Walk away from the one thing that's unyielding and sacred to me...
I'm a Mariah Carey fan. Yep. It's painful to admit, but there it is. I hate being ashamed of my taste in music, but she's the type of artist who makes it hard not to be embarrassed at times. However, these roots run deep. I remember belting out Without You and Hero when they were on Rage and I was in primary school. I remember listening to Daydream over and over again when I hit high school. I remember being pretty crushed when she toured in 1998 with the Butterfly album and I couldn't go.
So, when she announced she was heading back down under, I made sure to nab tickets for her Sydney show at the Entertainment Centre. As the night drew nearer and I heard more and more terrible things about her performances (mostly diva-like behaviour and shoddy vocals), I started to question my decision. But, at the end of the day, she's an artist I've been listening to for over twenty years and that alone is enough to warrant attendance and an open mind.
While it may have been the low expectations, she was pretty damn great. Maybe she can't sing the way she used to, but after two and a half decades in the industry, she does a hell of a lot better than some artists. The song selection was varied, cherry-picking songs from her debut self-titled album back in 1990 to her most recent LP, released earlier this year. I probably knew about half the songs (I dropped off in the new millennium) but was fairly entertained for most of the show.
The stage was well utilised, the backing screen alternated between video clips and onstage video, the lights were great, and the back-up singers, dancers, and musicians did a great job of keeping the energy alive for costume changes (of which there weren't as many as I'd expect for a diva). With songs that ranged from classic R&B to pop to hip-hop, it wasn't hard to see how she's stayed relevant for most of her career.
Despite the tour being named after her most recent release (The Elusive Chanteuse), she opted for only a handful of its songs, instead focusing on crowd favourites. While it meant some songs were cut short (for a midshow medley that included one verse and one chorus of several songs), I was glad it meant I got to hear my personal favourite, Breakdown, albeit abridged.
It was easy to enjoy the trip down memory lane with fun, high-tempo numbers like Fantasy, Heartbreaker, Emotions, and Honey, but it was far more impressive to hear her do the ballads she was renowned for and still nail them. They may be different arrangements (presumably to accommodate her vocal ability), but My All and Hero still had the goosebumps-inducing gravitas of nineties Mariah.
I'd been trawling set-lists from other Australian shows and was a tad disappointed that other cities got All I Want For Christmas Is You, Always Be My Baby, and One Sweet Day (three of my favourites - especially the latter). But just being able to see her perform in person and hear songs that have seen me through my music evolution was pretty fantastic. My experience have been tainted with nostalgia, but it's no mean feat when a performer can take songs you've heard time and time again and do them justice all these years later.
Fantasy*
Touch My Body
Emotions
Cry.
Fly Like a Bird
My All
Heartbreaker*
#Beautiful
Breakdown*
I Know What You Want (Busta Rhymes cover)
It's Like That*
Crybaby
The Roof (Back in Time)
Obsessed
Don't Forget About Us
I'm That Chick
Honey
Thirsty
Hero*
Supernatural
We Belong Together*
*denotes favourites
So, when she announced she was heading back down under, I made sure to nab tickets for her Sydney show at the Entertainment Centre. As the night drew nearer and I heard more and more terrible things about her performances (mostly diva-like behaviour and shoddy vocals), I started to question my decision. But, at the end of the day, she's an artist I've been listening to for over twenty years and that alone is enough to warrant attendance and an open mind.
While it may have been the low expectations, she was pretty damn great. Maybe she can't sing the way she used to, but after two and a half decades in the industry, she does a hell of a lot better than some artists. The song selection was varied, cherry-picking songs from her debut self-titled album back in 1990 to her most recent LP, released earlier this year. I probably knew about half the songs (I dropped off in the new millennium) but was fairly entertained for most of the show.
The stage was well utilised, the backing screen alternated between video clips and onstage video, the lights were great, and the back-up singers, dancers, and musicians did a great job of keeping the energy alive for costume changes (of which there weren't as many as I'd expect for a diva). With songs that ranged from classic R&B to pop to hip-hop, it wasn't hard to see how she's stayed relevant for most of her career.
Despite the tour being named after her most recent release (The Elusive Chanteuse), she opted for only a handful of its songs, instead focusing on crowd favourites. While it meant some songs were cut short (for a midshow medley that included one verse and one chorus of several songs), I was glad it meant I got to hear my personal favourite, Breakdown, albeit abridged.
It was easy to enjoy the trip down memory lane with fun, high-tempo numbers like Fantasy, Heartbreaker, Emotions, and Honey, but it was far more impressive to hear her do the ballads she was renowned for and still nail them. They may be different arrangements (presumably to accommodate her vocal ability), but My All and Hero still had the goosebumps-inducing gravitas of nineties Mariah.
I'd been trawling set-lists from other Australian shows and was a tad disappointed that other cities got All I Want For Christmas Is You, Always Be My Baby, and One Sweet Day (three of my favourites - especially the latter). But just being able to see her perform in person and hear songs that have seen me through my music evolution was pretty fantastic. My experience have been tainted with nostalgia, but it's no mean feat when a performer can take songs you've heard time and time again and do them justice all these years later.
Fantasy*
Touch My Body
Emotions
Cry.
Fly Like a Bird
My All
Heartbreaker*
#Beautiful
Breakdown*
I Know What You Want (Busta Rhymes cover)
It's Like That*
Crybaby
The Roof (Back in Time)
Obsessed
Don't Forget About Us
I'm That Chick
Honey
Thirsty
Hero*
Supernatural
We Belong Together*
*denotes favourites