdown, which was splashed all over the place and even came over here.

"People are like, 'Mariah's had a meltdown, Mariah's had a meltdown', and you had the film Glitter and it seemed as if that's the end of Mariah Carey. Mariah Carey's done. Mariah Carey's is gone."

He added: "And that's how that's how people were talking… And we couldn't hear from you.

"We didn't see you for a little while and I didn't know what happened to you, because there was no Internet, there wasn't like social media for you to talk to us. It was very strange."

But although the mishap got the best of her emotions that night, Mariah said that in hindsight, she realised how loyal her fanbase really is.

She said: "I did have a connection with my fans and I did make this phone call that everyone was like, ‘Oh, my God, why is she calling her fans directly?’ They didn't understand, we had already been doing that.

"Me and my fans had already been back and forth with me leaving messages on my website and them responding. We, and you know this, have always had this incredible bond because of what they represent to me as not only an artist, but as a person that never felt that sense of family and they became my family."

Looking back at the ordeal, Mariah says her fatigue clouded her ability to sing live that night as she hit out at music label producers for pushing musicians instead of listening to them.

She explained: "They made such a drama, but now when we look back in retrospect, people, huge artists of the day, right now, stage breakdowns.

"They stage meltdowns, they have this, ‘It's a scandal. It's a scandal. Let's have a scandal, oh I can’t wait.’ And it’s so stupid because I literally say if “they” had given me two days of sleep, just give me two days and let me get back and then I'll do the video.

"Like, people just had to learn, you know what, sometimes when someone tells you what they need, listen. If someone says, ‘You know, I just can't do it today. I just can't get up and go and make a video."

The singer went on to admit she attempted to tell bosses that she wasn't physically up for the challenge, but said it's a fight musicians can't win.

She added: "Knowing that I am not physically even capable of this because I was fighting against a huge corporation and a very, very powerful person that had a huge agenda of ‘We are not going to allow her to rise above the nineties'. Or specifically to have any more big hits, and that's why when The Emancipation of Mimi era happens, it's such validation.

"I had to have that big a thing where We Belong Together literally became the song of the two thousands, the song of the decade.

"Like it had to be that big or nobody would have allowed me to say, ‘Oh, I'm back!’ No matter what I do, it's always like, ‘Well, it's not as big as da da da da da.’ Can I live. Can I live."

*Rhythm Nation is on BBC Radio 2 tonight at 10pm and is available on BBC Sounds.

More On

Mariah Carey