Mariah Carey amazes and befuddles
Mariah Carey has always come across as a plucky survivor with questionable style and an amazing voice, and during a nearly two-hour performance at Toronto's Air Canada Centre Sunday night, the diva delivered equal amounts of pluck, questionability and amazement.
Despite overhyped media reports of $10 million U.S. brooches, nine time-consuming costume changes and unfashionable lateness, The Adventures Of Mimi: The Voice, The Hits, The Tour was a pretty modest experience. The production was no more elaborate than your average figure skating TV special and the self-deprecating 36-year-old seemed intent on creating a relaxed atmosphere as she belted out 16 of her career hits, including "Dream Lover", "Always Be My Baby", "Fantasy" and "Honey", plus a few numbers from last year's comeback album, The Emancipation Of Mimi.
The show opened with a confessional video of sorts. Over the image of a rollercoaster, Carey told the sold-out crowd, "Obviously it's no secret my life has been like a rollercoaster ride," a reductive reference to her tumultuous career in the public spotlight, which has included a high-profile divorce from Tommy Mottola and a bizarre nervous breakdown and subsequent hospitalization in 2001. "It's all part of God's bigger plan for me," she concluded, before suddenly appearing in a gust of wind from beneath the stage, clad in a sequined black bikini top, matching booty shorts and sheer cape.
Launching into "It's Like That", she remained easy to spot among the tangle of back-up dancers, thanks in part to an omnipresent wind machine that violently tossed her gigantic, curly hair wherever she went. Carey doesn't really dance so much as swoop, flow and float around the stage. But a Mariah Carey show isn't about slick dance moves, it's all about her voice. All five of her octaves were in top form, dazzling the crowd with several ad-libbed arias.
Peril was nearly averted during mid-set track "Vision Of Love". "Stop the show," she commanded, apologizing profusely. "There's a hole in the stage just about the size of a stiletto heel." As a roadie scrambled onstage to plug the hazardous hole, Carey coyly confessed she'd flubbed the first line of the song anyway and continued on.
She hit every high note during a rousing version of the Jackson 5's "I'll Be There", and brought out Trey Lorenz, the vocalist who originally performed the song with her back in 1992 on MTV Unplugged. The show then ground to a halt as she disappeared backstage to change outfits, leaving Lorenz to perform a filler song from his forthcoming album. He naturally gravitated towards an over-eager group of girls conveniently seated in the front row who had red and white pompoms and a placard that read, "I love Trey!"
Carey reappeared on a smaller stage at the centre of the audience to energetically perform three numbers. It was definitely the high point of the evening, as the show began to lose some momentum shortly thereafter.
Following another costume change, she returned in a turquoise evening gown and stopped the show once again, passive aggressively reprimanding the band for playing the wrong song in the wrong key. The crowd fell awkwardly silent. Clearly distracted, she pointed into the audience and said: "That ain't a video camera, is it? I've got slick eyes," and began rambling about a "Keith Sweat remix".
To turn the silence back into raucous screaming, she performed an impromptu few bars of a song only hardcore fans would recognize and brought Lorenz back to join her for a few bars of "One Sweet Day" and a full version of "Thank God I Found You". With the 11 p.m. curfew fast approaching, Carey rounded out the set with "Hero", "Make It Happen" and an encore of "We Belong Together".
It wasn't a perfect show, but then Mariah doesn't pretend to be perfect, that's part of her charm. She turned the awkward moments around, hit all the high notes and kept the wind machine cranked up to 11. Who could ask for more? (Chart Attack)
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