Fan Reviews
Journalist Reviews
Meet & Greet Reviews

Review by Tim
I don't know where everyone is getting their "Mariah is so done" news from, because last night's concert was by far, one of the most AMAZING concerts I have ever been too. Free from the wild antics and dark staging of Christina Aguilera's show and less hip-hop wannabe than Justin Timberlake's, Mariah simply let her voice take control of the audience. She might be a little more "girly" than before and maybe her songs aren't as popular as say Britney's, but Mariah can still outsing anyone! Her voice not only has power, but also emotion and warmth so you believe what she's saying, as opposed to Christina, who had a great vocal range, but little connection with her songs.

Mariah sang all her hits (including Emily's fav "My all," my fav, "Hero" and the crowd fav, "I'll be there" with Trey Lorenz) and handled some new ones with surprising results. Her Eminem diss track, "Clown," featured a clown in a blond wig wearing a Detroit Pistons jersey, while a reversed letter "E" illuminated the screen. Clever clever...

Another song, "Subtle Invitation," saw Mariah descend from the ceiling on a white linen swing, which matched her barely there, white strapless mini-skirt. Which brings me to another point - Mariah looked GREAT! She is not super skinny, but rather has a fit, curvy body that looked perfect in each of her ensembles, which ranged from pink barbie shorts, to a silver prom-style dress to an ostrich dress complete with feathers. (Don't ask)

The coolest part of the night? Mariah introduced her band by singing (rather than speaking) their names and singing a little something about each of them - all improvised to a jazzy piano backing. When it came time for the keyboard player, he played a scale that went higher and higher up in octaves until he hit piercing notes... and then Mariah matched the notes he played until SHE hit those piercing notes! It was like an "I dare you to hit this note" sorta thing... (Hard to explain, but awesome to watch/hear). I once heard that Mariah is listed in Guiness as hitting the highest note ever recorded. I believe it! Amen!

The thing about Mariah is that she's just a fun, caring, embraceable performer. With a little wink here or a slight giggle there, you could tell she wasn't really a "bitchy diva," but was rather just playing the part. She's not caught up in herself and realizes exactly who she is and what she's doing. "It's all jokes," she said at one point and so you knew that when she called for tea or asked for help with the mic, she was just exaggerating the antics for the crowd.

The other thing is that Mariah is not a good dancer! You could tell she felt uncomfortable during "Honey," and "Fantasy," but her effort to do those routines really came across as being heartfelt and for the fans. We would've been happy watching her on the couch singing "Through the Rain," but she pushed herself to do the dancing as if to bring an added element and flavour to her show. And you know she loved the fans, walking through the crowd not once, but twice - during show opener, "Heartbreaker" and then at the end during "Hero."

All in all.. an awesome night... Say what you want about Mariah, but she's no slacker, that's for sure. And with a voice like hers, it makes going to a concert all about the music - and all about the fans - again.

Review by J.D Considine (The Globe and Mail)
Boa feather skirt aside, Mariah's really one of us
Most divas want us to identify with them. But Mariah Carey, recovered from her meltdown, just wants us to sing along.

Mariah Carey is not your typical diva.

Granted, she lives up to the part in many ways. Blessed with a voice of unusual power and range, she's capable of jaw-dropping displays of technique, and is given to occasional fits of vocal excess. (And also, if the tabloids are to be believed, to fits of emotional excess.) She's fond of spectacle, of changing costumes every two or three songs, and of thanking her audience for being truly wonderful people.

All of which would be more than enough to put her on par with Whitney, Celine or Barbra. (Divas, after all, are on a first-name basis with the world.) But after seeing her bring the Charmbracelet Tour 2003 to Toronto's Air Canada Centre, it struck me that there's one thing that sets Carey apart from the others: Her focus.

An old joke about divas is that the reason they spend so much time warming up is because they're all about "mi, mi, mi." As such, their big moments tend to be tidal waves of emotion in which their sense of self crashes down on the audience and sweeps them away in a tsunami of sound. What they feel isn't simply love L-U-V; it's The Greatest Love of All, and we are meant to identify with them.

Carey's big moments, by contrast, come when she identifies with us. She may have subtitled Can't Take That Away as Mariah's Theme, but watching her perform it -- or, more specifically, watching her fans sing along -- it was clear that what she was talking about wasn't her own life so much as everyone's need to believe in themselves.

Likewise, during the show-closing rendition of Hero, she not only assured her fans that "the hero lies in you," but she drove the point home by repeating the last word and pointing around the audience.

A populist diva, in other words.

Just how much of this message gets out beyond her fan base is hard to say. Certainly, the widespread snickering that met both her 2001 emotional meltdown and the widescreen flop that was Glitter suggests that there are many who aren't uplifted by her message.

Moreover, it's hard to say whether the Charmbracelet show would have changed their minds. Certainly, the highlights were impressive -- not just Hero and Can't Take That Away, but also the jaunty, Genius of Love-based Fantasy and her surprisingly powerful cover of Def Leppard's Bringin' on the Heartbreak. But as for the rest of the show, well, it's hard for me to say because I didn't see much of it.

Granted, I was in my seat from the moment Mariah made her entrance, straight through the crowd and onto the stage, until the final chords of Hero died out and the house lights came up. But because I was seated on the side all the way to the front, most of what happened on-stage was out of my line of sight. (Anyone who tells you that reviewers get the best seats in the house clearly has never covered a concert.) I can report she performed for 1¾ hours, sang 18 songs and wore eight different outfits, ranging from a spangly, cream-coloured gown with a boa feather skirt to pink gym shorts with a white "Athletic Princess" tank top. There was also a lot of dancing, several videos, a fair number of props, and I'm pretty sure I saw people in stilts wearing Nixon masks. Of course, were Carey the standard sort of diva, such details would have mattered immensely. Fortunately for both of us, they didn't.

Review by Jason MacNeil (Toronto Sun)
Carey charms
... But fails to wow the crowd.

Mariah Carey has started to dust herself off from the tremendous fall of the last few years. After having her contract bought out, the ensuing breakdown and the horror that was Glitter, the diva is trying to reclaim her spot with new album Charmbracelet.

But the tour, which touched down last night at the Air Canada Centre, showed she still has a way to go. And making loyal fans wait for 50 minutes doesn't help much.

With no opening act and the upper tier fashionably curtained off to give a more intimate feel, Carey opened the more than 100-minute set with Heartbreaker from her 1999 Rainbow album.

Walking from the back of the floor to the stage and flanked by several security guards, Carey and five dancers ran through the song as the crowd stood and cheered.

She also managed to hit most of the five-octave range early on prior to Dream Lover, which featured a house-party atmosphere as she worked the stage in a glittery pink dress. Can't Take That Away was another highlight for her.

"Thank you so much Toronto, I am so happy to be here tonight," Carey said, seated in an oversized chair before Through The Rain, one of two songs chosen from an Internet fan poll.

The concert also had a theatrical, musical feeling to it, with nearly a dozen dancers amid four backing vocalists and band. Clown had Carey singing behind vaudeville-like scenery as stiltwalkers and clowns danced in the background.

At other times, videos played between set changes, resulting in brief but tedious lulls in the show. And unlike Madonna or Janet Jackson, who can easily manage to wrap these productions around songs, the diva on this night had a harder time of it.

I Know What You Want was such an example, as dancers performed while the song's video was played. Carey, wearing a sun visor, uttered a few lyrics as she walked across the stage, then left just as quickly.

But Carey showed she can still deliver the goods with the one-two punch of Subtle Invitation and My Saving Grace. Both songs earned the loudest ovations as she dug deep to hit some notes. A duet with backup singer Trey Lorenz on I'll Be There was another shining moment with the crowd singing along.

The homestretch of the show featured Carey, by now on her seventh or eighth outfit, dishing out favourites such as Hero and Vision Of Love, the latter from her 1991 self-titled album.

When Carey's tour was initially announced, arena dates were relocated to smaller theatres due to slow ticket sales. The crowd and Carey would have been better served in a theatre setting. Although the floor and some side sections were nearly full, the back of the arena, sprinkled with people, told another story.