Mariah Carey Returns to the Garden: Emancipation of MimiTour Hits New York
The opening act for the show was Reggae superstar, “Sean Paul”. Although he was performing in front of fans more concerned with seeing Mariah, he was able to keep the crowd hype, playing some of his greatest hits. He performed songs ranging from his first big hit, “Gimmie the Light,” to his latest hit, “Give it All to Me.” Sean Paul and his dancers did a good job of keeping a non Reggae crowd entertained and dancing. After Sean Paul came an intermission, everyone was getting excited. I was getting nervous because the seat I was in wasn’t even mine LOL. I was in the 9th row, and the row of seats in the section started out empty. But after intermission its was down to only 2 seats in the row! I got lucky and no one came for the seat, I always get away with it.
So then the big moment came and Mariah made her first appearance for the night. The show started off with a bang. Da Brat came out doing her verse for, “Heartbreaker,” and then Mariah came out singing. Of course all you could here was cheers from all over the Garden. Then came one of the loudest moments of the night, non other then Jay-Z came out doing his verse from the Heartbreaker remix. I, along with the entire audience, was in complete shock and the crowd went crazy, it was complete pandemonium. My video footage of it was very shaky due to everyone going crazy, it just caught everyone off guard. Unfortunately he didn’t stay long and made his exist after his verse.
Mariah then let the crowd calm down some and started performing songs from her massive catalogue. She sang, “Dreamlover,” and the did a, “My All,” club mix performance. The dancers then began dancing while she went to change. A giant, “Mimi,” sign could be see at the ceiling and it slowly made its way down. Mariah then started singing her hit off of her latest album, “Shake it Off.” The audience was enjoying every second of it and the majority was singing along. Then Mariah gave an inspired performance of her first ever single, “Vision of Love.”
Mariah then brought out a choir to perform, “Fly Like a Bird.” At first their was a two minute delay because no one could find the Pastor. Mariah kept it real and told the crowd this wasn’t staged, and jokingly said something like, “maybe he didn’t like my first outfit.” She made it clear to the crowd she is not being a, “Diva,” but explained it was important for the message of the song for the Pastor to be there.
Mariah went on to then sing the classic song, “I’ll Be There,” with the singer Trey Lorenz. After the duet Mariah went to change and Trey did a few songs such as, “A House is not a Home,” and the Gnarls Barkley song, “Crazy.” He did a decent job singing and was good way to past time while Mariah changed.
Then I noticed a buzz in the crowd behind me. Everyone was looking behind, near the center of the Garden’s floor. At first I didn’t see anything, but then I noticed there was a stage. Fantasy came on with ODB rapping on the Big Screen, Mariah then made her way through the crowd to the center stage, accompanied by some dancers. Of course everyone once again went delirious and the arena was abundant with screams.
With everyone gone mad, she then calmed the mood down with, “Don’t Forget About Us.” She absolutely KILLED the performance, one of the best performances she made for the night(Check the Video). She then did the major hit, “Always Be My Baby.” The crowd loved it and sang along. Mariah then made her way through the crowd to the main stage.
Honey then came on, you could see the video playing on the big screen with Mase rapping his verse from the song. Mariah made her way to the steps and did a little dance routine. Then another one of those crazy moments happened, unexpectedly Diddy walks on to the stage and everyone again loses it. The man didn’t even do anything, he just came out, said his line from the song, did a quick shuffle and left. I guess when you that big you no longer need to drop a verse.(You can see it in the videos I put up).
So Mariah went for another break to change clothes and DJ Clue was playing tracks, he starts playing, “We Gonna Make It,” and then Jada and Styles came out performing the song. They got a luke warm response, keep in mind the crowd wasn’t really a rap music audience.
Mariah then came out doing a few songs then did a duet to, “Thank God I Found You,” and one of my favorites, “Make It Last Forever.” Then one of the most emotional parts of the concert happened when she did, “One Sweet Day.” Then probably in the most emotional section of the entire show, she explained she was dedicating her next performance to someone who recently died, and then performed, “Hero.” The whole crowd was singing along and Mariah was giving it her all. You could look at the faces of the onlookers and tell the song was really making an impact on them.
Mariah then lightened the mood with, “Make it Happen.” One of her earlier hits that everyone enjoyed. Then Mariah made a fake exit, saying, “Thank you New York.” But of course I knew better and waited for the real finale. Then the crowd went while when she came out doing, “We Belong Together.” The Performance was amazing, the crowd singing enjoying the show and you could tell Mariah enjoyed performing. This was the last song for the night, she left of releasing thousands of paper butterflies in the air, leaving the Garden Full of Butterflies. As you can see from the picture it was a beautiful scene.
Overall this was a great show from Mariah. Although the guest appearances were too short and their were minor mishaps, the show was very good. Between songs Mariah would talk to the crowd making the audience feel like she is a regular person. It felt like Mariah was a genuine person and really wanted to make sure everyone enjoyed her show. I advise everyone to see the legend, Mariah Carey in concert before its too late. Hopefully Mimi will return to the Garden, “One Sweet Day”.
