NEW YORK: With a burst of confetti and fireworks, throngs of revellers ushered in 2018 in a frigid Times Square as the glittering crystal ball dropped.
It was the second-coldest on record. The temperature was minus 12 degrees Celsius in New York City at midnight. The coldest ball drop celebration was in 1917, when it was minus 17 degrees.
Partygoers bundled up in extra layers, wearing warm hats and face masks, dancing and jogging in place to ward off the cold.
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There was also tighter security than ever after two terrorist attacks and a rampaging SUV driver who ploughed into a crowd on the very spot where the party takes place. The party went off with no major problems.
“Auld Lang Syne” and ``New York, New York'' played as the crowds cheered.
— CNN (@CNN) January 1, 2018
(Video Twitter/CNN)
Mariah Carey performs at the New Year's Eve celebration in Times Square in New York, Dec 31, 2016 (AP file photo)
Mariah Carey made it through her performance on Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest cleanly this year after bungling it last year. She sang her 1990s hits Vision of Love and Hero.
After finishing Vision of Love she looked on stage for some hot tea she said she was promised, but it wasn't there. She quipped, "Oh, it's a disaster."
Last year it really was a disaster. Carey had technical difficulties during a live performance of her hit song Emotions. She stopped singing, paced the stage and told the audience to finish the lyrics for her.
Dick Clark Productions called Carey's claim it sabotaged her performance "absurd". But they worked out their differences.
Members of ABC's broadcast team congratulated Carey on making it through her performance the second time around. Seacrest asked Carey how she felt.
"I'm feeling a lot better than last year,'" she said, "when I had to get my own police escort."
