A dream come true.

I know, I know.

I am the girl who loves her heavy music and her emo bands and who worships the likes of Architects or Jimmy Eat World. I am the girl who has had her life turned around by The Offspring when she was just a child and has never looked back.

And I am also the girl who likes her pop music and who has spent, pretty much, her whole life loving Mariah Carey and dreaming of seeing her live.

I don't have a story like I do when it comes to alternative bands. She's just always been there, you know. She was there because my brother loved her and I have grown up with Fantasy, Honey or Heartbreaker. She was there because I was thirteen and had my very first slow dance to one of her songs and I spent the next couple of weeks listening to all the slow songs on Rainbow, trying to figure out which one it was. (It was Do You Know Where You're Going To, if you must know, and no, I couldn't remember because it was the boy I liked and I was too caught up in the moment. I just knew it was Mariah). She was there because I've always found Against All Odds super inspiring. She was there because I have been dancing to Heartbreaker in my bedroom. She just was there.

And I suppose she'll always be.

When she announced the Sweet Sweet Fantasy tour, I knew I was going to go. It wasn't a case of "Yeah, maybe I'll go", it was a case of "I am going, period". Mariah Carey has been the queen of everything in my life since I was a child, I cried at her performance at Michael Jackson's funeral, I have dreamt of this moment my whole life, I am going, full stop. 

And I almost didn't go.

I had planned on going to see her in Cologne because the flights were really cheap and I had to cancel last minute because the ticket website wouldn't let me order with a UK address and then wouldn't let me order at all. I had ruled out going to London because she was clashing with While She Sleeps (musical rollercoaster, anyone?).

And then my brother offered to get me a ticket to Paris.

And off to Paris I went.

I must say, first, how stunning the new Bercy Arena is. The last time I had been was to see Iron Maiden in 2013 and since then, the place has undergone a serious makeover. It feels like a completely different place, now.
Well, not really, bars still refuse to give you tap water, which is illegal, by the way, but apart from that, it does feel like a completely different place.
I mean, it's a venue with escalators.


I had a really good seat and I waited for ages, and ages, and the supporting act was Djibril Cissé, yes, as in the football player, and I had no idea until, like, the day after. One of my best friends messaged me about the gig the next day and said something like "so, was Djibril Cissé really supporting?", and I double checked, and he was. It's weird. I've spent my teenage years watching football and Marseille and Liverpool and I had one of their players in the flesh in front of me and I didn't realise.
I felt like I was listening to the radio for the most part so I don't really rate him as a DJ, but good on him and all that.


And then Mariah came on.
You know, it's almost been two months and it still doesn't feel real. I have seen Mariah Carey live. Every time I think about it, I'm tempted to shut myself up, like, "no you haven't, you idiot, keep dreaming".
And the dream came true.


It's hard to rate a dream. I had wanted to see her perform my entire life. I clearly haven't been disappointed. There are bands that I have seen, and I started crying the second they walked on stage. This is what happened. It just didn't stop during the entire performance, I was in sobs during My All and by the end of the show, I had to drag myself to the toilet fully knowing my make up was all over the place - imagine it as some sort of emo walk of shame. Or something.
(Considering the amount of tears I have cried at live gigs in general, it is the first time I cry my make up off. I know, shocking, right?)





What can I say about Mariah herself, then? She genuinely does have a voice of gold. She is incredible, there are just no words. Her voice is beyond everything I can possibly understand, it is out of this world, she is out of this world. Her performance was miles beyond anything I have ever seen. Because that's the thing when you mostly see emo bands and metalcore sets, you never really see dancers and singers being carried around by their back vocalists and glitter and shiny dresses. And as much as I like my heavy music, well, I do love a good, impressive pop stage show, and Mariah does that very, very well.


That setlist, as well. I had grown up listening to most of her songs. As I said, I remember my brother loving the likes of Loverboy, Fantasy or Honey, I remember dancing to Heartbreaker in my bedroom, I remember the storm We Belong Together made in the charts (also because the year was 2005 and Prison Break was a thing and we were all in love with Wentworth Miller but moving on), Hero and My All are pop classics... And it is incredibly special hearing them performed by the very voice that gave them life. I cannot even start to explain the state I was in when she sang When You Believe, and the tribute to Prince, whose death was announced to the world a mere hour before the performance started, floored me.


I know this is not a review, and I did not expect to write a review. I just wanted to tell the world that one of my biggest dreams had come true. I have seen Mariah Carey live. Jesus. It still doesn't feel real, and it probably never will.