| Wednesday 17 September 2003 |
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Program short, but singing is high-powered
There's no stopping Mariah Carey - except for her own show-stopping voice. Carey, the top pop singer of the last decade, demonstrated her amazing high-octane, high-octave range and her astonishing vocal gymnastics in a 90-minute spectacle Sunday night at the U.S. Bank Arena.
Times have been tough for the 34-year-old Carey in the last few years (divorced, dropped by her label, a movie bomb and a nervous breakdown), but she proved she is a survivor as she sang and danced through her extraordinary show. Although the huge U.S. Bank Arena was cordoned off into a smaller, more intimate setting, Carey didn't hold back on the glitz and glitter. She featured elaborate staging, with 10 dancers, four backup singers and musicians both on and off stage.
She made her entrance from the back of the arena, coming through the crowd singing "Heartbreaker" and proving from the very start that she can still hit those high notes. "Dreamlover" followed as she came onstage to a Moulin Rouge-type lounge. In the first of her seven costumes for the evening, she wore a skimpy, pink-spark-ling number that proved in looks and body she was in fine form - - and so was her music.
Carey's songs fall into two basic categories: inspirational power ballads about overcoming all the odds and hip-hop, upbeat dance music (often sung with a partner). One of the former is "Through the Rain", the first song she sang from her latest album, "Charmbracelet". She seemed to smile slyly during this song about having "the strength to carry on", letting her audience (lambs, as she likes to call them), know she continues to maintain that strength.
The stage was turned into a circus as Carey sang her new song "Clown", a sexy "Honey" and a hard-rapping "I Know What You Want". She also sang the song her fans picked on her Web site for the day (fan club members vote on a favorite song which Carey then sings at her concert). The winner in Cincinnati was "Can't Take That Away" (which, as her theme song, almost always wins the poll).
In her second major entrance, Carey, dressed in a pure white Spandex outfit, was lowered on a silken sling from above the stage. She landed atop a piano, not so subtly offering a "Subtle Invitation" (another new song). Many of Carey's recorded hits were duets. She sang those with her original partners via a large video screen - but she performed "I'll Be There" with one of her backup singers, Trey "Big Nasty" Lorenz. A hot "Fantasy" was next, followed by a rousing "Make It Happen".
In a single encore, Carey sang what has become her trademark song, "Hero", then ended the show with a fade-out of "Butterfly". The good news is that Carey seemed happy, at peace and in fine voice. The only bad news is that the show seemed exceedingly short. During most of her tour, Carey has performed 17 or 18 songs; here she cut that to 13½ (counting "Butterfly" as the half). She didn't even sing "Vision of Love" and "Always Be My Baby", which have been regulars on her set list.
Add to that her many other missing blockbusters - "One Sweet Day" (a No. 1 hit for a record-setting 16 straight weeks in 1995), "Love Takes Time", "Emotions", "Someday", "I Don't Want to Cry" and others - and you might feel somewhat cheated. Carey didn't even sing her latest, a remake of Def Leppard's "Bringing On the Heartbreak". It seemed like an awfully early Sunday night, but being with Mariah Carey for even a short time is a delight. (The Cincinnatti Post) Many thanks to Mariah-Carey.org.
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