Make IT Happen (Mariah Carey Song) - Live Performances

Live Performances

Carey has performed "Make It Happen" on live television, during charity appearances, and on numerous concert tours. Her first live performance of the song was an acoustic version on the television show MTV Unplugged in 1992, which was later released on the EP entitled MTV Unplugged (1992). Carey's performance was recorded on March 16, 1992, at Kaufman Astoria Studios in Queens, New York. The show featured several musicians, back-up vocalists, and a crew of ten just for the filming and recording. The show was directed by Larry Jordan, who had previously worked with Carey on the music video set for "Someday". Nickson felt the song was superior to the studio version, due to its stripped performance and vocals:

The roughness of this version succeeded in a way the recorded version on 'Emotions' could never manage. In the sterile atmosphere of a studio, where perfection, technology, and overdubbing were the rules, spontaneity had no place. On the stage, it was valued, and this performance had it. Everyone pushed everyone just a little further, to create something wonderful, and judging by the response, the audience realized it, as did Mariah when the song was finished. It was a rare moment, one that true performers strive for and don't find often enough to satisfy themselves.

Carey performed "Make It Happen" at an intimate concert at Proctor Theatre in New York on July 15, 1993. The concert was released as the home video Here Is Mariah Carey (1993). At the VH1 Divas taping in 1998, Carey was the opening performer of the event, and after "My All", her single at the time, she followed with "Make It Happen". As during the usual live performances of the song, a gospel choir accompanied her. On July 2, 2005, a benefit concert was held in Hyde Park, London, titled Live 8. The televised event was watched by over 9.6 million Britons and attended by over 200,000. Carey performed a three song set list, opening with "Make It Happen" followed by "Hero" and "We Belong Together", featuring a live choir of African children during the first two songs. On April 12, 2005, Carey performed the song as part of a three-song concert for Good Morning America, drawing the biggest crowd in Times Square since December 2004. Following a live rendition of "It's Like That" with Jermaine Dupri, Carey was joined on stage by several male and female vocalists, all wearing white gowns and serving as a gospel choir. Similarly, on October 2, 2009, Carey played a four-song set list at Rockefeller Center for a taping of The Today Show. "Make It Happen" was performed with a church choir and children's quartet.

Aside from the televised appearances and charity events, "Make It Happen" was featured on the set lists of several of Carey's world tours. The song was routinely performed on the Music Box Tour and the Daydream World Tour in 1993 and early-mid 1996, respectively. During her first show at Japan's Tokyo Dome on March 7, 1996, Carey performed the song alongside a twenty-five person choir and several additional musicians and background vocalists. "Make It Happen" was featured on Carey's Butterfly World Tour in early 1998, during which she was joined on stage by several choir members and musicians. Similarly, two years later, the song was placed as the ninth song on the set list during select dates of her Rainbow World Tour. Similar set-ups were featured for her following Charmbracelet World Tour and The Adventures of Mimi Tour, where church choirs were brought out for the song, in addition to additional background vocalists and musicians. In the Angels Advocate Tour, the song served as a dancer's interlude; Carey entered during the bridge of the song. On September 26, 2010, during the song's performance in a show in Singapore for that tour, Carey slipped on stage, and the small slip was blamed on Carey's US$10,000 heels. She asked her assistant to remove them and completed the concert barefoot.