Butterfly World Tour

The Butterfly World Tour was the third concert tour by Mariah Carey in support of her 1997 album "Butterfly" and included songs from several of her previous albums.

The tour began on January 11, 1998 in Tokyo, Japan and ended on February 21, 1998 in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Throughout the tour, Mariah varied hairstyles and outfits, as well as song selections. The tour was very successful; the four dates at Japan's largest stadium, Tokyo Dome, sold out in under one hour, equaling over 200,000 tickets, breaking the previous record that she held at the stadium for show sell-outs.

Background
Since her debut in 1990, Mariah had not journeyed on a large or extensive tour; in fact, she had not embarked on a tour until her third studio album "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 Mariah's deemed "obvious" stage-fright and failure to make a connection with the crowd. Succeeding nights were more favorably reviewed, with critics raving about her vocals.

Jon Pareles of The New York Times wrote regarding Mariah'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, Mariah did not visit the United States on her succeeding Daydream World Tour in 1996, visiting only Europe and Asia.

The tour received critical acclaim from critics and fans alike, as well as breaking ticket sale records. Her three shows at Japan's largest stadium, Tokyo Dome, sold out in under three hours, equaling in over 150,000 tickets, setting the record of fastest show sellouts in Japan's history.

On the Butterfly World Tour, Mariah broke the record, selling 200,000 tickets in under one hour.

During 1997, after the commercially and critically successful release of Butterfly", she 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, Mariah 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. The 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, but 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, the movie ended up not being released.