Mariah in Manila: Glitzy, glossy and grand, but . . .
If you grew up listening to ’90s music and reveled in the astounding power and fiveoctave range of Mariah Carey’s voice, “seeing” the 48year-old Songbird Supreme attempt to replicate her glory days in “Mariah Carey: Live in Concert” at the Big Dome last Friday is good enough.
But, therein lies the rub: Where music appreciation is concerned, a performance is better “heard” than “seen.”
Mariah, whose last visit to Manila was for “The Elusive Chanteuse Show” in 2014, didn’t really embarrass herself as she did in that infamous New Year’s Eve performance in Times Square. This time, she passed muster.
Nope, that isn’t casting aspersions on Mariah’s perceived “gifts”—for music superstars of her magnitude, merely “passing muster” is simply not good enough.
In fact, if you were one of the lucky thousands who watched her “roof-raising” renditions of “Vision of Love” and “Hero” in her “Fantasy” show at Madison Square Garden in 1995, you know how the singer has since become a shadow of her former self. The concert last weekend made us wish for a more “dynamic” show.
Mariah hardly moved, letting her all-male backup dancers do the terpsichorean heavy-lifting—although she looked every inch the star she’s always been since she began blazing a trail for female vocalists in the pre-Spotify era.
To recall, her first five singles—“Vision of Love,” “Love Takes Time,” “Someday,” “I Don’t Wanna Cry” and “Emotions”—all went to No. 1 on the Billboard 100 chart. In her ’90s heyday, she scaled acrophobia-inducing notes without fear and made the prodigious feat look easy—and classy.
Clad in figuring-hugging glittery white gown, she professed her deep appreciation for every Mariah Carey fan in the Philippines who helped perpetuate her mystique as a music icon: “Salamat! Mahal kita,” she quipped as her rendition of “Hero” was winding down.
If you watch videos of the concert posted online, her latest Manila show looks glossy, glitzy and grand, props to the movers and shakers behind its mounting, including concert promoter Wilbros Live—all those “fluttering butterflies” prepping the stage for the diva’s stellar entrance as a rainbow of lights explodes are a magnificent sight to behold.
It’s the perfect introduction for the string of hits—among them “Honey,” “Make It Happen” and “Loverboy”—that started the ball rolling.
Tricky melismatic trills
Experienced live, the heady mix of sights and sounds was nothing short of exhilarating, especially when Mariah bravely demonstrated in “My All” and “One Sweet Day” (performed with Trey Lorenz and Daniel Moore) that she could still maneuver her way out of the tricky melismatic trills she’s famous for, thanks to the trio of steelvoiced backup singers who conveniently “took over” the repertoire’s delicate sections. Even her famous whistle register is still there, although not without perceptible strain.
If you’re familiar with Mariah’s all-hits repertoire, it’s impossible not to get swept away by the toe-tapping charm and footstomping verve generated by the catchy likes of “Heartbreaker,” “Fantasy,” “Always Be My Baby” and “Touch My Body,” where a concertgoer was lucky enough to share the stage with the moreplayful-than-usual Mariah.
Singing “With You,” the carrier single from the upcoming “Caution,” her 15th studio album, further proved that the songstress hasn’t lost her ear for catchy music.
That comes as no surprise, really. Despite her “aging” pipes and increasingly “episodic” singing, Mariah has always known how to bounce back from career missteps and debacles. The woman’s
penchant for reinvention continues to serve her well, even if it means singing more harmonies than melodies, scaling a note down to its lower octave—or any other trick, just to get the job done.
And singing “We Belong Together,” a cut from her career-boosting “The Emancipation of Mimi,” seemed to caution the audience not to count her out just yet.
Aided by the tune’s understated backbeat [ not to mention the cleverly incorporated samples of ditties from the likes of Bobby Womack and The Deele], Mariah launched into a show-stopping performance of her 16th chart-topper—which is, lyrically, about a woman’s plea for her lover to return—and it didn’t take long before the audience began singing along with her.
In the coming seasons, while she struggles to stay relevant as she ushers in her golden years, Mariah, dubbed the biggest-selling artist of all time, will need to do more wooing—not for a duplicitous lover, but for the music biz’s increasingly persnickety fans.