Mariah Carey is calling out the staff of NBC for leaking an unedited version of her performance at the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony held Wednesday, The New York Daily News reported.
Sources close to Carey claimed that the leak was done by one of NBC's tech staff, who was most likely disgruntled after Carey ended up three hours late to pre-tape her performance. She ultimately blew it off and performed live instead, belting out her1994 Christmas classic "All I Want For Christmas Is You."
However, the production team, backup singers and musicians reportedly had to do their best to cover up Carey's "awful appearance," according to The New York Daily News. They used good backup vocals, audio mixing and took advantage of people cheering loudly as a cover up.
On Thursday morning though, people were shown the truth of Carey's performance as a video was leaked online of her isolated vocals without any musical accompaniment.
Carey's performance and her less than stellar vocals are being heavily criticized online.
"It's her own fault she can't carry a tune," wrote those from The New York Daily News, calling it "widely-panned" and "woeful."
The Concourse also called it "awful," urging Carey to ask Santa for a new voice instead and commenting on how it sounded somewhat tone deaf.
Mirror said Carey sounding nothing at all like her former self. They noted how Carey looked uncomfortable as her voice cracked and that she "misses pretty much all her notes."
BDC Wire wrote that all they wanted for Christmas was to never listen to Carey's Rockefeller performance and proceeded to call it "terrible," saying Carey ruined the event all on her own after missing the high notes and looking so worn out.
A source told The New York Daily News that Carey believed the production team was doing it to "punish" her for her nonappearance at the pre-taping, because Carey's reps are insisting the songstress "performed beautifully."
Representatives from NBC, on the other hand, have yet to reply to requests for a comment on Carey's performance and on the vocal leak.
Aside from Carey, there were other musical acts that appeared at the event, such as Lady Gaga who sang two duets with Tony Bennett, a capella group Pentatonix, Cyndi Lauper who sang with Billy Porter and also Prince Royce, according to Idolator.
There are videos that have been posted online for fans who were unable to attend the event or want to relish in the performances again, such as Royce's "Jingle Bell Rock" where he could be seen rocking out on stage and Lauper and Porter's duet of "Home For The Holidays."
Pentatonix, on the other hand, performed "Santa Clause Is Coming To Town" with their own little spin, while Gaga and Bennett held their own with performances of the "Winter Wonderland" and "It Don't Mean A Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)," which is originally by Duke Ellington.
