Mariah Carey review — dazzling vocals but a stiff performance
The singer is still able to hit that E7 high — holding her ear as she whipped it out for Emotions and Beautiful, backed by two female singers and a man dressed in white. She may be 56 but the six-time Grammy winner didn't disappoint with her vocals, even if they often weren't audible thanks to the word-perfect recitals from many in the audience.
• Read more music reviews, interviews and guides on what to listen to next
This could have been annoying, but the fans' devotion enhanced the atmosphere and added to what was otherwise a physically stiff performance. There has been much speculation online about why Carey barely moves on stage — is it a corset, her tottering heels and thigh-high boots, or a health problem? Whatever the answer, she is conspicuously immobile, dazzling instead with her vocal runs and perfect smile.
Besides, she had a troupe of magnificent male dancers to do the moving. They filled the stage with their breakdancing, voguing and a burlesque chair routine. Some of these displays and a couple of instrumental interludes from her four-man band took place while Carey was off stage switching outfits, a process that took rather too long.
• Mariah Carey: Ageing doesn't happen to me and I won't allow it
But then she would make up for it with her big hitters such as Obsessed, Always Be My Baby and Touch My Body — the latter an especially appreciated offering from her mid 2000s comeback era and the song which made her break Elvis Presley's record for most Billboard No 1 singles in US history. For Say Somethin', her 2006 collaboration with Snoop Dogg, she had the dancers playfully touch up her make-up.
It's a shame that after a show with many highs she chose to end on the rather dull Fly Like a Bird. 'One more song,' chanted a man in a Santa hat and jumpsuit with 'All I Want For Christmas' on the bum. August isn't the time for her biggest hit, but a more up-tempo finale wouldn't have gone amiss.★★★☆☆
Royal Sandringham Estate, Aug 15, heritagelive.net
Follow @timesculture to read the latest reviews
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
7 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Mariah Carey at Brighton Pride review – even the shirtless dancers can't distract from how stop-start this is
Mariah Carey famously said she doesn't acknowledge the 'passage of time', so true to form, she arrives to headline at Brighton Pride five years after she was originally scheduled to appear. The delay clearly hasn't put off the throngs of devoted Lambs (Carey's stans), displaying their fandom with T-shirts referencing other quotes from the diva such as 'I don't know her' and 'I don't have time for the rigmarole'. Carey appears wearing a trans flag-inspired pink, blue and white minidress and a leather jacket embroidered with the slogan 'Protect the Dolls'. The opening is relentless as she storms through snippets of Type Dangerous, Emotions, Make It Happen, I'll Be There, Vision of Love and Dreamlover. While her voice is not as pristine as it once was, her whistle register is still intact and thrills the crowd every time. After that promising start, the show falters with a setlist that hurries Carey – and the crowd – through some of her biggest hits. Fantasy is sloppy and rushed, with only one verse and chorus (plus the Ol' Dirty Bastard rap, piped in), while a Heartbreaker/Honey mashup is similarly cut short. The crowd are eager to carry her, but even with knowing every word they struggle to keep up with the stop-start pacing. After an outfit change, covered by the first of many drum fills and dance breaks, Carey returns for #Beautiful, her 2013 duet with Miguel, which she rarely performs, exciting those fans (and there seem to be many) who have been tracking her recent setlists. She follows it up with a swaggering rendition of Obsessed – widely understood as her diss track of Eminem – and a playful Touch My Body, which marks the show hitting its peak. A glam moment during Say Somethin', where the singer's hair and makeup team come on stage mid-performance to do touchups, is as camp and silly as you'd expect from a diva such as Carey. But after another leisurely outfit change (into the next of a series of sparkly minidresses), the interludes really start to drag, and people begin to drift away. There's no number of energetic shirtless male dancers who can keep the crowd entertained while Carey is frequently off stage and then, when she returns, increasingly going through the motions. It's a shame, as the closing numbers feature four of Carey's best songs from 2005's The Emancipation of Mimi, including We Belong Together and Fly Like a Bird, but by this point many have lost interest or legged it for the train home. To anyone who thought Brighton Pride would be too small a stage for her to bring her best, Carey proved that she's still got it, but she could have probably given a little more.
The Independent
8 minutes ago
- The Independent
Kelsey Parker shares heartbreaking video dedicated to ‘angel' baby who was ‘born sleeping'
Kelsey Parker has shared a heartbreaking tribute to her late 'angel' baby who died in June. Posting on Instagram on Sunday (3 August), the widow of The Wanted singer Tom Parker shared a montage of herself sitting at the beach whilst reflecting on the loss of her newborn son who was 'born sleeping'. Parker, who shared two children with the singer and was expecting a third with new partner Will Lindsay, said: 'There is no preparing for this kind of heartbreak.' 'I had dreams for you, your first giggle, your first steps, the way you would cling to me when the world felt too big,' she wrote in the video's caption.
The Independent
8 minutes ago
- The Independent
Government could ban ‘barely legal' pornography after Bonnie Blue documentary
The new pornography taskforce will propose legislation aimed at banning a type of content produced by porn star Bonnie Blue, known as 'barely legal'. It comes after Channel 4 broadcast a documentary about the porn star, called: '1000 Men and Me: The Bonnie Blue Story', which followed her for six months. The show attracted significant criticism, with the children's commissioner for England, Dame Rachel de Souza, accusing the show of 'glamorising and normalising' extreme pornography. The documentary shows Tia Billinger – who uses the stage name Bonnie Blue – preparing to film a scene with a group of models dressed in school uniform, who acknowledge that they have been picked for the scene because they look young. 'This content is pushing at the boundaries. We will be trying to address the 'barely legal' aspect legislatively', Baroness Bertin told The Guardian. She said she plans to raise amendments to the Crime and Policing Bill once Parliament returns from its summer recess to make it illegal for online platforms to host content that could encourage child sexual abuse. This would include content filmed by adults dressed up as children. Bonnie Blue became famous after initially filming sexual content with young male students, who she dubbed 'barely legal'. She later gained notoriety after filming stunts, including one which saw her have sex with more than 1,000 men in a 24-hour period. Under rules that came into effect on July 25 as part of the Online Safety Act, online platforms including social media sites and search engines must take steps to prevent children from accessing harmful content such as pornography or material that encourages suicide. The act also gave Ofcom the responsibility to monitor whether sites are protecting viewers from illegal material including child sexual abuse or extreme content such as portrayals of rape, bestiality and necrophilia. But currently, adults role-playing as children in pornography is not prohibited online. The Channel 4 documentary, which showed pixellated clips of Bonnie Blue having sex with more than 1,000 men, faced condemnation for failing to challenge her enough, with advertisers pulling support for the programme. Card payment business Visa, juice maker Cawston Press and vodka brand Smirnoff all had ads which appeared online during the show, but they later told Channel 4 that they no longer wanted their products promoted during the programme as it did not align with their advertising guidelines or values. Dame Rachel said: 'For years we have been fighting to protect our children from the kind of degrading, violent sex that exists freely on their social media feeds. This documentary risks taking us a step back by glamorising, even normalising, the things young people tell me are frightening, confusing and damaging to their relationships.' Baroness Bertin added: 'Channel 4 showed a surprising lack of judgment in showing such explicit sex scenes. More widely the glamorisation and normalisation of content creators like Bonnie Blue does undoubtedly have an effect. In my opinion, this is a direction of travel that is not particularly helpful for society nor is it prudish to call it out as such.' A Channel 4 spokesperson said: 'The film looks at how Bonnie Blue has gained worldwide attention and earned millions of pounds in the last year, exploring changing attitudes to sex, success, porn and feminism in an ever-evolving online world. 'Director Victoria Silver puts a number of challenges to Bonnie throughout the documentary on the example she sets and how she is perceived, and the film clearly lays bare the tactics and strategies she uses, with the audience purposefully left to form their own opinions.'
