The One and Only, Mariah Carey

When it comes down to it, I'm more of a rock guy at heart.  All the concerts we've seen in the last year (except for maybe, Gwen Stefani) have been sneering guitars and the like, but starting this Fall, it seems the flavor is a little more pop than usual.

Starting this weekend, we saw a vocal legend on stage: Mariah Carey.  OK, you may wonder, what interest do I have in seeing Mariah on stage?  Besides the fact that Grace loves her music, I feel that it's a once-in-a-lifetime moment to see an extraordinary and perhaps quite legendary talent perform live.  Being mostly familiar with her more popular singles, I wasn't expecting to know everything she sang, but amazingly enough, I think there was only one song I didn't recognize.  That in itself is a testament to her talent and popularity, but all of that pales in comparison to her actual performance.

While the highlight of the show could be the songs themselves or the spectacle of a lavish stage, it was witnessing the vocal aerobics live.  Trust me, when a good deal of popular acts are barging through their sets with tracked vocals, it's a breath of fresh air to know some acts can man up and bust out their talent with confidence.  Mariah, being no exception, showed up in full form last night, with plenty of renewed life and a more humility than one might imagine.  You'd think her proclivity for baring skin would take away from all this, but that was the only diva that showed all night.  Well, that and her actually scolding someone lighting up a cigarette in the front row.

So she played through her hits "Hero," "Heartbreaker," "Dreamlover," "Vision of Love," "We Belong Together," "Shake it Off," "Fly Like a Bird," and even the infamous hit from her Unplugged record, "I'll Be There." Those are the most I can remember off the top of my head.  Each one got the crowd moving.  Amazing enough as her voice is, it's almost incredible to see such a diverse crowd bumping to one person's music.  It shouldn't be unexpected, seeing as she's had seventeen number one singles, but I was still impressed.

Here I am now, a few days later, still remembering the show fresh in my mind.  Grace claims it to be the best concert she's ever seen (close to the Coldplay concerts we've seen) and I don't disagree with her.  It was classy, personal, and entertaining from start to finish.  Malign her if you will for her exhibitionism and attitude, but Mariah Carey can sure put on one fine show.