Twenty-five years into her successful career, one of the most successful singers in music history, Mariah Carey, will take the stage in Israel for the first time on Tuesday night.
Carey, who sold over 200 million albums worldwide, will perform her 18 number 1 hits on stage at the Live Park Amphitheater in Rishon LeZion in front of 12,000 fans.
"I'm very excited about performing in front of my audience in Israel," she said on Monday. "I am looking forward to return the love after all of these years."
She promised her show would include "all of the songs you know."
During a press conference on Monday at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Herzliya, Carey was asked if she was pressured not to come by pro-Palestinian groups who are waging a boycott campaign against Israel.
"Nobody tried to pressure me, I did hear about it but I do what I want to do," she said. "I've always wanted to come here. I don't care what other people's political agendas are. I'm just an entertainer and I'm here. I'm happy to be here and I'm honored to be here."
Carey arrived to Israel with her two children, along with her partner, Australian billionaire James Packer, a friend of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
During her last visit to Israel, Carey and Packer met with the prime minister and his wife in the Prime Minister's Residence in Jerusalem, but Carey said she does not know if the Netanyahu couple plans to attend the concert.
"I don't know them that well. We only had dinner together one time and they are amazing people. I'm quite sure they're very busy and I wouldn't expect them (to come). But I would be honored," she said.
"I don't know them that well. We only had dinner together one time and they are amazing people. I'm quite sure they're very busy and I wouldn't expect them (to come). But I would be honored," she said.
Carey told reporters that she has been wanting to perform in Israel for quite some time, "but somehow it never worked out with the producers here. I haven't toured a lot in my life and I came here with my boyfriend James Packer a month ago and it was so exciting to be here that I decided I wanted to come back here and do a show."
And if that's not enough, Carey was so impressed with Israeli hair and makeup artist Miki Buganim, who did her hair last time she was in Israel, that she invited him to do her hair again for the concert.