Friday 19 September 2003

She can still Carey the day

You can say one thing for Mariah Carey: She sure knows how to make an entrance. The Long Island-born songstress opened her concert at Radio City last night with a leisurely strut down one of the theater's center aisles, flanked by 10 dancers pretending to be photographers. Clad in the first of what eventually would add up to eight outfits on the night - all of them as skimpy as they were shiny (which is to say, very) - Carey took the stage to the bouncy strains of "Heartbreaker" and wasted little time getting to one of her signature vocal moves.

Putting a hand to her right ear, she cut loose with a trademark wail that rocketed somewhere up into household-pet frequency. The jubilant crowd, in turn, screeched out their best attempt at a response. There was a subplot to this bravura display, and if you've been following Carey's recent career, it's not so hard to figure out. Simply put, Mariah's trying to prove that she's back. Back from a dismal couple of years, that is. In the public eye, the nadir of that dark time was her 2001 flop movie "Glitter" and its accompanying flop soundtrack album. But her professional struggles were also coupled with personal troubles, including a nervous breakdown.

Of course, triumph over adversity is a big part of any diva's personal myth, and Carey is nothing if not a diva. Her latest CD, "Charmbracelet", practically screams that she has weathered the storm and has come out the other side a stronger person. But the quality of her singing on the album seemed to suggest otherwise. Even on pointedly inspirational numbers like "Through the Rain" and "My Saving Grace", her normally heavyweight pipes sounded rusty.

At Radio City, however, Carey soon put to rest any belief that she'd lost her vocal firepower. On showcase ballads like "My All" and "Can't Take That Away", she milked the big moments for all they were worth, frantically pacing the stage, even dropping to her knees in the middle of a crucial line. Clearly, glitzy self-affirmation was Carey's main order of business. And sometimes the glitz got overwhelming.

Early on, the sheer spectacle of dancers, gaudy sets and props (including a drapery contraption - part curtain, part swing - that held Carey in midair during "Subtle Invitation") threatened to eclipse the music. But by the end of the night, the singer's own performance was the center of the action. Finishing with a trio of guaranteed crowd-pleasers ("Make It Happen", "Vision of Love" and "Hero"), the top-selling female artist in pop music rolled out a few more glass-shattering high notes and basked in the love of her fans.

(NY Daily News)



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