Senior Zach Elliott first heard Mariah Carey's album "The Emancipation of Mimi" when he was in the fifth grade, and life was never the same. From then on, his passion for music, and Mariah, followed him throughout childhood and all the way through his time at Vanderbilt. "I know she's not super in vogue anymore, and people are like 'Oh she lost her voice, she's irrelevant,' but I think people are wrong," Elliott said. "She has such an extensive catalogue, a lot of music that people don't realize they like... I guess her different songs have been with me at different points growing up. I have sort of a special emotional value with them."
To pay tribute to the influence Mariah's music has had on his life, Elliott has been planning a "senior recital" style show which will feature Mariah's songs. The performance will take place on April 14 at 8 p.m. and April 17 at 2 p.m. in Sarratt Cinema. Tickets will soon be available to students through Sarratt Box Office. In the meantime, the show's Facebook page has more information.
Elliott will be singing in each song, and he will be joined by several performing groups such as Harmonic Notion, Tongue 'n' Cheek, Voce, Vida, Commodore Orchestra and Vibe. He will also be backed up by a seven-person band including instrumentalists and three backup vocalists. While Elliott has never received any formal musical training, he began performing with his church choir when he was three and has participated in various school music groups, including Harmonic Notion, a Vanderbilt a capella group.
Elliott has also been trying to get Mariah to come to campus for the performance using the hashtag #zachbringsmariah, based on the name of the performance, Zach Sings Mariah. He made a promotional video using the hashtag last summer.
One of the songs that will be featured in the recital that means the most to Elliott is Mariah's song "Outside", which documents her experience being biracial and not fitting into either racial group perfectly. Elliott related to the song through his own attempts to find his place in friend groups and student organizations and explore his sexual identity.
"As cutesy and fun as the promo has been, at the root there is some real meat there," Elliott said. "My goal is for it to be a really meaningful show for people. My college experiences, coming out or getting rejected from different groups, and feeling ostracized on campus and different things, just sort of different feelings I've had throughout my Vanderbilt experience, both good and bad, and sort of how Mariah's music played into those... the songs that I chose are very specific for that reason."
Elliott also writes original songs, five of which he debuted a couple weeks ago for a mini concert in the Rand lounge. The songs, which Elliott calls the Five Originals, were inspired by his experience in Brazil this past summer. He will debut one original song at the concert in April. "After each song, people were coming up to me and saying that it really struck a chord with them, or that it just made them want to dance, and that really meant a lot to me," Elliott said.
(The Vanderbilt Hustler)
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