Pop diva Mariah Carey was widely slammed for her meltdown during her New Year's Eve Times Square performance on Saturday (Dec 31). She refused to sing for much of her 1991 hit song Emotions and parts of her next song We Belong Together, revealing that she had been lip-syncing.

Instead, Carey walked around the stage and talked to the audience, while her back-up dancers continued performing.

The disastrous performance on Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve With Ryan Seacrest was watched by millions.

The singer's representatives blamed technical errors but the production company said that it had "no involvement in the challenges associated with Ms Carey's New Year's Eve performance".

Here are five other singers who have botched their live performances.

1. Adele

The singer's much anticipated Grammy performance in February 2016 was marred by sound issues - microphones had dropped onto the piano, causing audio glitches, and her own microphone had cut out briefly.

While the British vocal powerhouse sounded flat at times, she was afterwards lauded for gamely continuing the performance of All I Ask.

Soon after, Adele appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, explaining what had gone wrong and blew audiences away with her rendition of the same song.

2. Beyonce

The multiple Grammy Award-winner faced an awkward moment when she was accused of lip-syncing The Star-Spangled Banner during US President Barack Obama's inauguration in 2013.

She later admitted to it, saying she was a "perfectionist" and did not want to take risk singing live without a sound check.

The Marine Corps band inadvertently revealed the truth, throwing Beyonce's removal of her ear-piece mid-song into a new light.

3. Eminem

The rapper was embroiled in a minor controversy when eagle-eyed viewers noticed that he seemed to be lip-syncing to his new single Berzerk on Saturday Night Live in 2013.

Hi s representative later clarified that Eminem was not lip-syncing, but that he "doubles his vocals live. Rhymes over a vocal track", using them as "accent tracks".

4. Lana Del Rey

The American singer and model who burst onto the scene in 2011 was savagely panned by critics for her Saturday Night Live performance the very next year.

Singing two songs from her then yet-to-be released album Born To Die, she sounded shaky and off-key. She had said that she felt nervous before she took the stage.

Despite the bad publicity from the dismal performance, her popularity was unaffected, judging by sales of her albums.

5. Christina Aguilera

The Voice judge messed up the lyrics of The Star-Spangled Banner during the Super Bowl in 2011.

During her rendition of the American national anthem, instead of singing "O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?", she belted out "What so proudly we watched at the twilight's last gleaming".

In a statement after the performance, the singer said that she had gotten lost in the moment and hoped that "everyone could feel my love for this country and that the true spirit of its anthem still came through".

Sources: BBC, CNN, EOnline, The New York Times, The Telegraph, The Washington Post