Vegas Recap: Mariah Carey, Toni Braxton, & Kylie Minogue

Four shows. Three divas. Two nights. One city.

I know the term gets thrown around pretty loosely these days, but I think I pulled off one for the books. Over the course of two consecutive nights I saw four concerts: Mariah Carey, Toni Braxton, and Kylie Minogue (twice), as they delivered shows in their respective Las Vegas residencies across three locations: Park MGM Grand’s Dolby Live, The Cosmopolitan’s Chelsea, and The Venetian’s Voltaire. It was a chaotic, fast-paced, and incredible trip. 

I initially conceptualized this Las Vegas trip last fall. I wanted to see Kylie Minogue’s ‘More Than A Residency’ at The Venetian’s new 1,000-person-capacity Voltaire. I initially resisted the event, because table seating started at $600 (which included a mandatory $300 spend on bottle service, cookies, and caviar, and of those three I would only eat cookies), and standing room, which is in the rear of the venue, averaged around $300. When a friend texted me about having an extra Kylie ticket though, I did a swift 180 and began planning an early March trip to Vegas.

A little over a month prior to my trip, Mariah Carey announced that she’d be returning to Vegas for a new residency called ‘The Celebration of Mimi.’ I really wanted to see Mariah again, and when I realized most of my trip wasn’t booked yet, I pushed it back to the final weekend in April; the one weekend where the two divas overlapped. Then, I learned that Kylie doesn’t take the stage until after 11pm, and it soon became apparent that Mariah’s show ended before 10pm. Suddenly, I was going to shoot for the stars and see both divas on both of the nights I was in Vegas.

One final twist spun around the week before I departed. I found out that the inaugural date of Toni Braxton’s residency with Cedric the Entertainer, ‘Love & Laughter,’ fell during my trip. I decided to glance at tickets, and suddenly scored quite possibly the cheapest front row seat I’ve gotten this decade, totaling at just $172. 

The trip was no picnic though. I began my west coast tour in Los Angeles and planned to drive to Las Vegas, which I’ve done before. It’s about 4 hours without traffic. Easy enough, right? Wrong. My drive took 8 hours, in possibly the worst traffic of my life. It was absolutely dreadful. As a result, I was racing against the clock to make it to Mariah’s show, which was my first stop in Vegas. I rushed to drop off my rental car, check in to my hotel, freshen up and do a quick change, and hustle over to Park MGM for Mariah’s show.

As I finally walked into the Dolby Live theater at the Park MGM, Mariah was on her set’s third song, “Make It Happen.” It was the perfect arrival soundtrack after a hellish trip through the desert. 

Seeing Mariah is always a treat, because she’s my favorite living musician (Aretha Franklin being the only musician I place above her, in case you didn’t already know that). However, I’ve struggled to encapsulate my thoughts for her show, which is the main reason I’m publishing this two weeks after seeing her show. 

I love the setlist, which begins at her debut single “Vision of Love” and threads through every non-holiday era of her career up to 2005’s The Emancipation of Mimi. The setlist includes the live debut of at least one song from that album, and the inclusion of a number of less-performed fan favorites. I can say that I absolutely had a great time at the show. It’s always a fun time seeing Mariah. I also had a really cute moment with the person sitting next to me when she realized we were wearing the same shirt from ‘The Adventures of Mimi’ tour in 2006. 

The one thing that got me during the show though, was Mariah’s stage presence. She doesn’t seem like she’s having a lot of fun up there. She appears stiff in her high heels. She’s very focused on the teleprompters and lacks the charisma that characterized the climaxes of some of her greatest performances. 

A lot of Mariah’s vocals aren’t live at this show, either. I’ll spare you the paragraphs in my drafts about the analysis I’ve done on performances and such, but she’s lip-syncing a sizable chunk of this show. To her credit, it’s hard to tell without doing some analysis, because she’s recorded new vocals to lip sync to. She still has the ability to sing these songs and she wants that to not be in the forefront of people’s minds. 

And yet, as I rewatch the footage I took of her singing one of my favorites, the deeply personal “Looking In,” she subtly wipes away a single tear as she nears the end of the song. Even though the vocals aren’t live and she seems distant, she’s clearly not absent. And you know what? I’ll still be at Mariah’s Christmas show this year, with bells on. Just don’t expect me to turn a blind eye to these things. 

After Mariah (and a second stop at the Mariah merch table) it was back to my hotel, The Venetian’s Palazzo, for another quick change (you can’t show up to Kylie in a Mariah shirt, that would be absurd) and downstairs to Voltaire for Kylie. Staying at The Venetian was the smartest thing I could’ve done (it was also the nicest hotel room I think I’ve ever stayed in, with a cute view of The Sphere). It took barely 5 minutes to get downstairs from my room to Voltaire, an intimate venue that holds just 1,000 people. 

Resale prices for Kylie’s shows the weekend I was in Vegas were something stupid. General admission standing room (which is in the back of the venue) tickets were listing for over $2,000 and I was not having it. Thankfully, a fellow fan sold me their Friday night ticket for $300, and I got Saturday night ticket on StubHub for under $200 while I was at the Toni Braxton show (don’t worry, it was during one of Cedric’s segments; I would never disrespect Toni like that). 

It was absolutely worth it to go twice. Kylie was that good.Kylie Minogue was undoubtedly the MVP of this trio. Her energy was explosive and her show left nothing to be desired on either night. And then it came to pass that she was nursing a sprained ankle through both shows and gave zero indication that she had anything less than 100% to give. It was a true feat. 

Kylie kept most of her show upbeat, and focused mainly on material released in the last 24 years. She did reach all the way back though, returning to “The Locomotion,” a cover of the Little Eva song she first released in 1987. It was not just her initial foray into music, but soon became her first big hit. She also dipped into her self-titled 1994 LP with the Bond-esque “Confide In Me.” 

She also did a quad of tracks each from her 2001 smash album Fever and her latest album, 2023’s Tension, including the Grammy-winning “Padam Padam,” and “Vegas High.” She wrote the latter track after inking her Vegas deal. 

One exciting debut during this Vegas set was a tribute to the acts that came before her on the strip: A beautiful cover of Elvis Presley’s “Can’t Help Falling In Love.” 

Toni Braxton was the gem of this trio. Being the only one of these three divas that I haven’t seen live, it made the show that much more special, coupled with how long it’s been since she last did a full live set (2019). Seeing Toni sing “Un-Break My Heart” live has been on my concert bucket list for a while now. Though her set is intertwined with Cedric The Entertainer (who’s set includes some light homophobia and a dismaying bit where he laughs his way through defenses of still listening to sexual predator R. Kelly’s heartbreak songs about the teenage girls he preyed on), Toni delivered a fantastic 11-song set.

Toni’s tone is still so pure that at moments early on it was hard to discern if she was singing live, and during some of the upbeat tracks there might’ve been some pre-recorded vocals mixed in. I can’t say that anyone cared much in the moment. Being able to dance to “He Wasn’t Man Enough” and “Please” while Toni did the same on stage was satisfaction enough! 

She also took time to engage with the audience, descending into the crowd during “Breathe Again” and even bringing a couple up to sing with her. It resulted in some hysterical yet endearing moments between Toni and the couple. Toni was his favorite, and his wife was having the time of her life watching her husband fangirl out over Toni. 

During the show’s most intimate moments, including a gloriously stripped-down “Spanish Guitar" and the timeless “Un-Break My Heart,” there was no doubt that every note was live. Toni’s set culminated in a performance of 2018’s slick “Long As I Live.” 

After Toni departed the stage, I rushed out of THe Cosmopolitan and walked like a true New Yorker back to The Venetian for another quick change and descended to Voltaire to witness another flawless performance from Kylie Minogue. The only thing that made the second night better than the first was positioning myself more center in the venue, still all the way in the back up against the bar though. But as you can see from the photos, I wasn’t far away at all, especially when she came down that runway. 

If I had a choice to do it all again, I would in a heartbeat. But I’d leave LA an hour earlier to see if that made a difference in my arrival time! 

Support Mariah, Kylie, and Toni by purchasing their music (and more). And support me by becoming a paid subscriber so I can afford all these damn concerts! 

Lastly, pre-order a copy of The 97’s upcoming zine celebrating Mariah’s Me. I Am Mariah… The Elusive Chanteuse, featuring multiple contributions from yours truly! Use code ‘heavenly’ to save $2 and increase my commission!