14 DAY TRIAL // Mariah Carey is taking her most recent album, “Me. I Am Mariah… The Elusive Chanteuse,” on the road, with the tour kicking off in Japan, at the Makuhari Messe Arena just outside Tokyo, over the weekend. It was not the kind of opening night Mariah and her management were hoping for.
As you can see in the two videos embedded below, Mariah’s first show was plagued by technical and vocal problems. However, perhaps the worst part is that these problems, along with the conviction that she lip-synched her way through many of the songs, led fans to say that her career was over.
Mariah Carey has “lost her voice” for good, has no future in showbiz
There’s no denying that the most recent years have not been kind to Mariah: though she’s still one of the most respected artists of our times and a force on her own, sales are not what they used to be. Mariah still has a very large and loyal fanbase, but she seems to have lost some of her worldwide appeal.
With her most recent albums, Mariah tried to win back her position as one of the industry’s best-selling artists, to varying results. The “Elusive Chanteuse,” for instance, was received with glowing reviews by fans and critics, but it didn’t exactly make a killing in terms of sales.
She needs this tour to prove to all those saying she’s toast that she’s the exact opposite of that, but as it happens, she didn’t exactly start off on the right foot with the tour.
Because videos that have emerged online show her apparently struggling to hit the high notes and / or forgetting the words to her own songs, there’s a lot of talk right now on Twitter that her career is in the gutter.
Of those joining the conversation, a very loud group even says that she should have had the “dignity” to go away while she was still at an advantage and not “humiliate” herself this way. They don’t foresee a bright future for the diva, even cautioning fans they should expect her performances to get even worse with each new show.
Problems, we’ve all had them
It’s impossible to say that Mariah had a great opening night because it’s clear that she was dealing with some issues, whose nature we might never know. There’s nothing we love more in celebrity culture than to build up our idols, just so we have something to knock down – and this is what seems to be happening to Mariah right now.
Rumor has it that she’s going through a nasty divorce from Nick Cannon, the father of her twins, and that she’s taking it very badly. While looking for signs of trouble in her career as well, people are projecting their own ideas onto what they see: yes, Mariah’s voice has changed and yes, it’s likely that she’s no longer able to hit the same notes as before.
Just as true is that she had some problems on her first night of the show. Still, from that to proclaiming that her career is over feels like a giant leap – and it’s surprising how many are taking it. That doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re right though.
Check out the two videos below and see for yourself what the fuss is all about.
