Mariah on top and loving it!

Here it is! The best Mariah video of them all :) I held off writing this one until now for several reasons: it’s the best one, I wanted to get the other ones over with first, and this one is gonna be a long one so I was kind of putting it off lol.

Fantasy: Mariah Carey at Madison Square Garden is the name of this wonderful video and it features Mariah Carey at the highest peak of her career. All other videos, all other CDs had built up to this. Daydream, Mariah’s most successful album to date, brought this “girl-next-door” to everyone’s attention by having over 10 million copies of this albums sold, 3 consecutive number one singles, 6 Grammy nominations, and pretty much by making her one of the most powerful women in music. Unfortunately, I did not have the pleasure of enjoying this era since I was not an avid music listener up until the 10th grade (sad but true).

This concert performance is definitely Mariah’s best live performance she has had on video since her MTV Unplugged. Here she combines the vocals of her Unplugged video with the classy feel of her NBC show. The video shows Mariah performing her biggest hits from her previous albums and it includes a few clips from her Camp Mariah foundation and whatnot. Boyz II Men join Mariah for a couple songs and there is even a bonus video at the end.

And so we begin…

The video starts us off with Mariah’s number one hit (and a personal fave of mine) Fantasy. This has to be one of the coolest performances without choreography I have seen in a LONG time. She sings it and dances around the stage with a huge smile on her face. She seems to be very grateful to her fans by the way that she reacts to them. I can’t explain it, but it seems genuine, not fake at all. She doesn’t really change anything about the song, but why should she? It’s an awesome song to begin with.

The “Not To Be Missed” Performances
Mariah does a great performance of pretty much every song, but these just stand out above all the rest. Make It Happen, Without You, One Sweet Day, Always Be My Baby, Vision Of Love. These are all the songs that really help make this video what it is…great! This version of her hit Make It Happen is probably her best to date. She has a gospel choir in the background and that really does add a lot to the performance. She does her usual stuff in the beginning, but then has the choir repeat “Don’t let go, don’t ever ever let go!” She sings this to her fans and really tries to make it CERTAIN that they know that she doesn’t want them to ever give up if they have a dream. That’s one of the main reasons I love her, she writes for her fans, not just for herself. Without You is just a song full of emotion. She doesn’t do as great a job as in her NBC performance, but it is still memorable here. She sings with her voice, her passion, her all. I love this one because no matter how many times you hear her do it, the emotions are still there. “Always Be My Baby” and “Vision Of Love” are great because of the audience. She incorporates the audience during Always be My Baby in that she has them sing the “do do do” parts of the song. She wants them all to participate and this really makes me happy lol, even if I wasn’t the one at the concert. In Vision Of Love, she doesn’t incorporate the audience, but the way they reacted to her final notes really made it special. They were just cheering her on; some even stood up for her. Very awesome. Now, One Sweet Day is a very touching song about a loved one passing away, and even though this performance with Boyz II Men lacked the emotion I would have liked, they really helped this song. It was VERY cool to see Mariah and Wanya Morris singing together trying to make the song perfect. I mean, they were singing their little butts off and that was just fascinating to me lol.

The “Good, But Not Great” Performances
Don’t get me wrong, I liked these, but they got old after a while. Open Arms, Dreamlover, I’ll Be There, Hero, and Forever. Okay, these are pretty easy to describe. Listen to the album versions, and you got yourself these performances. There was no variety (except for “I’ll Be There). I’ll Be There is not one of my favorite Mariah songs at all, and her duet here with Wanya Morris makes it drop a few spots in my list (even though it made me appreciate the single version a lot more). Mr. Morris (of Boyz II Men) really has a limited vocal range and it shows here. He has to hit a high note towards the end of the song and does what Christina Aguilera does…he jumps up and down the scale in attempts to trick us into thinking he is actually hitting those high notes. Does it work? Not on me…the crowd, however, disappointed me when they actually bought it. Forever was obviously not sung during the concert, the front of the stage is without fans reaching out their hands and flowers, and they reuse a lot of the crowd footage from other parts of the video. What I hate the most is that I am not sure if she is lip-synching to the song or not. It seems like she might be since she holds the microphone VERY far from her mouth. I know Mariah Carey’s voice and it is NOT that powerful. Had Whitney done it, I would have believed it, but they mic’s distance and the loudness of her voice just don’t match up. Some of her slight changes in word emphasis has me thinking it might be live, but whatever. The other three songs I listed are nothing special, just the same arrangements as the album. Dreamlover, however, seemed a little lackluster though.

The clips of her foundation are nothing to get giddy about. I didn’t find it all too interesting, just her talking about the foundation that helps inner-city children and then they sing the chorus of “Hero” to her. The bonus video is of One Sweet Day and it is just a video of her and Boyz II Men recording the song. It’s a sweet little video, but they could have included some other video that has not been shown as much. Something different.

Overall, it is not the performances in general that make this video concert the best, it is Mariah. Her grace, her personality, and the way she interacts with the audience really makes it worth viewing. This video gets a solid A for keeping me entertained and making me want to meet Mariah lol. Give it a chance, it was shot a few months before she became what she is now, so the transition is pretty unreal when you see this video lol :)