Mariah Carey was able to redeem herself and shine like never before on New Year's Eve.
A year after her disastrous performance on Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve, the 47-year-old returned on-stage to welcome 2018 with a bang. Things went smoothly on Sunday night when she sang some of her greatest hits, "Vision of Love" and "Hero," at Times Square in New York.
Embarrassing Beginning
Exactly a year ago, Carey also made headlines after her rather-embarrassing performance on New Year's Eve. Her rendition of "Auld Lang Syne" went on without a hitch, but problems arose when she started singing her next song, "Emotions."
"We can't hear," the songstress announced. "We didn't have a sound check, but it's New Year's, baby. It's OK, guys."
The award-winning singer gave up on singing and sashayed on-stage with the male dancers. Her next song, "We Belong Together," was not any better. While she only had to lip-synch, Carey stopped moving her mouth at some points during the song although the vocals continued.
Triumphant Return
The pop singer was the talk of the town last year because of her performance, so her return to Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin Eve with Ryan Seacrest on Dec. 31 was something that everyone anticipated, and Carey owned the show.
Wearing a big fur coat and a glittery gold floor-length dress, Mimi beamed and even made jokes on-stage.
"Just want to take a sip of tea if they'll let me. They told me there would be tea. Oh, it's a disaster," she told the audience. "Okay, well, we'll just have to rough it. I'm going to be just like everybody else with no hot tea. But we're going to try and do this one for you."
Carey went through the performance without any technical glitches. The show and the singer herself learned their lessons from last year's gaffe. Hours before her performance went live, Carey was spotted doing sound check on-stage.
Only a few more hours before the night gets started! @MariahCarey runs through rehearsal in preparation for her performance on the Countdown stage. #balldrop pic.twitter.com/f8wXNrCJtL
— Times Square (@TimesSquareNYC) December 31, 2017
Her fans on Twitter were rooting for her. Some think that the singer's performance will predict whether the coming year will be good or not.
If we are using Mariah Carey performance to measure the quality of the upcoming year. 18 should be a good one. — Tom Koehler (@TKREFRESH22) January 1, 2018
Her tea also became the first meme of 2018.
And now the Mariah Carey hot tea will be the first meme of 2018. pic.twitter.com/wN4KITyBlj
— Milmiskew (@Milmiskew) January 1, 2018
New Year's #HotTea Mystery Solved! #MariahCarey2018 #MariahCarey #NewYearsEve pic.twitter.com/8Spoh9Gx4g — Lee Bailey (@dleeb68) January 1, 2018
When Mariah Carey doesn't get her hot tea. #hottea #newyears #NYE2017 #MariahCarey pic.twitter.com/dJWAzVLNyR — Emma Herlong (@EmmaHerlong) January 1, 2018
At the end of the night, after she has proven why she is still a music royalty, Carey did get to sip her tea to cap off a good night and begin what could be a tremendous year ahead.
Found my tea! pic.twitter.com/r5EIIbT5Zw — Mariah Carey (@MariahCarey) January 1, 2018
