Twenty years ago, Mariah Carey stepped into a studio to record music that marked the third sea change in her career. The first came with when the success she experienced after teaming up with someone whose ambitions for her career, she felt, matched her own. The second came when she liberated herself from that relationship and took control of that career. No. 3 manifested in the 2005 album she celebrates with her new limited engagement, Mariah Carey: The Celebration of Mimi Live in Las Vegas.
Considered a comeback album, The Emancipation of Mimi enabled Carey to shed her pop ingenue persona for good and complete her evolution into a chart-topping chanteuse and forever celebrity. She had taken her shot at acting in 2001’s Glitter, and although the soundtrack was successful the film was a critical and box office disappointment. Carey bounced back with 2002’s Charmbracelet as a new era was about to begin that saw Beyoncé’s solo-artist star ascending.
Carey took stock of her career arc and decided to move in a direction that would yield the No. 1 single of 2005. She had freed herself from a stifling marriage, recording contracts and self-doubt by the time she began writing songs for Mimi. Carey was in her prime as an artist who could do anything she wanted—not necessarily the easiest starting point for a new album project.
The crests and crashes Carey experienced up to that point were part of a path. She stretched her wings, tried new things and took it hard when her efforts didn’t match the success she experienced early on. Carey was 21 years old when her debut self-titled album went No. 1 in 1990, and she began receiving seven-figure checks. If she retired from entertainment after her ninth studio album she would be fondly remembered as a ’90s superstar.
Instead, her 10th album was a blend of her musical passions. The daughter of an opera-singing mother, she grew up surrounded by hip-hop, R&B and pop. The latter was the lane she established herself with, but by 1997’s Butterfly she was independent enough to bring in producers that could flavor her arrangements with beats and rhymes.
Emancipation crystallized Carey’s influences. Her biggest-selling album since 1995’s Daydream features Twista, Nelly and Jermaine Dupri, who also contributed songwriting and producing credits alongside Kanye West and The Neptunes. Up-tempo opening track “It’s Like That” uses a metaphor of a night out to announce Mimi’s emancipation with Carey’s snake-charmer vocals delivering lyrics that are likely to be the first heard at Dolby Live.
The following track, the ballad-y “We Belong Together,” redemptively put Carey back on top for good. It held the No. 1 position on the singles chart for 14 nonconsecutive weeks and was recognized by Billboard as the top single of the year. Carey acquired a new confidence she could rely from then on as much as she always could from her most faithful fans, The Lambs, who launched a campaign in 2018 that sent the soundtrack to Glitter to the top of iTunes’ album chart.
Park MGM, 8 p.m. April 17, 19-20, 24 & 26-27, starting at $85 plus tax and fee. parkmgm.mgmresorts.com
Click here for your free subscription to the weekly digital edition of Las Vegas Magazine, your guide to everything to do, hear, see and experience in Southern Nevada. In addition to the latest edition emailed to every week, you’ll find plenty of great, money-saving offers from some of the most exciting attractions, restaurants, properties and more! And Las Vegas Magazine is full of informative content such as restaurants to visit, cocktails to sip and attractions to enjoy.
