In Defense of Mariah: She’ll Always Be My Baby
This is not a hot take. I don’t care about your “opinion” on the matter because you’re wrong and a hater. These are the facts. MAYBE Mariah could have handled the New Year’s incident better but none of what happened was her fault. Basically, I’m already sick of hearing your boring Facebook friends talk ill of the queen. I’ve traveled the country three times in the past year as a touring musician and probably understand how these performances work better than you do so open your mind and stop being such a dweeb. When I write specific timestamps, this is the video I’m referencing.
First minute of the performance, it sounds like Mariah is saying, “Old Lang Syne” but seriously who cares; we know what it’s supposed to be. Not a big deal. This might be lip-syncing. Again, who cares? She would have had to record it at some point so that they could play it for this performance. I’d rather hear good lip-syncing than have to hear the skeleton of Tony Bennet singing, “Santa Clause is Coming to Town.”
When “Emotions” starts, something seems weird. The backing track sounds several pitches lower than the original recording but the song was released 25 years ago so it’s no surprise that she is taking it down a little bit for a live, outdoor performance in the middle of winter. At 1:15, as soon as those swan feathers are pulled off of her, we witness Mariah pull out her in-ear monitor. She tries singing some riffs despite not being able to hear the key because she has NO MONITORS. There are two on-stage speakers and that I guarantee are not strong enough to hear with a crowd that size surrounding the stage.
Maybe, and I’m saying maybe, you could discern some of the rhythms, but as someone who has played live music too loudly, I know she wouldn’t be able to hear those well enough to use them as a pitch reference. Taken off-guard, Mariah informs her dancers to just walk her down instead of proceeding with the choreography. 1:24, Mariah holds the microphone up to her mouth, remembers that she can’t hear the pitch of the recording and stalls by wishing the viewers, “Well…happy new year!” Immediately after this, Ms. Carey announces, “We can’t hear but, I’ll just go through the motions.”
Okay, yeah, sure she could have handled it better, maybe. Maybe. But like, what could she have done at this point? If she tries singing without hearing the backing track and hits wrong notes, then the haters shout that Mariah has lost her touch. If she doesn’t try singing at all, they’ll say the same thing. All she can do is try to explain and SHE DOES THAT. You losers still don’t listen. At 1:43 she informs y’all that they “didn’t have a (vocal) track for this song.” Meaning that yeah, she planned on actually singing. Frazzled, the queen gives us a history lesson about the song and teaches us, “(Emotions) went to number one.”
She continues to try singing several times, but it’s clear that she doesn’t have a reference to where we are in the song. Is it the first time through the verse? The second time? How could she know with this performance crumbling around her? At 2:06, Mariah comes up with the best possible solution: Let the audience sing. 2:19, “We didn’t have a sound check for this New Year’s, baby.” Yeah, it’s becoming evident that way too much of this was out her control. Again, at 2:34, Mariah begs to, “get these monitors on, please.” The dread sets in as the GOAT has a realization at 3:24. “I want a holiday too,” she begs as she has to work under unacceptable conditions during one of the few nondenominational holidays our great nation has. 3:27, “I’m trying to be a good sport here.” WHAT MORE EVIDENCE DO YOU NEED?!
“We Belong Together” begins and she explains that we will be hearing the album version. The same one that I listen to on Spotify about three times a week. That one. This means that the backing track will have vocals, and Mariah proves she would have sung along. Again: poor monitors mean that she couldn’t properly hear the track and can’t reference the key of the song she’s supposed to be singing. If you listen very closely at 4:17, you can hear Mariah singing behind the track, with a very slight delay. This means that what she was hearing was delayed. What’s the best route to go? Lip syncing. She can probably hear a bit of the rhythm and might be able to feign a performance despite all of these difficulties. Defeated, Mariah doesn’t put forth a full effort for the rest of the performance. And she shouldn’t.
Listen, all of you nerds can hate on whatever you want from your couches because you didn’t do anything cool on New Year’s Eve. But at least be educated about it — because I am — and I will tear you apart for it. Realistically, Mariah handled this pretty great. We love Mariah Carey because she’s a diva and if you know anything about anything then you realize her behavior is justified. I saw some dweeb post a video where Lady Gaga continued her performance despite technical difficulties and commented that, “Mariah should have carried herself like this.” Nah, she couldn’t have. This was for NEW YEAR’S EVE, HOMIE. Remember how the Red Hot Chili Peppers had to record their set ahead of time for that Super Bowl because performances of that magnitude cannot go over time? Yeah, this was the same thing. All you boring people with your high horses and alt rock should defend Mariah.
Disappointed, Mariah states, “you just don’t get any better.” This woman, this HERO, feels that the crowd was robbed of a great performance. She claims she was sabotaged. Is that for real? Probably not but idk. Is she to blame? No way.
PS. Don’t bother telling me about that 2014 “All I Want For Christmas Is You” vocal track video. That’s not what this is about, you nerd.
