Is Mariah's Las Vegas Residency Already in Trouble?

It pains me to write this, because my love for the oeuvre of Mariah Carey is lifelong, fierce and true, but: just a few days in, Mimi’s Caesar’s Palace stint is already running into problems.

Problem number one: she cancelled last night’s show, with no plans to reschedule. Former Jezebel staffer Tracie Egan Morrissey posted this photo from Vegas with the caption “Literally spent thousands of dollars to see @mariahcarey in Vegas and she fucking cancelled.”

According to E!, Carey cancelled the performance, which would have been only her fourth since beginning her Vegas run, due to a bout of “bronchitis.” That sounds like the oldest excuse in the book, but have you been to Las Vegas? The contrast between scorching desert heat and embalming-levels of A/C refrigeration indoors is enough to give anyone an illness; she’s just lucky it’s not pneumonia. (Not that I totally believe the bronchitis excuse, but I’m just saying, it’s feasible.) Mariah “promise[s] to make it up to you,” but as the sign above shows, the hotel people beg to differ.

Since opening last week, Carey’s show has received good reviews in outlets not prized for their music criticism—People, TMZ—and reviled in the New York Times, which is valued for it. (Jon Caramanica called it “a minimum of imagination and effort.”)

Today at the LA Times, Gerrick Kennedy profiled Carey after spending time with her at home, “sipping wine” with her, of course (because Mariah is never not sipping wine). They chatted about the machinations of putting together the show—she knew she had to play only her number-one hits to accommodate as wide an audience as Vegas would draw—and, in conversing about her new song “Infinity,” she dropped this genius bit of shade:

“Infinity” reminds me of a combination of “Touch My Body,” “Obsessed,” “We Belong Together” and “Vision of Love.” I did it with Eric Hudson. He’s a great young producer. Actually his parents wrote “Holiday” for Madonna.

Also, it is nice to know that Mariah Carey seems to place supremacy on the internet:

You certainly haven’t been immune to criticism. How do you deal with it? Headlines or rumors or whatever the case may be.

Internet or newspaper?

Is there a separation anymore? Most people seem believe they are one and the same now.

I think there is. If you click online to your newspaper then it is one and the same. But for what it used to be, you had to go out and buy something and read it one day and the consolation was they read it one day and they were wrapping fish with it the next. I learned that when I was really little and starting out.

And as for criticism, from the Times review to, I guess, this post speculating on the impending doom of her Vegas stint, she’s taking it in stride:

But who cares? I don’t know, I guess some people do. I should be flattered. I’m going to take it as a compliment. Patti LaBelle told me to take it as a compliment so I’m gonna do that.

Let’s hope she does that if this whole Vegas thing ends up tanking! Don’t worry, Mariah, if you can’t make it work, just remember that this is the town that pays bro-DJs millions of dollars to play generic chart house to frat guys. You can always come back to New York where we appreciate you.