Mariah Carey, the best-selling female artist of last millennium was caught off guard in a pre-planned interview with Piers Morgan, the host of ‘Good Morning Britain’. The singer, who was promoting a series of X-mas concerts in the U.K. was lounging on a couch in front of a Christmas Tree, when news about the deadly shooting at the Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas , where more than 50 people were killed and hundreds more injured, was dropped on Mrs. Carey’s lap by the British host.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFzoFhRlEnY
“Mariah, you’ve played at Vegas many times, you know that at this time at night it’d be massively busy, what is your reaction just on a human level to concert goers? You know fans of music, people who love performers like yourself, who’ve just gone and paid money to watch people perform on stage, – being targeted this way?” Asked suddenly the interviewer to a perplexed Mariah Carey.
The singer who remained sitting comfortably on her couch, with what seemed like a bored look on her face, was at a loss for words, and awkwardly stuttered a quick response for the unexpected question. Many viewers became upset with this image and felt that the singer’s reaction was fake and that she didn’t really care about the tragic situation, which prompted a series of disavowing tweets.
https://twitter.com/jamesbaron1987/status/914752036020858880
That interview with Mariah Carey, I've had to turn it off. Never saw something so fake!! Diva much! Totally inappropriate. #GMB
— Steph. (@stephwales_) October 2, 2017
Mariah Carey slouched answers questions on Vegas shooting on #GMB infront of a Christmas tree 🎄 looking like a Barry White album cover
— Chris Bebbington (@thebebbo) October 2, 2017
Others however came to the singer’s aid, arguing that she had not plan to discuss such a tragic event on live television in front of millions, while trying to sell concert tickets.
https://twitter.com/eventsbykitch/status/914751049575084032
We now go to Mariah Carey for some unknown reason for the latest updates #GMB
— me (@__Niceguy__) October 2, 2017
https://twitter.com/katielowndes/status/914751357327994880
Mariah Carey’s representatives have already released a statement to HuffPost, where Piers Morgan’s professionalism was placed under trial for the unexpected questions that Mariah had to answer. “Piers Morgan’s unexpected line of questioning with Mariah is irrelevant within this tragedy; we hope your news organization continues to give appropriate coverage and support to those affected by this horrific crime.” Read the statement.
The host however defended his work and tweeted that Mariah’s people were informed about the shift of the interview and that the singer’s opinion was valuable to the occasion.
Mariah was booked to do an interview about her UK Christmas tour. Obviously news events in Vegas have now taken precedence. https://t.co/3SxHKPXYen
— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) October 2, 2017
We told Mariah's people before the interview.
Her reaction seemed very relevant given she's a performer who often has residence in Vegas. https://t.co/6sVMSUMvHK— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) October 2, 2017
The question now is, really how important Mariah Carey’s input to this tragedy is? People are being shot, and details are still obscure, people don’t want to dance, they want answers that Mariah Carey is not qualified to provide. If anybody was wondering, the singer did release a statement via Twitter to appease the angry mob that expected a presidential response from a pop artist.
Horrified to hear about the shooting in #LasVegas. My thoughts are with the victims and their families. Praying for everyone's safety 🙏💔
— Mariah Carey (@MariahCarey) October 2, 2017