As reported earlier on today, Mariah Carey performed at the season 3 premiere of popular MTV show ‘The Hills’ yesterday night. Check out her renditions of ‘Touch My Body’ and ‘We Belong Together’ below:
I’ve got a love/hate thing going on with Mariah this go-round. ‘Touch My Body’ has grown on me considerably, but these performances are not cutting it. Whether comparing them to ‘Old Mariah’ or the standard of any good performance, her showing last night still falls short. Though ‘We Belong Together’ was better, the years of wear and tear are made overly evident when Mariah tries to reach for them notes she sadly cannot hit (live) anymore.
The following may sound controversial, but IMO 2008 Mariah Carey seems little more than a studio singer (the best of the bunch, of course). Some may be quick to think ‘WTF’ as she obviously is leaps and bounds more talented than artists labelled as such. Yet, the simple fact that she can’t do her own songs justice live any more, IMO makes her a studio singer. Even the oh-so-critiqued performances to support her last LP weren’t as cringe worthy as her most recent. What makes the whole episode worse is that she seems to put more effort into her look/image than how she sounds. I guess much of this won’t be of much relevance, as Mimi is cruising toward her 18th #1 single with ‘Touch my Body.
Your thoughts?
Mimi is my favorite solo female singer of all time! I’m always taking up for her when I’m in conversation with people, but I can’t even defend this. I didn’t realize she would be performing last night, so I accidentally caught the last few minutes of her performance. I’m not sure if she’s been talking too much or smoking, etc., which created vocal strain, but……. I read on Love B Scott that she had a bad cold last night. I hope that’s all that it was. If she is smoking, etc. She needs to stop asap. Her voice is annointed, and her voice needs to be protected & treated as such.
The performances of Touch My Body haven’t been the best, but I think that might be because the song doesn’t lend itself to live singing the way that, say, Vision of Love does. I saw MC on tour during the Adventures of Mimi, and she was great. I think that TMB just isn’t a good song to sing live because the phrasing is so quick and the verses are high and whispery. I think that MC’s performance improved toward the end of the song when she could freestyle a bit. Show MC some love, ya’ll!
she ain’t have a damn cold, b. scott said that s*** before when she was on SNL, i love me some mimi eternally, i have each cd and jam to them ont he regular, this was minorly better than SNL but still flat, i mean Mariah is Mariah, that VOICE is PURE AND GOD GIVEN, as of late it’s been very very weak..i’m still checkin for her to, she’s gotta do live better tho or no concert for me
We all know Mariah can still sing. Her live performances for the Emancipation were great. I think she is just suffering from sort of cold as you could see she was going a bit hoarse. It’s not that she couldn’t hit the notes, she was just losing her voice a bit. I think with proper rest her voice will return to normal. The poor girl was probably working all day and then had to sing live, that is hard to do. When she powered her vocals though in the WBT performance, she sounded amazing.
are you guys serious? mariah cannot perform like she used to. i was at the adverntures of mimi tour and she was a hot mess. she was missing notes, very pitchy and flast at times. she wasn’t even doing any heavy choreography so she had no excuse.
this performance was a mess as was the other one on SNL. i guess she thinks because she has made a name for herself that she can give us half assed perfromances. she lip synced this performance and barely sung the chorus which was the only thing not lip synced. she did not have a cold. dont be so naive.
I agree with what “anonymous” [lol] said, Touch My Body is sort of hard to sing but Mariah Carey is Mariah Carey, with the voice that she has [which i am questioning with these last performances] i think she could..I really am trying to stay in denail and say its just the song, the only real way fans will know is when her CD comes out and when she does concerts…she better not be smoking, that would be just stupid on her part..anyway i still love Mariah and i will see if that changes when the album comes out
a poor perfomance..
mariah is the Best. That performance was the Best.
Janet would have did any better.
not good 🙁
Stans stop being delusional her voice was grating and painful to listen to. It is a wrap for Mimi’s voice, but this album will sell on the strength of the last one. I didn’t think her voice could get any worse but it has. What a shame, the performance was not hoarse it was as coarse as gritz.
It’s funny how Mariah stans make up fake stories about why she did NOT sound good live. (Touch my body is “too hard” to sing live, she had a cold, etc).
I’m not a stan but I think it is very obvious Mariah cares 100% what she looks like on stage and does not care about what she sounds like singing. Even on her last tour, she spent more time behind stage changing costumes rather than being on stage trying to sing.
Listen. Ol’ gurl aint no spring chicken no more. She may be able to rival the girls from “the hills” looks-wise, but….. people age. INCLUDING their voices….
Also…what is it with people tryin to knock people down all the time?? She did well on her last album—why start tearing her down now? She has proven her vocals…now sit the hell down, shut the hell up and enjoy the song for what it is. LAWD!
IMO, Mariah is just not that great of a performer. Besides ballads where she can stand still and just sing, when she tries to sing up tempo songs its terrible because she cant hit the notes and also because she doesn’t dance or move. No stage presence or audience interaction whatsoever. Overall, IMO her new material doesn’t hold a candle to what she used to do. Even on the CD’s the songs sound the same, lyrics are wack, and she just doesn;t belt it out like she used to on Vision of Love etc. Her early stuff was better. I think she just needs to mature lyrically and stop singing about butterflies and loverboys and progress as a real diva and focus on her voice.
I love Mariah Carey but these performances were terrible….she has not been doing crack has she? Does she have a cold? There has to be some excuse for this strain singing. I have heard her sing live before and she can bring it but something is going on with these performances (including the appearance on SNL). BTW, there is a clip on YouTube of a girl singing “Touch My Body” that is on point. So, this song can be done live.
For those of you who are so quick to call Mariah’s vocal performances half assed…Do you realize that Mimi’s been singing almost non-stop for the past 2-3 years? She just finished up this new album, b4 that she was on World tour for a long period of time & prior to that, she was doing promo performances for her Emancipation album. AND if you listen to her speak in between song performances on MTV Hills, you can hear that she is hoarse. C’mon people!!! After 15+ years of performing, do you really think that Mariah wants to dissapoint us with a mediocre performance? Give her the benefit of the doubt… Mardro
You know it might as simple as her needing to go back to vocal coaching. when stars get to a certain point they seem to not want to practice their craft
do any of you understand that she just came out the studio singing her heart out. her voice has always been this way. she cant always sing the way we want her to, because she sings so hard. ya’ll really need to stop trying to bring mariah down. the women can still sing she just needs to learn when to say no. the vocals are not that bad just raspy. mariah is ok, ya’ll still think she’s 19. and besides im tired of these young people talking about mariah. you know nothing about her. comparing her to young artist. she made room for these girls to do what they do. she is a legend.
I prefer LEONA LEWIS¡
Mariah doesn’t sing anymore¡
her music it’s always the same, she sucks¡
and she’s a p**¡
She is getting old…what a voice…she cannot sing any more…
A STUDIO H**, MARIAH CAN’T SING. MARIAH SIT UR WACK LAME ASS DOWN U DRAG-QUEEN!
She cannot sing live anymore. You can tell she doesn’t hit the notes when she sings live. I also noticed an obvious “click track” when she reaches the high notes in the end. A recorded track is played, and it is obvious because the quality of the sound is different from the live track. When she sang we belong together on “THe hills” she was pitchy all over until the end when the recorded track came out. Listen and you will hear the difference. She cannot sing live anymore.
Why don’t you shut ____ up about Mariah Carey ?! She’s at the top of her form you freakin’ S.O.B ! Miserable _____ ! You don’t even know how to sing and you wanna —- about DIVAS which by the way YOU are not ! I think Miss Carey is 10 times way betta off then Rowland. Do you even ——‘ know what 1o times are ?! I bet you are more of a ———————– even dumber than a f****** p** ! Snort off you !
p.s. If you hate Mariah Carey then stop posting negative feedbacks about her . Haters and backstabbers G.t.H . If you can’t sing then hide your face in your own S*** , B**** ! I don’t even give a damn bloody f****** s*** whether you approve this comment or not !
Chiaoz ,
A freakin-mad fan of MC
HORRIBLE!!!!! Leona Lewis and Jordin Sparks are way better live.
What’s new? I better donate my money to charities than to see my idol on full shame.