Mariah was on fire in her 1st Metro show
By Adam Graham, The Detroit News, September 10, 2006

Pop, hip-hop and R&B diva Mariah Carey performed her first Detroit concert at the Palace of Auburn Hills on Saturday night, and unequivocally proved to a crowd of more than 13,000 fans that she was well worth the wait.

Carey's 90-minute concert, dubbed "The Adventures of Mimi: The Voice, the Hits, the Tour," featured wall-to-wall hits from nearly every era of her 16-year career. Aside from a number of tacky wardrobe choices and truncated performances of some of her biggest hits, the show was pretty close to magical.

Carey is not a trained dancer like Janet Jackson, and she doesn't use her stage show to make elaborate political statements like Madonna. (Even Britney Spears' elaborate arena shows have more of a narrative arc than Carey's.)

But Carey's strength is and always has been her voice, and that amazing, soaring instrument was what took center stage Saturday night. There was not a lip-synched note to be heard, and her voice towered in songs such as the gospel-flavored "Fly Like a Bird" and a luminous rendition of her first hit, "Vision of Love." Carey -- who took the stage wearing a black bikini-type number accented by a flowing, sheer cape and with black stiletto heels -- was joined by a band, three backup singers, a half-dozen dancers and a smattering of well-placed wind machines.

Her main stage set-up included an upper and a lower stage, joined on one side by a ramp and the other by a staircase with a handrail detailed with butterflies.

Carey didn't so much dance as she casually swayedto her songs, and her utter lack of fancy footwork was endearing rather than distracting.

She opened with "It's Like That," the opening track from her 2005 career-resuscitating "The Emancipation of Mimi" CD, and assertively rolled through a number of hits such as "My All," "Shake It Off" and "Fantasy." The many rappers who cameo on her songs were piped in via video clips on the six video screens that acted as backdrops to her set.

Saturday seemed to catch Carey in a particularly pert mood. At one point she gently chided a spotlight operator who shined a light on her as she was sipping a drink at side-stage, and after making several awkward references to Michigan early in the show, she broke with the script and said, "They said, 'Don't say Detroit, say Michigan.' But I'm going to say both!"

At one point she even took time to plug her "Mimi" lip gloss by applying it between songs in the dark, so as to show off the product's nifty mini-flashlight feature.

"I can't wait until you review this -- 'She was so ridiculous she pulled out her lip gloss on stage' -- and I don't really care!" she said.

During one of several down moments while Carey changed outfits, her DJ made sure to shout out the Detroit Shock -- fitting, since the concert booted the fifth game of the WNBA finals from The Palace to Joe Louis Arena.

Carey's curvy body was in full display Saturday, as she slipped into a number of skin-baring gowns that featured more slits than fabric.

Though her choice of attire may earn her a spot on Mr. Blackwell's worst-dressed list, she was confident in her body, and that confidence shone through in her performance.