Mariah Carey bungles her New Year’s Eve show in Times Square

At one point, Mariah Carey stopped singing and asked the audience to finish the song. Stephanie Keith / Reuters

NEW YORK // Mariah Carey ushered in 2017 with a poor performance on Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest broadcast on ABC.

The singer, who is set to perform at this year’s Dubai Jazz Festival next month, appeared to have technical difficulties during her live act on Saturday night in New York’s Times Square.

At one point the 46-year-old stopped singing her hit song Emotions, paced the stage and asked the audience to finish the tune for her.

She told the crowd: “I’m trying to be a good sport here.”

Carey headlined the festivities in Times Square, where an estimated million-plus revellers gathered to greet 2017.

After Carey finished her performance she looked exasperated and said “That was,” before pausing and finally adding, “amazing”.

A representative for the singer confirmed there were technical difficulties.

Carey took to Instagram after the performance saying, “Here’s to making more headlines in 2017.”

Meanwhile, Ryan Seacrest had some issues of his own as he got stuck in an elevator while heading up to the crystal ball. The TV host posted short videos from the elevator on Twitter. The group made phone calls and joked about broadcasting from the space if necessary.

About 35 minutes after Seacrest’s initial post he sent a video of a grinning New York firefighter prying open the elevator doors to cheers. Seacrest and the others thanked the firefighters and walked out.

* Associated Press