LONDON • Pop diva Mariah Carey's stage act has shown an increasing dependence on a chaise longue borne aloft, as troupes of backing dancers heft her around the set as she sings.

Last year, footage emerged of her being pushed around backstage in a desk chair, presumably to conserve her energy for the moment she would have to pop herself onto said chaise longue.

"Mariah is clear: When she doesn't want to do something, she doesn't do it," her former choreographer Anthony Burrell told Complex website.

Burrell, who was let go by Carey after her televised New Year's Eve performance suffered embarrassing technical difficulties, said she was performing with "no f***s given and it's taking away her star".

He added: "Working with an artist like Mariah, who's not a mover, it's always a challenge to get them to think physically and not just vocally."

Carey, who is in her late 40s, does not really do choreography. In fact, as far back as 2000, her promotional-appearance riders were reported to state that she did not do stairs.

It was also revealed, by a couple who were briefly her vocal coaches, that she did not raise her own beverages to her mouth, but instead employed "a woman who held her drink with a straw".

Carey is also almost the only celebrity who does not pretend they would far rather travel by public transport.

"I hate the bus," she once shrieked merrily at an interviewer, who wondered if she did not miss the trappings of being broke and anonymous. "I've already been on the bus, I don't need to go back on the bus."

THE GUARDIAN