By Jonny:
Mariah's voice was ON. Seriously she sounded great tonight.
"Honey" was probably the best performance I have heard of that song to date, and the way she did "Hero" was really good as well, a lot of different ad-libs, she sang it like I haven't heard her sing it before. The new version of "Dreamlover" kicks ass, really different and I enjoyed it a lot.
A few random things... she mentioned how she never knows which of her friends are just going to show up and she said there was going to be something special tonight "just for (us)" but there never ended up being anything different or special. Someone had a sign asking her to sing a song and she said she couldn't do that tonight but she might do it in NYC at the Garden. I have no clue what the song is though so if anyone knows.
The only thing I didn't like about the show was the 2 DJ segments where the DJ was spinning old school songs. Now this is fine in a club or whatever but it really broke up the flow of the concert, that's one of the things I really liked about the Charmbracelet Tour was the continuity.
By Nicole (Hott TAMALE):
I can't even know what to say!!!! I think she saw my sign!!!! AHHHH!!! Cuz I remember when she pointed over to my section and said I see you over there with the sign. AHHHHH!!! And maybe she was talking about the song I was requesting when she said that about someone requesting a song. I really wish she would have done Melt Away but she didn't. (But Imma bring that same sign next week when I see her again and I wonder what she'll say!!! HAHAHA!!)
Her voice was just on point... it was just fire!!!! OMFG!!! I'm sooooo excited right now. A few times during a song instead of holding the note she would just go "Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah". That was cool but I wanted more, however, she did make up for it during Honey, Don't Forget About Us, and Fly Like A Bird. WOWZA!!!! And I loved that little sexy dance she did during My All, I don't know what she was doing but it was cute. lol
And she is so thin, I dare anyone to say she's gained weight or whatever, her body was looking fierce and she is just sooooo tiny. Oh and yeah they were really STRICT about cameras, this one guard was like breathing down my effin neck. I was like damn back up off me. He told me like three times to put my camera away but I didn't hehe... and I took a lot of pics... but a lot of them didn't come out that good cuz I was jumping up and down so much and screaming... so they look kinda blurred. And then when I wanted to get a good pic I had to hurry before the guard caught me.
I was mad we didn't get an opening act... that was kinda weird. Did I get there late or something or what? All my friends got mad at me cuz I promised them if they came they would be able to see Sean Paul... haha. Oh well. At least we got straight to Mariah, that's all I wanted.
I liked the DJ thing in between, those were some hot old skool joints he was playing... but a lot of people in my section were so corny and not festive AT ALL. My friends and I were up dancing and everything and there were like fifteen rows of people sitting.... I was like WTF?!!! Get the hell up! LOL. They were like that the entire time. Seriously, I was like am I the only hardcore over here or what?
And it was funny after Make it Happen, she was like "Thanks everybody, you've been great..." and then all these people started to get up and leave. I was like hold up, am I the only one who knows that she comes back for an encore of We Belong Together and the Butterfly Reprise Outro? But after like two minutes they started playing We Belong Together and they sat down.
WOW!! It was a really awesome night... and today is officially my b-day so what a way to start. Ahh... I'm definitely not going to sleep tonight... haha.
By Frank:
Mariah looked and sounded GREAT. There was a little audio issues but she still set the stage on fire... I loved Always Be My Baby, Make It Happen, & Don't Forget About Us. It was cute during Hero she told the security to let a little girl come up close to the stage so she could give Mariah a rose. Mariah alse interacted with the audience alot more than I seen in her other concerts on this tour.
Mariah also looked fabulous. Anyone that thinks that she needs to lose weight needs to see her live because she looked outstanding. I loved her in that aqua dress she has when she sings Make It Happen. That dress is perfect for her. She looked HOTTTT!!
They were extremely strict on the camera deal. They didn't even give me a warning, they just took me out and made me check it. At the Charmbracelet Tour, if you got your camera in then they really didn't bother you. I don't know if it was The Taj people or Mariah's people but damn...... They damn near did a stripsearch on me going in to the concert... lol... I LOVE Mariah and all bet that was a little much.
And just a comment on what Nicole (Hott TAMALE) had to say about the people just sitting there during the concert. That's what happens when it's at casinos. A lot of the good seats were bought up by the casino and given out as comps. So like 1/3 of the floor couldn't name or care about what she sang.
Overall the concert was a pretty good concert even though it didn't have an opening act. I cant wait for the MSG concert in NYC. I think that concert is going to be probally one of the best on the tour. And hopefully she tapes a concert dvd there. I would love to have this concert on dvd.
By kaboyz:
WOW! Is all I can say. Mariah was ON FIRE! She sounded AMAZING. I just saw her in Philly last week and she blew her Philly performance away. WHAT AN AMAZING SHOW. Mariah said she was going to have a special treat at this show but she didn't. I guess her special guest didn't make it. She was hyping up the Madison Square Garden show! Which I am going to as well... I can't wait! This venue was tiny and it was great and intimate. It was too small to house the 'B-stage'.
By Derval:
The show was AMAZING!!! The doors opened promptly at 8 pm, and after many security pats, squeezes and assaults (in their hunt for cameras), I entered into the arena. It was amazing. I was surprised at how small it was. I was in Section J, Row K, and it was as if I was at the foot of the stage. The announcements warning against personal upgrading of seats were unnecessary, because there was not a bad seat in the room. We could all see equally well. Naturally, in the true diva style, Mariah came out at about 9 pm. The show started with her pre-recorded "life is like a rollercoaster" intro. I attempted to take pictures, after smuggling in my camera in locations I will not even begin to disclose. After the intro there were the sudden yellow lights and then BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM, the intro for "It's Like That". The crowd went WILD!! Mariah came out at the top of the stage in her black skin-viewing outfit, which I think looked wonderful. I cant believe I actually saw Mariah in the flesh and blood. Excitement intoxicated me. During this, like sharks, the security guards trolled every aisle and poked into our faces with flaslights. Before the first song ended, I could count 5 people who were escorted downstairs for the confiscation of their cameras. I could only manage a measly 5 or so pictures throughout the whole show. Cameraphone holders had some better luck.
Mariah then entered into "Heartbreaker" - the remixed version. Ok, so Mariah can't really dance, per se, but she ROCKED! Her little coy choreographed dance was well coordinated and sexy to say the least. I loved it! Mariah hit every single high note there was. I was surprised, since I had listened to clips of her earlier performances where she played down the notes. Not this time. At the outset, Mariah had told the crowd that she wanted to make this show very great, because she knew lots of people came who were unable to get tickets for Madison Square Garden next week, myself being among them. It took me 7 hours to get there, and 8 hours back. But, I digress. By the way, Mariah says she plans something special for the NY MSG show. I wonder what that is.
"Dreamlover" was wicked!! She totally did the song great justice. Her register was on point. She missed not one beat or note. It was at this point that I had gotten up out of my seat and started dancing too. Some people around me were clearly dead. How can you not at least clap or move or anything at a Mariah show? By this point I was "whooing" all over the place. The dancers cannot go without being mentioned. They were spectacular. Next, Mariah entered into "a cut from the Butterfly album", which was "My All". She utilized the staircase for this tune, assisted of course, by her dancers. She was on point and sounded just as she did on record... no breathlessness or anything. At the last part "for your love tonight", she started the remix, then left the stage to change. The dancers continued the set and it was perfect! Then the set went dark.
I don't remember if this was the part where the DJ interlude came in. It probably was. The DJ was a great booster for the audience's vibe, who by the way Mariah referred to being as "mellow". is that good or bad? Hmm.. I'll pretend it's a compliment. Anyway, the DJ played some old school jams. Naturally we were ALL dancing. The crowd became a dance floor. The DJ shouted, "All ugly people stay quiet", at which point the audience bursted into euphoria, except, of course, for the two lifeless zombies sitting next to me. C'mon, at least get up for 2 seconds. (By the way, "girl next to me", sorry for stepping on your toes while I was jumping, at least you could have gotten up and joined me.) After the DJ interlude-jam, we heard "GIVE IT UP FOR MC". Then there was...
...the intro for "Shake it Off". This was a longer than normal one to allow for the big lit "MIMI" sign to descend from the ceiling. Just like her video. Then Mariah showed up in a orange dress. She looked great. She was shaking it off like crazy. I'm sure she did the whole song, but somehow it felt shorter. Just like in the video, the song ended with her and the standing mic. At the end of the song, she went to stage left and let us know she "gotta take a sip", of some water. In her usual coy manner, she joked that she brought the standing microphone over to stage left with her "because it matched the ensemble". The mic was glittering colors by the way. Next, she went into "my first single. A song that I wrote when I was...[fondling her hair]... way back". I guess she's trying to suggest it was a song when her hair looked better and not so blonde. Just my opinion. The song turned out to be "Vision of Love". Damn.. she was SUPER!! Her performace of it was on-key throughout. She did in fact do her exaggerated ad-lib in the last line "all that you turned out to be", which, predictably included a drawn-out melisma of the word "to", to the point of silence. Then, after she was satisfied that there was no more rendition in which to do the word "to" she motioned to her band to hit it, then continued with a triumphant "be", ending in a high note. It was sensational. Love u Mariah!!
She then did "Fly Like a Bird", which was also great. She did only 1 verse, bridge and the rest of the song. She was SO on point. She did not sound vocally weak in any area at all. This performance rivalled that of her Grammy performace of the song in February. After this, she invited Trey Lorenz to come out to assist her in singing "I'll Be There". Trey sounded good. He came out looking real dapper in his jacket. He looked great. Anyway, I digress again. At one point, Mariah motioned to someone (or some people) in the audience for them to come and help her sing. I was actually thinking she was gonna let them come on stage and sing.. She was only actually just putting the mic to the crowd. Next, Mariah asked Trey to "tell them about your album which comes out on September 16 -- I mean September 19". At this, she left for backstage (at which point he said, "you gonna go change into another beautiful outfit for me - or something corny like that) and then he entered into a plug for the album and a song from it. Though no offence to Trey, this became somewhat like an intermission of the show. Many people used this time to go do bathroom duties, or get more liquor from the Bud Light stations at the corners.
A pre-recorded bathroom stall scene segued to Mariah. It bascially was about some females apparently mocking and hating on Mariah behind her back. As was quite predictable in its nature, Mariah came out confronted the people, kinda, and then said "people can be a trip". Um..anyway.. Mariah came back out in all her glory for "Fantasy". She was wearing capri pants and bikini top(?) (I'm sorry, I don't really know the names of these outfits.. I'm a guy.) She did the song with a video cameo by O.D.B. She tried dancing in this one too, to the rap section in the middle of the song. She blazed the place!! Her vocals threatened to tear the roof down. Mariah, what are you on? She was superfantastic!! The song ended with a black and white "We Miss You" for O.D.B. Then, she says she wants to perform a song which she wrote specifically for her fans on the Emancipation album. "The song which gained me my 17th number 1." "Don't Forget About Us" started playing. Somehow, I didn't like her rendition of the song. Well, it wasn't really a new rendition. It's just that I hoped she would have not held back on some of the notes that are actually there. Nevertheless, she stunned us still. Her high notes were shattering. At some points she became deafening, but in a good way. If you can understand that.
After she ended the song, she said that J.D. and her wrote that song, among others and that she wanted to perform one of the first one they ever wrote together. "Always Be My Baby" started playing. She held us and has us all dancing and rocking and waving those green shining things. While the euphoria was still gripping us, guess what she performed next? "Honey". She finger snaps came loudly, and even more people got out of their seats. She had a video cameo from Ma$e, which I didn't really care for. She tried dancing on the staircase again. The dancers were good. Very good. She then left to go off stage.
Once again, the DJ showed us stuff. He had us dancing. I didn't mind those interlude-jams at all. It helped to loosen us up. Shortly after, Mariah came out, after a costume change, in green. She did a snippet of "I Wish You Knew". To me, that was more like the snippet of a snippet. Obviously, the crowd went wild when she started with the high notes. Face it, we love the high notes. She then asked us if we knew this oldie, then began singing a snippet of "Can't Let Go" claiming "this is what I call a snippet. She was real sweet. She asked the audience to sing a couple lines, which we all did.
Trey Lorenz came back out to help her sing a snippet remix version of "Thank God I Found You" with the snippet of another song called "Make It Last". Finally, Mariah snipped her snippets short and ended the series with a snippet of "One Sweet Day". Before singing, Trey asked us if we knew what song held the record for longest stay at number 1, asking for "the history buffs out there". It doesn't get cornier than that. Anyway, One Sweet Day was fabulous. Mariah then said that she wanted to "do a ballad for all those who came so far to hear one". That balllad was "Hero". DAMN!! She did it well. I think it was during this song that a cute little girl went us to Mariah and gave her a rose. It was amazing! Vocally strong throughout. At the end of that, she urged us all to get up out of seats to dance to "Make it Happen". And we all made it happen. Mariah did this song with a live choir. The camera was focused on the audience and we saw ourselves randomly transferred to the big screen. It was great!!! What was not great, however, was that at the end of the song, she said, "Thank you band, thank you singers, thank you all, God Bless". Then she went off stage. Then the lights went off!!!!! We thought the show was over, and many many people started leaving their seats and got to the exits. I was like...huh? She hadn't even done "We Belong Together".
Before my disgruntlement could escalate any further, we heard the unmistakable piano intro to "We Belong Together", the lights came back up, and out sashayed Miss Mariah in a pink dress and plunged into song. We were all breathless. Some of those who were still in the arena scrambled back to their seats, while I scrambled to the stage. I could not believe that Mariah Carey was right in front of me singing "We Belong Together". She ended it with her usual fanfare and bang and an elongated "Together". I loved it!!
Immediately, while she said "Love you all, thanks for coming.." the band and singers started doing an melancholic version of "Butterfly". It was sad. Knowing that Mariah was right there and leaving. But, she said Goodnight to us all, and kissed us, and went backstage. Then band played for about 2 or 3 minutes after, and the show ended in drumroll, lights and spectacular bursts of purple confetti. I was left breathless. I was surprised however that the show was merely less than 1 hr 30 mins. The show ended a little before 10:30pm, so I felt a bit disappointed. But the exhilaration overwhelmed all that, and I left satisfied. I think this was the best show ever.
By Zack:
This was my first time seeing Mariah, and I was completely blown away. It was by far the best concert I've ever been to. I didn't have the best seat, but the Taj Mahal Arena is not that big so I had a great view. Mariah had the crowd going the entire time. She was vocally and visually amazing. Her voice sounded really strong, and she looked awesome!
Loved the uptempo performances like It's Like That, Honey, and Shake It Off. Everyone was dancing during them. She shined during the ballads, like Vision Of Love. I had read she didn't do that at all in other shows, so I was so happy that she did it at this show. Her performance of it was fantastic.
I also loved the performance of I'll Be There with Trey Lorenz. The people around me went crazy when she broke out into the snippet of One Sweet Day. Everyone started to leave after Make It Happen, but I knew to wait for We Belong Together, which was just a magical moment for everyone in the room.
Overall, Mimi was outstanding. I traveled 6 and a half hours from Virginia to see her and it was definitely worth it. Mariah put on a fantastic show and I am so lucky and thankful that I was able to see it. I am so proud to be a Mariah fan!
By Two French Sisters Fans:
Here is our review of the 2 shows at the Taj Mahal.
"First of all we want to say thank you so much to you Mariah for these two wonderful nights and these wonderful moments!
We are two french sisters fans and first focused on going to Tunisia 'cause it's more near from us than AC, but when we saw that the so called packages for European fans never came a second show at the Taj Mahal was added, so finally decided to go to AC and we weren't disappointed at all by this 'cause the Mark G. Etess Arena is such an intimate and a beautiful place and so it's really better than a stadium.
It was two magical and wonderful nights.
For all Mariah's haters and especially for the so called fans who seem to be more haters than fans : THE SHOW IS ALL IN LIVE, THERE IS NO PLAYBACK AND THE VOICE OF MARIAH IS WONDERFUL, BEAUTIFUL, POWERFUL MORE THAN EVER !!!!!! Like always she sings more and more beautifully and does more and more things with her voice. And don't tell us about the pre-recorded 'cause saying that you look like totally nasty, crazy and silly, THERE ISN'T ANY PLAYBACK OR PRE-RECORDED, SHE SINGS DIFFERENTLY EVERY NIGHT AND IT'S WONDERFUL.
It was really good to hear and see Mariah like this : FREE, free to do what she wants, sing like she wants. She is here on stage, we can really feel her presence and she sings like she wants, there is a lot of variations and that's so great. It's like for the Rainbow Tour, she looks like having a lot of fun, being, singing on stage and that's wonderful and we are really happy for that. She was here for having a party and she did it for her and all the people who were here.
All the songs were full of emotions, Mariah was really on each song and we were really captured by all songs and carried awway. All the songs she sang sounded better than ever, the old hits, the new hits, and sounded so much better than in the CD.
For the 1st show there was a problem with the sound and hearing this we were stressed for Mariah 'cause they didn't really resolved the problem during the show. But despite of this thing, the show was fabulous and were so happy to be here.
During the 1st show we only saw one Spike Lee short video, it was the one with the poor silly girls, who sing Say Somethin' at the end of the video and it's so funny. So there is a few awful and nasty girls in toilets with miniskirts, silicon ... who are laughing about Mariah in a very bad way, about her legs, how she wears, ... (this reminded us some "so-called fans"), but what they don't know is that Mariah is here and hear all they are saying, Mariah comes out of the toilets and looks at this girls with a big smile in a nice way and these poor girls are here so stupid, Mariah goes out and after the silly girls sing Say Somethin' so wrong and dancing like "we do like Mimi", laughing at her but Mimi doesn't look like ridiculous when she dances in SS video and it isn't the case of these poor girls. These girls were so embarrased when they saw Mariah, but when you think something about someone you aren't embarrased when this person hear all these things, that why this short video make us think of some so-called fans, who always say bad and wrong things about Mariah when she isn't in front of them but when they are in front of her they asked for pics with her and autographs. So the so-called fans, be careful we don't know but perhaps with this, Mariah wants to say "I know what you say about me but not in front of me".
The second show was shorter but even if we were a little sad not hearing some songs we weren't disappointed 'cause like for the precedent show, Mariah was really here and it was wonderful too. We read that a lot of fans were disappointed but we don't think we have to be 'cause it was wonderful and we don't think that the fact it was shorter was scheduled 'cause Trey sang 3 songs (and it was very nice and cool 'cause he is got a wonderful voice, "Merci Trey") and there wasn't an encore and in Tunisia the 2nd show was shorter than the 1st but there was an encore, so we think it wasn't scheduled at all and we think to be disappointed isn't a good thing 'cause we never what happen behind the stage so ... !!!!!
So it were 2 wonderful nights, full of emotions, we were really happy to be there and really happy to see Mariah like this, free to do what she wants, it's so good and nice to see you like this Mariah. SO THANK YOU SO MUCH. and more you were really here with the audience even if a big part of the audience wasn't really here and wasn't really on.
And we really really really really hope that you will come in Europe and especially in Paris for this tour 'cause we already miss you and need to see you again.
BIG THANK YOU TO YOU MARIAH. THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH FOR BEING HERE AND BEING YOU AND GIVING SO MUCH TO US. THANK YOU.
We also wanna say a BIG THANK YOU to all the staff :
- the dancers, Rachel (you're so nice and a wonderful dancer and choreographer, thank you, we love you. We are really sorry for you dad and we think of you a lot), Michelle, Eddie, Earl, Russell and Brian.
- the backsingers, Trey (MERCI for singing 3 songs during the second show, we were really happy to here you and we hope to find your CD in France), Maryann and Sherry,
- the band members
- the staff, Michael Richardson, Mark Sudack, Darrell Clark (Smile please, Darrell), Rob Payne and all the others ...
- and the last but not least : Jack, you are so cute, it was the first time we saw you in real and we find you sooooo cuuuute, we hope to see you soon and hope you will win the Regis & Kelly contest this time 'cause you really deserve it.
We hope to see you all in Paris very soon, we already miss you all and Mariah you can't imagine how much we already miss you, thank you so very much one more time, we hope to see you very very soon in Paris for your tour. Lot of kisses with a lot of love.
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This is Mariah's second time at the Trump Taj Mahal. She stopped by Atlantic City for a concert during her Charmbracelet Tour in 2003 as well. 
