On Tuesday night, Mariah the Scientist brought her “Hearts Sold Separately” tour to an enthusiastic crowd at downtown Detroit’s Fox Theatre, the tour’s 18th stop. The Atlanta-born songstress has been on a steady accession over the last year. Her fourth album, Hearts Sold Separately, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Top R&B Albums chart this past August and she kicked off her tour in Paris on Jan. 12.
Singer AKIA, an Arkansas native, opened the night up promptly at 8 p.m. with a strong 15-minute set. Dallas native 4Batz followed with a 25-minute set highlighted by his 2023 hit, “Act II: Date @ 8.” Following his set, 4Batz went into the crowd for 20 minutes to take pictures with fans and sign autographs.
Mariah hit the stage at 9:35 singing “United Nations + 1000 Ways to Die” while being accompanied by a three-piece band and two dancers. Wearing a pink shirt, shorts, and head wrap, she was dressed more feminine than rugged (she’s known for rocking camo in every outfit). In fact, one look around the Fox and half of the 5,000 or so attendees had on some form of pink or camo.
Much of the material Mariah sang from was from her Hearts Sold Separately album. However, she did make room to incorporate not-so old classics like 2020’s “Always n Forever” and 2022’s “Spread Thin.” Mariah is a singer’s singer who leaned on her dark but airy soprano voice . There was also no choreographed dancing or acrobatic type theatrics, just singing. Mariah sang “Rainy Days” laying down, she sang “Brain” acapella, and spent the majority of the night singing at center of the stage standing up or sitting down. She also sang most of her songs in their entirety rather than singing short snippets.
The only drawback of the night was the crowd (mostly made up of women) sang every song as if they were auditioning for American Idol — at times so loud you couldn’t hear Mariah.
Mariah finished the night with “Burning Blue,” her RIAA-certified platinum 2025 single that has become her biggest song to date.