At first listen, Ariana Grande would remind you of a very young Mariah Carey, but in terms of looks, Ariana has this subversive pre-pubescent beauty straight out of Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita novel - exuding incredible sex appeal from a body that makes her look like she's barely 14 years old - a pedophile's wet dream.
However, she has a very beautiful voice which she displayed in full force last night, singing two gems from Whitney Houston's Grammy-winning The Bodyguard album, just to prove to everyone that, yeah, I got the vocal chops baby! She hit all the right notes in I Have Nothing and I'm Every Woman but didn't quite have the adult emotions needed to express those songs properly.
While Mariah can't dance to save her life, Ariana can, and she can sway those hips of hers to the tune of several of her hits - from One Last Time to Problem to Love Me Harder to Break Free. I'm not too familiar with her earlier work but she did make a good balance between her earlier work and My Everything.
The audience just really adored her and were screaming and singing along with her from the first song. I'm sure as Ariana continues to do more live shows, she will have learned the ability to hold the audience in the palm of her hands.
She has the repertoire, the right look, she can dance, and she can birit as well!
As it is tonight, it was like, she was just going through the motions of the whole show, shouting I love you's and Mahal Kita here and there, but not quite enthralling more seasoned concert goers like me. Unlike Katy Perry, she didn't even talk very much with the audience.
It was a full production show with dancers and rappers and a DJ. Many of her fans wore bunny ears and Ariana was styled to look and perform like a pre-pubescent Playboy bunny. Drag queens also came in full force, many of them achieving that Ariana Grande look - long beautiful hair, the right touch of mascara and slender long legs.