UPDATE 10am AEDT

Mariah Carey claims her disastrously embarrassing New Year’s Eve performance was sabotaged in a bid for the TV network to score bigger-than-usual ratings.

Sources have told entertainment news site, TMZ, that they had complained to production crew at Dick Clark Productions, which was running the event, that her earpieces were not working.

During an interview with Ryan Seacrest an hour before she took the stage in Times Square, Carey had said she was having trouble and was heard to say to Seacrest: “It’s hard for me to hear you.”

TMZ‘s source said Carey’s team complained again about the earpieces, but were reportedly told they would be fine once they hit the stage.

When the prompter wasn’t working properly either, Carey’s team concluded that there were too many warnings and coincidences to ring true and told TMZ  they believe it was a case of sabotage in order to “get Mariah drama” and so boost ratings.

EARLIER

Well, that was almost as bad as Glitter.

Pop songstress Mariah Carey ushered in 2017 in embarrassing fashion with a botched performance at the Times Square New Year’s Eve celebrations in New York City.

The singer appeared to have technical difficulties during her live show, as the wrong lip-sync track played during her set.

Watch the, ahem, performance below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkTy_vSPkWc

After opening with Auld Lang Syne, Carey abruptly stopped singing in the middle of her 1991 hit Emotions when the backing track gave out.

Clearly flustered, the Grammy winner then paced the stage and told the audience to finish the lyrics for her.

“Well, Happy New Year,” she told the crowd. “We can’t hear, but I’ll just go through the motions.

“I’m trying to be a good sport here.”

About a million revellers jammed in to Times Square to bring in 2017 but were instead treated to what many are describing as a trainwreck.

After the song finished Carey looked exasperated.

She started saying, “That was,” then she paused and finally finished by saying, “amazing”.

“It just don’t get any better,” she told the crowd, before abandoning the stage.

Carey’s 2016 was marked by a break-up with her former beau, Australian billionaire James Packer.

As usual, social media wasted no time sticking the boot in.

Even Milli Vanilli is embarrassed by Mariah Carey's debacle. pic.twitter.com/8179cHu7jA

— Jimmy Traina (@JimmyTraina) January 1, 2017

https://twitter.com/toddycst/status/815423854164246529

https://twitter.com/MatthewKick/status/815424245387919364

https://twitter.com/JulieDiCaro/status/815424249603223552

https://twitter.com/KaraVann/status/815424361851187202

Looks like the Russians hacked Mariah Carey's performance. #MariahCarey

— Joshua Watkins (@joshkins95) January 1, 2017

The singer herself later tweeted a message, seeming to take the malfunction in her stride.

Shit happens 😩 Have a happy and healthy new year everybody!🎉 Here's to making more headlines in 2017 😂 pic.twitter.com/0Td8se57jr

— Mariah Carey (@MariahCarey) January 1, 2017

-with agencies