AceShowbiz -

Pop diva Mariah Carey suffered an embarrassing technical trouble during a New Year's Eve performance in Australia a few nights ago. Onstage in the middle of a song, the diva's earpiece monitor suddenly went out, and after throwing a few instructions to her crew, Carey had no choice but to go on with the show and went on to adlib lyrics for about three minutes, as the technical difficulties were being ironed out.

"These might not be the best lyrics I ever wrote, but whatcha gonna do? I'm in a dress that's a little bit small and little bit big and my shoes my shoes my shoes..." sang the beleaguered performer. The adlib might explain why a musical star of her stature seldom goes on live concert tours.

Prior to the incident, she was already heard complaining to the sound engineers that the sound in her earpiece was distorted. She said, "There's like 200 of you, can one of you just fix the ear thing? I hope I'm not asking for the moon and the stars... there's a lot of sound problems going on here. I don't know if it's me or you, or something in the air, but can we fix it?"

The technical glitch was apparently not the only problem that took place that night. Observers noted that Carey was continually out of breath throughout her performance and frequently disappeared in between songs to take "rest breaks."

After the short brouhaha, the new "American Idol" judge called her husband Nick Cannon and their twins Moroccan and Monroe onstage, a sweet moment to hopefully overshadow the embarrassment she had a few moments ago.