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Great reviews! :cheer:

Well one of them.

 

The first one is quite scathing. Thought I should put them both in for balance.

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I read this review comparing the tour to Madonna's I dunno whether posting them would insight a mass war though. :lol:
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I read this review comparing the tour to Madonna's I dunno whether posting them would insight a mass war though. :lol:

It's not us doing the comparison so I think it'll be OK. I'd like to read it for one.

I know but I have a feeling it will only encourage arguing.

I know but I have a feeling it will only encourage arguing

 

 

Post it!

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I'm in favour of a zero tolerance response to flaming.

 

We shouldn't have to worry about which articles might incite nastiness from others.

Everyone who posts here behaves themselves - we should post the articles that will be interesting and lead to discussion, even if they mention Madonna.

 

Any idiots who try to disrupt that will be reported and banned.

Aha, coming to the dark side I see Tim. :wub:
Great review the second one. Scathing as the first review is, I agree in a way. I would not want a history lesson on the past. It is all about the music and nothing else. Reviews of past media reports would not be appreciated by me if I were to go to a major concert like a Mariah concert. :wub:
You see John I'd like that about the tour. :huh:
The only talking I would appreciate is perhaps how a song can be written and if it's a song that was heavily criticized, a comment about the media would be more appropriate. Comments on media speculation about other matters is not required at a musical concert. Just my view. :)
Are we talking about the fact that she's used skits of her having a breakdown etc? If so, then I think it's a very empowering slap back at the critics that said she was finished and I personally love it. :D
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I agree with both of you somehow.

 

It's a shame that we know so much about musicians' private lives and that being famous is no longer about being talented. Obviously, Mariah is talented but we live in a society where topless models and reality TV contestants are the most popular celebrities, rather than talented singers.

 

The best concerts I've seen were singer-songwriters and a live band. The music and very little else was needed for a great night.

 

But I think as we do live in a world where private lives are fair game - and Mariah's was so negatively publicised - those skits are a humble way of saying she won't be beaten.

Edited by Tim

That's great :D! And Mariah's not confirmed anything about coming to the UK yet :P
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BREAKING NEWS: MARIAH CALLS HER T*TS 'THE TWINS'!!!!

Edited by Tim

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MARIAH'S MIRACLE

 

Any diva worth her salt will make you wait. While she didn't overdo it, Mariah Carey proved she's still got a little royalty complex, taking the stage at 9:30 last night, 45 minutes after her scheduled start time of 8:45. It was nothing, really - a minor delay. But with her history of melodrama, and given that, 16 years into her career, she was playing her first Montreal show, there was anticipation in the air.

"Life is like a roller coaster," she said, in a pre-concert video, after the lights went down. "Everyone has to face their fears. Like a roller coaster, there are ups and downs, ins and outs. And when the scariest part is over. Suddenly everything stops, and there is a moment of peace."

She was relatively at peace last night, before an excited crowd of 13,000 - no small feat for a superstar who, just a few years ago, was suffering a credibility crisis of epic proportions. Last year's The Emancipation of Mimi was Carey's comeback album. And this was her comeback tour. From the beginning, there was a mild cringe factor.

She came out to the club-bumping sounds of It's Like That, wasting no time in baring her notoriously full figure. Clad in black lingerie, kinda covered by a sheer black gown, she slinked about the stage with a calculated step to match her tentative coo. She broke the spell mid-song with a warm, "What's up, Montreal?", then belted out an ad lib. It was the first of several (but not too-too many) displays of her trademark power and range.

Whether Carey is no longer able or no longer willing to unleash the full force of her five-octave range is open to debate. Regardless, it was a mature Mariah who held court last night. Playing songs from throughout her career - while noticeably omitting her 2001 collapse, Glitter, and its quick-release, apologetic 2002 followup Charmbracelet - she emerged with her dignity intact.

This, despite a near "wardrobe malfunction" midway through the night. She had made her way through the crowd to sing her Ol' Dirty bast*rd-assisted hit Fantasy, from a dancefloor-size stage at the back of the room. After no more than two minutes, she walked right back off, and backstage, apologizing over the P.A.

"This is called winging it," she said when she re-emerged. "The twins didn't want to stay where they were supposed to." Though it interrupted one of her biggest songs, it was a welcome bit of spontaneity. As fun and efficient as the show was until that point, it did feel a bit like Carey was walking on eggs.

But she was doing fine. On the strategically balanced set list were 1999's Heartbreaker, with video cameos by Missy Elliott and Jay-Z; the big ballad My All, from 1997's Butterfly; the smoothed out groove Shake It Off (in front of a huge, lit up MIMI backdrop); and her early career hit Vision of Love.

Throughout, she kept herself in check, unleashing a rebel wail now and then, but for the most part, playing it cool, and coy. Her fans loved every minute, and she loved them back. "This is the best audience I've ever had," she said, with passable conviction.

Dancehall reggae posterboy Sean Paul opened up with a rousing set of party anthems. Flanked by energetic, scantily clad dancers of his own, he got the crowd more excited than most opening acts can dream of.

 

(Montreal Gazette)

 

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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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CAREY SHOWS FANS HOW TO SHAKE IT OFF

 

You gotta love Mariah Carey. What other performer would stop their show to point out a hole on the floor of the stage "about the size of a stiletto heel", then admit to having missed the first line of the song anyway, further acknowledge various goofs - including almost falling down - in the first quarter of the 90-minute set, and shrug it all off with a sweetly confident "You know how I am?"

It could be that Carey, 36, has learned the dangers of perfectionism, given the exhaustion to which she attributed her very public emotional breakdown a few years back. Or perhaps, she's been nudged about some of the unflattering reviews (citing late starts and uneven singing) of The Adventures of Mimi: The Voice, the Hits, the Tour, which kicked off in Miami last weekend.

"I didn't want Toronto to think I didn't want to put on a good show," she said of her confessions, which came at the tour's fifth outing last night at the Air Canada Centre. It helped that the New York native made these admissions clad in a butter yellow, low cut, bare back, midriff baring gown and then delivered a standout version of 1990's "Vision of Love" - the first of her 17 No. 1 singles.

And to the reassurance of those holding tickets for Carey's Aug. 29 return date, as last night's sold-out crowd can attest, the pop songstress remains in the fine five-octave form that made last year's The Emancipation of Mimi a three-Grammy winner that moved 10 million copies - besting rapper 50 Cent for the year's top seller.

The concert began with video footage of a roller-coaster ride with a Carey voiceover that alluded to the ups and down that marred her personal and professional life for the first half of this decade: divorce from then-Sony boss Tommy Mottola, starring in the movie musical Glitter which tanked, being released from Virgin Records and erratic public behaviour that was widely documented and labelled a meltdown.

With the taped announcement, "after all the hysteria everything is up," Carey stepped out in a glittery black bikini top, matching boy shorts and a transparent cape, singing "It's Like That". Backed by an elaborate stage, six dancers and a seven-piece band, she performed many of her hits, including "Heartbreaker", "Dream Lover" and "Fantasy".

She was joined by erstwhile R&B crooner Trey Lorenz, with whom she'd recorded the Jackson 5's "I'll Be There" for a pleasing rendition of the song. Unfortunately, she then conceded the stage to him to showcase a song from his forthcoming album. Momentum lagged, since few know the South Carolina native outside of the 1992 collaboration with Carey and he didn't even try to make nice by removing the I'm-so-cool sunglasses.

The other downside was a videotaped skit of a quartet of catty women dissing Carey in a washroom about her emotional problems and possibly fake boobs and legs. That was overkill for someone who's shaken off the naysayers to come within three songs of the Beatles No. 1 hits record. And let's face it - she didn't have such a substantial bosom in her 1990 debut.

But overall, Carey is a delight. She is a bit quirky, and she can't really dance - her tendency is to preen and prance - but she sings her ass off and is a whole lot of fun to watch. And she really does try to connect with her fans, even performing two songs on a ministage in their midst.

Costume changes were well down from the eight on her 2000 tour and the healthy looking, no skinny Mimi has toned down the skank. In fact, it was dancehall reggae opener Sean Paul and his sexy frenetic dancers who pushed the boundaries of decency last night.

 

(Toronto Star)

 

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