Love her as we may, it’s fair to say Mariah Carey‘s latest album campaign was a dismal disaster. It’s quite apt, then, that one of the singer’s only televised promo spots was the equally as disastrous World Music Awards 2014.
Having taken place in Monaco way back in May, production complications meant it never aired anywhere prior to today.
Luckily for Mimi fans, its UK premiere brought with it the songbird’s opening number – a live rendition of ‘Meteorite’ from ‘Me. I Am Mariah…The Elusive Chanteuse’.
Check it out below…
Yet again, elusive live vocals. It wouldn’t be so jarring had she been doing anything other than standing still.
Mimi will need to really evaluate her entire product moving forward, as the record-buying public are much more savvier than in times of yesteryear. As such, these lip-synched “performances” are a no-no.
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The reality is that we now live in a Beyonce and Rihanna world. And, perhaps more relevant to Mariah, one that also sees the likes of Ariana Grande dominating the “vocal starlet” lane. Therefore, Mimi – from our vantage point – needs to assess what her unique selling point to today’s audience is – polish it and re-present it to the world on her next musical outing. Because, while she may have “nothing left to prove”, it’s important for those who cling to that stance to digest the fact that – as a major artist on a major label – she has everything to prove when huge corporations are plunging money into her projects. Until she goes down the independent route, it’ll continue to be the case with each new release.
And given the magnitude of her name, it’s only fitting that she’s afforded the major label machine to push her music. Moving forward, though, she’s tasked with tending to her own machine (see: the live vocals she continues to hide) to really re-engage the masses. Because at this point, there literally is no difference between “live Mimi” and “MP3 Mimi”.