Butterfly World Tour


The Butterfly World Tour was the third concert tour by American singer-songwriter Mariah Carey. The tour promoted Carey's album Butterfly, and included songs from several of her previous albums. The tour visited Asia, Australia and the United States, with rehearsals taking place in December 1997. Starting on January 11, 1998, the tour spanned five shows in Asia, six in Australia, and one in Hawaii, United States.
The tour was recorded on camera, resulting in a concert video released in VHS format, titled Around the World. The video featured live performances of Carey at different worldwide venues. The video was commercially successful, being certified platinum in the United States by the Recording Industry Association of America and gold in Brazil by the Associação Brasileira dos Produtores de Discos.

Background

Since her debut in 1990, Carey had not journeyed on a large or extensive tour. In fact, she had not embarked on a tour until her third studio effort, Music Box, when she performed six arena shows in the United States during the Music Box Tour. The opening night of the tour received scathing reviews, mostly aimed at Carey's deemed "obvious" stage-fright and failure to make a connection with the crowd. Succeeding nights were more favorably reviewed, with critics raving about Carey's vocals. Jon Pareles of The New York Times wrote regarding Carey's live vocals, "Beyond any doubt, Ms. Carey's voice is no studio concoction. Her range extends from a rich, husky alto to dog-whistle high notes; she can linger over sensual turns, growl with playful confidence, syncopate like a scat singer." However, after the strong media attention, Carey did not visit the US on her succeeding Daydream World Tour in 1996, visiting only Europe and Asia. The tour in contrast, received critical acclaim from critics and fans alike, as well as breaking ticket sale records. During 1997, after the commercially and critically successful release of Butterfly, Carey had not planned to tour once again, due to the long travel times and strain on her voice. However, due to overwhelming demand by fans, Carey agreed to perform in Asia once again, only extending the tour to Taiwan and Australia, as well as one last show in the United States. Rehearsals for the show began shortly after Christmas 1997, extending for a period of two weeks.
Originally, the Butterfly Tour was to have a leg in North America. Due to Mariah's project of filming the movie Double-O Soul with Chris Tucker in early 1998, the North American leg was cancelled. However, Double-O Soul ended up not seeing the light of day.

Reception

The show at Hawaii's 50,000 capacity Aloha Stadium made her one of the few acts in the stadium's history to sell out the entire venue. Aside from its commercial success, fans and critics raved about the show's visuals, as well as Carey's vocal delivery.

''Around the World''

During the tour, several bits and performances were filmed and later edited into a VHS and DVD entitled Around the World. The VHS featured performances from Tokyo Dome, Aloha Stadium as well as few other skits and scenes that were later compiled into the video. The film first begins with performances in Hawaii, where the song's recitals are cut into halves, excluding the second verses and bridge to shorten the bulk length of the video. Afterwards, Carey's performance of "My All" is shown in inter-cut scenes from Japan and Taipei. After the conclusion of the song, scenes of Carey conversing with Brenda K. Starr are shown, which eventually lead to a tribute to her at a small and intimate New York club, where Carey performs "I Still Believe". Soon after, Carey's performance in Japan with Lorenz for "I'll Be There" is shown, leading to scenes of Carey swimming with dolphins in Australia. the next title on the video is Carey's live rendition of "Hopelessly Devoted To You", where she is joined by Olivia Newton-John on stage in Melbourne. A scene of a fans gathering outside of a New York City studio is shown, following a performance of "Honey," and "Hero" at Aloha Stadium. The VHS was a commercial success, being certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, denoting shipments of over 100,000 units. The video was also certified gold in Brazil by the Associação Brasileira dos Produtores de Discos. It became available for digital download on the iTunes Store on December 7, 2021.

Track listing

Chart performance

Set list

  1. "Looking In"/"Butterfly"
  2. "Emotions"
  3. "The Roof "
  4. "My All"
  5. "Close My Eyes"
  6. "Daydream Interlude"
  7. "Dreamlover"
  8. "I'll Be There"
  9. "Make You Happy"
  10. "Make It Happen"
  11. "One Sweet Day"
  12. "Ain't Nobody"
  13. "Fantasy"
  14. "Breakdown"
  15. "Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Could See"
  16. "Honey"
  17. "Vision of Love"
  18. "Butterfly"
  19. "Without You"
  20. "Hero"
  21. "Butterfly Reprise"
Notes:
  • "Babydoll" was performed in Tokyo.
  • "Vanishing" was performed in the second Sydney show.
  • "Without You" was not performed in Tokyo and Melbourne.
  • "All I Want for Christmas Is You" was performed as an encore in Tokyo.
  • "Whenever You Call" was performed in Perth, Brisbane, Taipei, first Sydney show and Honolulu.
  • "Breakdown" was not performed the first night in Tokyo.
  • Olivia Newton-John joined Carey during the performance of "Hopelessly Devoted to You" on the Melbourne show.

    Shows

Cancelled shows

Box office score data

Personnel

  • Randy Jackson – musical director, bass
  • Eric Daniels – keyboards
  • Andrew Sherman – keyboards
  • Vernon Black – guitar
  • Gregory "Gigi" Gonoway – drums
  • Marquinho Brasil – percussion
  • Melonie Daniels – background vocals
  • Deborah Cooper – background vocals
  • Mary Ann Tatum – background vocals
  • Sherry McGhee – background vocals
  • Nicol Richards – background vocals
  • Trey Lorenz – special guest vocalist

    Works cited

Category:Mariah Carey concert tours
Category:1998 concert tours