Singing in the rain with Mariah Carey

IT WAS ten years ago when superstar diva Mariah Carey first performed in Kuala Lumpur, and her show on October 22 in Stadium Merdeka, part of her The Elusive Chanteuse Show Asian tour, should have been her triumphant return performance for her adoring fans.
As it turns out, the heavens themselves decided to ‘bless’ the event, creating an almost non-stop downpour from start to finish, complete with thunder and lightning.
Most of the 12,000-strong audience ended up drenched from head to foot in the chilly open air of the stadium, despite their flimsy plastic raincoats.
The dismal weather clearly affected the overall mood, especially since the rain delayed the start of the show by a full hour. But when the first beats of music were heard, the audience found its voice and screamed their greetings for Mariah.
After a short video introduction, she strode onstage singing her opening track, Fantasy, before moving on to the sensual Touch My Body.
A notorious perfectionist, she drew attention to the less-than-perfect weather, singing “It’s raining, it’s pouring...what are you going to do when lightning strikes? Just hold on tight, Kuala Lumpur” before belting out Shake It Off.
Her set covered all her biggest hits from her prolific recording career, everything from Emotions to Heartbreaker to the gospel-infused Fly Like A Bird, with fans singing along to their favourites.
Unfortunately, she missed an opportunity to sing Through The Rain, which would have been the most appropriate track for the night.
She did however performed her signature cover of the Jackson 5’s I’ll Be There, together with longtime collaborator Trey Lorenz and also sang five tracks from her latest album,Cry, #Beautiful, Thirsty, Meteorite and Supernatural.
Mariah ended her set with an updated remix of her track We Belong Together, and after a short break, returned with two encore tracks, Always Be My Baby and Butterfly, to the appreciative cheers of her fans.
Admittedly, it wasn’t a completely flawless concert. Her voice was sadly not on-point for many parts of her performance, but she more than made up for it by hitting all her famous whistle-register notes, and by her constant singsong interactions with the audience.
And unlike her first show where she limited herself to one outfit, this time she had a number of costume changes.
She started with a jacket-hotpants combination, before moving on to more glamorous gowns, a black one with a plunging neckline and a pink off-the-shoulder number, and ending with a snakeskin-print trenchcoat. A black fingerless glove on her right hand was her only constant accessory.
Despite all the elements there to make it an amazing show, it was such a pity that it literally rained on Mariah’s parade here in Kuala Lumpur.
And considering it’s been ten years since her last concert here, we can only dream that our elusive chanteuse will return to our shores for a third time someday.
Mariah Carey’s The Elusive Chanteuse Show Tour in Malaysia 2014 was organised by IME Productions.