Mariah Carey was in Toronto on Thursday, to help Hudson’s Bay and Saks Fifth Avenue unveil their first combined holiday window at their Queen and Yonge St. shared entrance. TMZ has reported that the RB pop diva received somewhere around a cool million dollars for the appearance, but was it really worth it?
Hundreds of people lined the streets by the entrance to the stores, waiting to catch a glimpse of the icon. The crowd was so large that Queen street was shut down around 5:30, forcing the street cars, buses and other traffic to divert. If you’re not from the area you probably don’t know that Queen St. is one of the busiest in downtown Toronto, and to force people who are trying to head home for the day to scramble to find a new route home is really inconvenient. Carey was scheduled to appear at 7:05, but didn’t show up until 40 minutes later. It’s probably not her fault that it started later, after all Toronto Mayor John Tory and Hudson’s Bay officials needed to speak first. When Mariah took the spotlight though, fans couldn’t get enough.
Chants of Mariah were all anyone in the area could hear when Mimi took the stage dressed in a red satin gown, black heels and diamonds. She was scheduled to perform two songs, which she did to the delight of the crowd. She started by saying “I wrote this song a long time ago!” before singing her hit All I Want For Christmas. She followed that song up with Here Comes Santa Claus.
In total, Mariah’s million dollar appearance lasted about five minutes. Fans who’d gathered for the event got to see fireworks, white confetti shot into the air, and the unveiling of the windows, but it was Mariah who was the real reason they were there. You’d think that there would be more of a payoff for the loyal fans who waited in the cooling weather for their hero, not to mention for the money the two stores paid for her to be there, but when it was over everyone seemed to be happy so in the end everything appeared to be well worth it.
Photo: Vinny Beau Twitter
