Fridayz Live night one review: Mariah Carey and Pitbull headline Aussie R&B festival

Fridayz Live headliner Pitbull might not have been due on stage for another four hours, but his faithful fans were committed: dressed like their idol in suits and ties, shades, bald caps and with soul patches drawn onto their chins.

The urge to dress as Pitbull to see Pitbull has become a trend at his concerts in recent years, but with the star not having visited our shores for more than a decade, it had so far escaped Aussie concertgoers. Still, one perhaps didn’t expect to see quite so high a percentage of the crowd at Friday’s festival make the effort (for one thing – where is this endless supply of bald caps coming from?).

With so many of Pitbull’s fanbase young women, it made for one of the most unusual sights at a festival in recent memory: Everywhere you looked, young female festivalgoers were channelling Mr Worldwide himself, delivering the swag of a 44-year-old bald male rapper as they strutted around the showgrounds.

Did not expect a mainstream R&B festival to deliver quite this much gender-subverting drag king energy, but I’m here for it.

And Pitbull made all their efforts (and Temu purchases) feel worthwhile, delivering a high-energy set heavy on the sort of hits that make you feel like it’s a simpler time (2012, to be specific): Timber, I Like It, DJ Got Us Fallin’ in Love.

“To all the baldies out there, if you put on the bald cap, you’ve come to have the time of your life,” he said, and he wasn’t wrong – the dress-ups went some way to making the crowd vibe feel positive throughout the day, even while enduring some of the inconveniences that come with a sold-out festival (half-hour queues for the bars meant most revellers would end up missing at least one artist’s set).

Scheduling Mariah Carey after Pitbull makes sense on paper (19 number ones, daaaahrling), but started to feel like a stitch-up as Mr Worldwide’s set brought the energy to ever-higher levels: How could Mariah, always one of our more sedate pop divas, possibly match all this?

While she was an undeniably chill presence on stage, Carey breezed through a hit-packed set that was heavy on her 90s classics: Fantasy, Always Be My Baby, Emotions (was she really singing those pitch-perfect whistle notes in 2025? That’s between her and god).

Three songs in a row from solid new album Here For It All tested casual fans’ patience, but Carey brought her set – and the night – home with a powerhouse rendition of arguably her greatest achievement, the R&B ballad to end all R&B ballads We Belong Together.

And she even indulged in one crowd-pleasing Aussie act: No, she didn’t do a shoey, but she did leave the crowd stunned when she produced a large jar of vegemite between songs, scooping an extra-big chunk out of the jar for a taste. Singing the hits with a mouth full of vegemite? That’s talent.

Earlier on in the line-up, opener Jordin Sparks, an implausibly jacked Tinie Tempah, rap legend Eve, a raucous Lil Jon and a crowd-pleasing Wiz Khalifa all entertained a crowd that arrived early and came to party.

And Lil Jon was responsible for perhaps the night’s most thrilling moment with a surprise performance after his set.

Lil Jon paid tribute to Fridayz Live mainstay Fatman Scoop, who died in August last year, by performing his classic dancefloor filler Be Faithful while perched perilously on a riser in the middle of the showground. Only at Fridayz Live would a stirring musical tribute to the recently departed be so … fun.

The Fridayz Live tour continues with the following dates over the next week:

Saturday 18 October – ENGIE Stadium | Sydney

Friday 24 October – Langley Park | Perth

Saturday 25 October – Marvel Stadium | Melbourne

Originally published as Fridayz Live night one review: Mariah Carey and Pitbull headline Aussie R&B festival