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Mariah Carey concerts in Shanghai mark large-system Cohesion debut in China

On May 16 and 17, 2025, Mariah Carey returned to Shanghai’s HongKou Football Stadium for two sold-out shows, as part of the “Celebration of Mimi” tour, which was an extension of the singer’s Las Vegas residency and an anniversary of her tenth album, “The Emancipation of Mimi”. More than 75,000 fans attended each of the two evenings.

These shows marked the Chinese debut for a full-scale Cohesion audio system that supported both nights in Shanghai. Jiangsu RenTian relied upon local vendor Shanghai Akus Co. Ltd to provide audio for the evenings, and Shanghai Akus partnered with AirFusion Global to secure a robust Cohesion audio system that would provide the necessary coverage and output for the tour de force performances from the six-time Grammy Award winner.

FOH Engineer was Paul Falcone, who first experienced Cohesion while mixing Mariah Carey’s Christmas tour last year. “Cohesion is our PA of choice for Mariah Carey since Paul and I initially weighed our options”, states System Engineer Connor Murray.

The mainstage system was designed with an end stage configuration with main hangs comprising sixteen Cohesion CO12 left-right and an additional sixteen CO12 on side hangs. 270° hangs comprising six Cohesion CO8 each were deployed upstage of the side hangs for additional reinforcement at the near sides and along the sell line in the upper bowl.

Nine front-facing Cohesion CP218 II+ subwoofers were hung behind the mains in gradient configuration and offered significant infra rejection directly behind the deployed CO12 arrays. On the ground, nine additional CP218 II+ were stacked left and right in cardioid configuration directly under the aerial main system for further support.

For front fill support, a dozen additional CO8 were placed along the mainstage, and two arrays of three Cohesion CO10 each were flown stage left and right within the stagehouse for side fill. “I typically have a multi-band compressor and use that essentially as an EQ, and I found I did not need that with the Cohesion rig”, notes Falcone. “A lot of it was mixed on the near fields, and it translated very well to the mix itself with just a little bit of system EQ.”

Two additional arrays of six CO12 each were flown as delays on the back of the FOH structure. These arrays were closer to fans in those sections to reduce the number of enclosures required for full coverage and reduce unwanted energy to radiate outside of the venue in accordance with the local promoter and municipality.

After the Shanghai shows, Falcone was invited to participate in the Prolight + Sound Expo trade show in Guangzhou and talk to an audience of thousands about mixing Mariah Carey on a Cohesion PA.

Pictured (left to right): Connor Murray, System Engineer, Mariah Carey; Frida Guo, General Manager, AirFusion Global; Dave Shatto, Lead Application Engineer, Cohesion. (Photos: Cohesion)

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