Mariah Carey's Performance at Rockefeller Center 2014

I am reading multiple articles about Mariah Carey's live performance at the Rockefeller Christmas event.  Jason Hughes, from the Warp, commented, "diva straining to reach certain notes and choosing to avoid others altogether" (2014, para 2), but is it really, honestly her fault?  I sat back and started to think about this in a serious manner.  This is what I have come up with:

First, I give credit and respect to any performer who is determined to sing live at any event.  Lip syncing is out of control.  Of course, one can definitely notice when someone is really singing or if it is a prerecorded segment.  Yes, maybe she (Mariah) should have practiced more before the event, but no one truly knows what she did before it; that is, until she says otherwise.  In my opinion, that is what makes people human again: failure.  Every person on this wonderful planet goes through ups and downs.  If you do not, then you are not being honest with yourself.  Plain and simple.  Therefore, her unsuccessful performance at the Christmas special reminds us all that even celebrities are not perfect, and we should stop putting them on a pedestal.  Once we do that, we expect them to always be consistent and when they are not, we ridicule them with such force.  Time wasted, in my eyes.  There are so many other things in life we should worry about: diseases, hate, poverty (to name a few).

Second, these artists are not like they used to be.  They are in the studio recording their new albums for days, months even.  I remember last year watching one of the New Year's Eve specials with Kathy Griffin and Anderson Cooper.  During one portion, Kathy asked to sing a song with Deborah Harry.  For someone who was not prepared, she was magnificent.  The point to this is that the studio crew (producers, directors, etc) have the artist sing what sounds perfect.  However, sometimes they cannot provide that perfection on stage night after night.  An example is Mariah Carey's high notes.  Yes, she has proven that she can absolutely hit those notes for many decades, but after a while the throat would take a beating.  Not to mention other influences to make it less perfect, such as an ailment (flu, cold, etc).

In short, it is both the artist and studio's fault.  The artist should know what their body (throat) can handle, and the studio should not strive for perfection.  All they (both the artist and the studio) are seeing is dollar signs.  That leads to the question: What happens when the artist cannot live up to the expectations?  The answer is simple: the audience stops buying, and the money runs dry.  So the next time any out there decide to critique a person's performance, make sure the whole picture is clear.


Hughes, J. (2014). Mariah Carey vocal struggles during live televised performance lead to polarized twitter response (video). Yahoo.com

Skyes, C. [Photographer]. (2014). Mariah Carey performs at the 82nd Annual Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony on Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2014, in New York [Picture]. Invision.