The three songs Mariah Carey performed on her now famous New Year's Eve debacle have shot up the streaming charts, according to data compiled by Nielsen Music. "We Belong Together," "Auld Lang Syne (The New Year's Anthem)," and "Emotions" all received at least double the amount of streams they had gotten prior to the botched performance.
Mariah Carey's New Year's Fail
There's a famous old saying that says there's no such thing as bad publicity, and the public response to Mariah Carey's disastrous New Year's Eve performance is a perfect example. All three songs "sung" by the iconic diva on ABC's Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve With Ryan Seacrest have shot up the streaming charts in the wake of the controversy.
For those who still aren't familiar with what occurred, as Carey began to perform the first tune of her three song set, "Emotions," she suddenly gave up midway and started audibly complaining about not being able to hear.
As the diva continued into "We Belong Together" and "Auld Lang Syne (The New Year's Anthem)," Carey alternately made attempts to continue, complained to the audience that she "wanted a holiday too", and simply remained silent, resulting in one of the most disastrous and most talked about live performances in recent history.
Post New Year Carey Song Streams Rise
In the following days, as Carey and the team from Dick Clark Productions that produced Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve With Ryan Seacrest traded blame for the failure, many observers in the media jumped the gun and declared the end of the singer's career. It now turns out that the case was exactly the opposite, as data just released by Nielsen Music confirms that the three songs Carey sort of performed actually shot up in streams.
"We Belong Together" got the largest overall boost in streams, rising 251 percent to 4.5 million for the week, while "Auld Lang Syne (The New Year's Anthem)" had the largest percentage gain, a whopping 927 percent jump to 1.2 million streams for the week. Streams for "Emotions" meanwhile, more than doubled.
Several days ago, Carey issued a recorded statement via her Twitter account where she once again blamed "a production team with technical issues who chose to capitalize on circumstances beyond our control". She then repeated her accusations of sabotage.
"Listen, guys: they foiled me," she continued. "Thus, it turned into an opportunity to humiliate me and all those who were excited to ring in the New Year with me."
Why Carey feels the innocent New Year's revelers in Times Square were "humiliated" by her performance fail remains unclear, but the singer went on to thank her loyal fans and declare a break from social media, assuring fans she would still continue to perform and meet all of her "professional obligations."
Irrespective of who is to blame for the debacle, one fact the new streaming numbers underscore is that Mariah Carey's career is far from over.
