Mariah ‘Mimi Imsnatched’ Carey celebrates the 20th anniversary of The Emancipation of Mimi, with The Mimi Sessions
%20Mariah%20Carey%20-%20The%20Mimi%20Sessions%20%231.png "Mariah ‘Mimi Imsnatched’ Carey celebrates the 20th anniversary of The Emancipation of Mimi, with The Mimi Sessions | Random J Pop")
In celebration of the 20th anniversary of The Emancipation of Mimi (I cannot believe that album is 20 years old now) Mimi Imsnatched released The Mimi Sessions — where she gave fans an intimate performance of songs from the album.
I was really hoping that The Mimi Sessions would give us something which would shift a conversation away from her recent lethargic live performances and two not-so-great turns on remixes of popular songs from Ariana Grande and Muni Long. But unfortunately, that’s not what the Mimi Sessions did. At least not for me. I’m probably gonna get dragged for what I’m about to say, but I’mma say it all anyway.
I didn’t like this.I think it’s great that Mariah can still be bothered to do shit like this and provide some extra content for the fans — something she’s become great at over the years. She really is one of the OG’s of the 90s who transitioned into this age of social media and YouTube the best. But this age of social media and camera phones has not been kind to some of her live performances. Videos of Mariah’s live performances within the past decade frequently circulate online — showing her with low energy, giving nothing and almost forgetting that she is on stage to perform. And I’m sad to say that some of this carries into The Mimi Sessions. The set design, hair, make-up, styling and lighting were the MVP’s of the Mimi Sessions. Truly.
When it comes to Mariah’s stage presence, I know some fans will say and have said, ‘yall expect her to be dancing and shit?’, ‘Does she need to cartwheel with this slow song?’, ‘She's always done this even during her prime in 1998, why are you guys acting like this is surprising?’ and so on and so forth. But whilst Mariah was never an artist who would run about the stage and do a lot — although there are performances where she did just that — she was always an animated and expressive singer physically. Even if she was fixed to a spot on the stage, she still performed with her body. Given how much that some of Mariah’s songs required vocally, she had to be engaged and expressive physically, because singing isn’t just a throat thing or a chest thing — it’s a fully body thing. But when Mariah sings now she seems so tense, which probably contributes to her voice sounding the way it does. Because if she’s tense, then her voice is going to be tense and not allow her to sing as fluidly as she’d like. So we end up with this double whammy of her stage presence and vocals not being that great.
This felt like watching a whole other version of Mariah from somewhere in the multiverse doing karaoke to songs by the Mariah from our universe. Or watching a Skrull trying to pass as Mariah Carey.
As for Mariah’s voice, lemme just make this clear. I am not in the ministry of expecting Mariah to sing in 2025 the way she did in 1995, or even 2005. Caution is one of Mariah’s best albums and she did not one bit of big singing on that album. Mariah isn’t able to soar the way she used to and it’s absolutely fine. Mariah has a great lower register. She has such a richness of tone down there and I’ve always wanted her to tap into more — which she did on Caution, and she sounded great. But I really want her to re-arrange more of her older songs around her lower register. We got some re-arrangements for The Mimi Sessions. When Mariah’s pianist (and music director) started playing “Circles”, I was relieved to hear that it was in a lower key, but it didn’t seem to help how Mariah sang it. Because it’s not just range Mariah seems to have lost, but her fluidity and freeness. She has been losing both over the years, but the loss of it is very apparent in The Mimi Sessions. Mariah sounded flat and that’s never something I thought I’d say.
Mariah Carey is a singer who is known for her range. It was a big thing that Columbia Records, Tommy Mottola and producers she worked with early in her career wanted to push in every single song. She probably shouldn’t have been singing the way she was so frequently back then, but it’s what everybody wanted her to do all of the time. Therefore, big vocals became synonymous with Mariah and also became an expectation for listeners. So I get why Mariah was probably reluctant to consistently drop the keys of songs earlier on, out of a fear of people saying that she can’t sing the songs in the original keys and that she’s ducking out of it — because who would want to hear Mariah singing songs sounding like Toni Braxton? And no shade to Toni. She has a great voice. I am big on women with really low, rich singing voices — which is why I was drawn to Toni, why I adore Brandy and why I like Beyoncé’s voice far more now than I ever did before and think her voice is the best it’s ever sounded. But Mariah built a reputation on the largeness of her voice and people built the expectation to hear that voice when she sang, so…she had to deliver on that. But Mariah singing songs in their original keys for far longer than she should have is likely what contributed to her voice sounding the way it does now. Vocal chords are muscles. And as time goes on and we get older, our bodies change. So we have to also adjust how we look after our bodies, how we train them and the things we put it through. You can’t put your 30+ body through all the shit you put it through in your teens and twenties. We need to listen to our bodies far more intently as we get older. And I feel that Mariah not making the necessary calls earlier on in her life / career has resulted in her voice becoming what it is now. It’s not like Mariah isn’t able to work around it. The one thing I really did like about The Mimi Sessions was that Mariah seems to have truly listened to her voice and accepted it as it is now. We didn’t get big climaxes for any of the songs, and I truly admire Mariah for not feeling pressured to sing them. It was a smart move. I’m all for Mariah approaching songs in a way which doesn’t cause more damage to her voice.
Watching The Mimi Sessions video was tough though, because it felt like watching a husk of Mariah. It looks like Mariah, sure. And the glint in her eye is still there when she speaks and addresses us. But as soon as she starts singing, it doesn’t truly feel or sound like Mariah. She seemed distant. She didn’t seem comfortable. And for most of the performance it looked as though Mariah was looking at a teleprompter. I have no beef with singers using teleprompters. Beyonce had teleprompters on the stage of her Renaissance World Tour. She also had a big ass teleprompters out in the crowd that she could see when she was on the B stage. Very often when singers perform on TV there is a teleprompter with their lyrics. But the trick is to not do the whole performance looking at them, as though you’re doing karaoke. And it’s sad to say, that karaoke is what The Mimi Sessions felt like at times.
As a fan, I can’t help but be concerned at what is going on with Mariah behind the scenes. Mariah’s physicality, lack of stage presence whilst performing and her current singing ability is not simply ‘an age thing’. It seems like more is going on. And I really hope that she gets herself a team that does a better job of looking after her and looking out for her. Because a lot of this feels reminiscent of the Stella days, when people really did not have Mariah’s best interests and well being at heart.
Mariah doesn’t really need to do any of this shit at all. She doesn’t need to do all of these tours. She doesn’t need to give us these sessions. She could just give us Instagram photos of her glam moments, New year’s photos of her in a swimming pool in a full gown and pop out for Christmas and I’d be fine with that. Mariah owes us nothing. She’s in New Game+ now. Caution was so damn good of an album, that I would be VERY okay with it being her final album. But if Mariah wants to keep performing and releasing music — who the hell am I to tell her not to!? I just hope Mariah is doing it for the love of it, and not because she feels an obligation to us fans, to her team and to fuel the machine her career has become. Because Mariah has nothing to prove to any of us. She’s been that chick and is STILL that chick. I just don’t want her career to end up in a place where the conversation is more about how she doesn’t sound and what she isn’t doing on stage. And I fear that if she keeps giving performances like this, that it’s what could end up happening. And being in denial about things within the fanbase bubble ain’t gonna help matters. I’ve seen fans say that Mariah should do a Tiny Desk and that is something she should absolutely NOT do right now.
What Mariah needs to do is to look after herself. And if performing is her way of doing that, then I won’t begrudge that — as long as her team is making sure Mariah is putting as best a foot forward as she can (which certainly isn’t happening right now). But if it’s something she is being pushed to do, then somebody needs to pump the brakes.
I was really hoping that The Mimi Sessions would give us something which would shift a conversation away from her recent lethargic live performances and two not-so-great turns on remixes of popular songs from Ariana Grande and Muni Long. But unfortunately, that’s not what the Mimi Sessions did. At least not for me. I’m probably gonna get dragged for what I’m about to say, but I’mma say it all anyway.
I didn’t like this.I think it’s great that Mariah can still be bothered to do shit like this and provide some extra content for the fans — something she’s become great at over the years. She really is one of the OG’s of the 90s who transitioned into this age of social media and YouTube the best. But this age of social media and camera phones has not been kind to some of her live performances. Videos of Mariah’s live performances within the past decade frequently circulate online — showing her with low energy, giving nothing and almost forgetting that she is on stage to perform. And I’m sad to say that some of this carries into The Mimi Sessions. The set design, hair, make-up, styling and lighting were the MVP’s of the Mimi Sessions. Truly.
When it comes to Mariah’s stage presence, I know some fans will say and have said, ‘yall expect her to be dancing and shit?’, ‘Does she need to cartwheel with this slow song?’, ‘She's always done this even during her prime in 1998, why are you guys acting like this is surprising?’ and so on and so forth. But whilst Mariah was never an artist who would run about the stage and do a lot — although there are performances where she did just that — she was always an animated and expressive singer physically. Even if she was fixed to a spot on the stage, she still performed with her body. Given how much that some of Mariah’s songs required vocally, she had to be engaged and expressive physically, because singing isn’t just a throat thing or a chest thing — it’s a fully body thing. But when Mariah sings now she seems so tense, which probably contributes to her voice sounding the way it does. Because if she’s tense, then her voice is going to be tense and not allow her to sing as fluidly as she’d like. So we end up with this double whammy of her stage presence and vocals not being that great.
This felt like watching a whole other version of Mariah from somewhere in the multiverse doing karaoke to songs by the Mariah from our universe. Or watching a Skrull trying to pass as Mariah Carey.
As for Mariah’s voice, lemme just make this clear. I am not in the ministry of expecting Mariah to sing in 2025 the way she did in 1995, or even 2005. Caution is one of Mariah’s best albums and she did not one bit of big singing on that album. Mariah isn’t able to soar the way she used to and it’s absolutely fine. Mariah has a great lower register. She has such a richness of tone down there and I’ve always wanted her to tap into more — which she did on Caution, and she sounded great. But I really want her to re-arrange more of her older songs around her lower register. We got some re-arrangements for The Mimi Sessions. When Mariah’s pianist (and music director) started playing “Circles”, I was relieved to hear that it was in a lower key, but it didn’t seem to help how Mariah sang it. Because it’s not just range Mariah seems to have lost, but her fluidity and freeness. She has been losing both over the years, but the loss of it is very apparent in The Mimi Sessions. Mariah sounded flat and that’s never something I thought I’d say.
%20Mariah%20Carey%20-%20The%20Mimi%20Sessions%20%233.png "Mariah ‘Mimi Imsnatched’ Carey celebrates the 20th anniversary of The Emancipation of Mimi, with The Mimi Sessions | Random J Pop") |
| Mariah Carey Live: The Mimi Sessions | Mariah Carey |
Watching The Mimi Sessions video was tough though, because it felt like watching a husk of Mariah. It looks like Mariah, sure. And the glint in her eye is still there when she speaks and addresses us. But as soon as she starts singing, it doesn’t truly feel or sound like Mariah. She seemed distant. She didn’t seem comfortable. And for most of the performance it looked as though Mariah was looking at a teleprompter. I have no beef with singers using teleprompters. Beyonce had teleprompters on the stage of her Renaissance World Tour. She also had a big ass teleprompters out in the crowd that she could see when she was on the B stage. Very often when singers perform on TV there is a teleprompter with their lyrics. But the trick is to not do the whole performance looking at them, as though you’re doing karaoke. And it’s sad to say, that karaoke is what The Mimi Sessions felt like at times.
%20Mariah%20Carey%20-%20The%20Mimi%20Sessions%20%232.png "Mariah ‘Mimi Imsnatched’ Carey celebrates the 20th anniversary of The Emancipation of Mimi, with The Mimi Sessions | Random J Pop") |
| Mariah Carey Live: The Mimi Sessions | Mariah Carey |
Mariah doesn’t really need to do any of this shit at all. She doesn’t need to do all of these tours. She doesn’t need to give us these sessions. She could just give us Instagram photos of her glam moments, New year’s photos of her in a swimming pool in a full gown and pop out for Christmas and I’d be fine with that. Mariah owes us nothing. She’s in New Game+ now. Caution was so damn good of an album, that I would be VERY okay with it being her final album. But if Mariah wants to keep performing and releasing music — who the hell am I to tell her not to!? I just hope Mariah is doing it for the love of it, and not because she feels an obligation to us fans, to her team and to fuel the machine her career has become. Because Mariah has nothing to prove to any of us. She’s been that chick and is STILL that chick. I just don’t want her career to end up in a place where the conversation is more about how she doesn’t sound and what she isn’t doing on stage. And I fear that if she keeps giving performances like this, that it’s what could end up happening. And being in denial about things within the fanbase bubble ain’t gonna help matters. I’ve seen fans say that Mariah should do a Tiny Desk and that is something she should absolutely NOT do right now.
What Mariah needs to do is to look after herself. And if performing is her way of doing that, then I won’t begrudge that — as long as her team is making sure Mariah is putting as best a foot forward as she can (which certainly isn’t happening right now). But if it’s something she is being pushed to do, then somebody needs to pump the brakes.
💿 Mariah Carey album reviews: Merry Christmas | Rainbow | Charmbracelet | Glitter | E=MC² | Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel | Merry Christmas II You | Merry Christmas II You | Me. I Am Mariah... | Caution
🎛️ A ?J Mariah Carey mix: Mariah Carey featuring Megan Thee Stallion
🎛️ A ?J Mariah Carey mix: Mariah Carey featuring Megan Thee Stallion
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