Mariah Carey, The #14 Artist of the Rock Era, Part Three

 

(Continued from Part Two)

Changes in both her musical style as well as her public image caused fans who had been with her since her debut to turn from her.  In 1997, Mariah released the album Butterfly.  

"Honey", we found out later, is a song about New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter, whom Carey snuck off with while still being married.  It peaked at #1 in the U.S. and Australia while hitting #3 in the U.K. and New Zealand and sold over two million copies.  It was nominated for Best Female Video at the MTV Video Music Awards.

Mariah earned another American Music Award for Favorite Soul/R&B Female Artist. The title song was a mid-chart hit in most countries.

 

"My All", more typical of her early material that made her famous, became Mariah's 13th career #1 and sold over two million copies.

Carey earned Grammy nominations for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for "Butterfly" and Best R&B Song and Best Female R&B Vocal Performance for "Honey".  "Breakdown", which represented the direction Carey wanted to go, failed to chart in most countries.  She was also having problems getting along with her record company, Sony.  

Not only was her career beginning to go downhill, but her personal life began to spiral as she fell fast from her pedestal.  Carey and Mottola separated and then divorced.  Mariah reduced herself to projecting an image similar to Madonna, forgetting or perhaps never knowing that the reason fans liked her in the first place was because she was so different than Madonna.  

Carey participated in the VH1 Divas benefit concert in 1998 and began to hope to star in films.  She began working on a project called All That Glitters, later shortened to Glitter.  But that work stalled and had to be shelved.  Mariah released the compilation album #1's, which featured a new duet with Whitney Houston, "When You Believe", featured in the animated movie The Prince of Egypt.  It reached the Top 10 in most countries but with a peak of #15, one of The Top Unknown/Underrated Songs of the Rock Era*.

"When You Believe" helped the album sell one million copies in its first week of release in Japan, the first to do so.   Mariah won a World Music Award for Best-Selling Female R&B Artist.

Carey won a Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Female R&B Artist and the song was nominated for Favorite Song from a Movie.  She was also nominated for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals at the Grammy Awards.  "I Still Believe" was originally recorded by Brenda K. Starr in 1987 and covered by Carey, who used to sing backup for Starr.

"The Roof (Back in Time)" was another of Carey's songs written about her affair with Jeter.

Carey wanted to break away from the label responsible for all her success, and hurried her next album to fulfill her contractual obligation.  For the first time, she did not work with Afanasieff.  Rainbow was released in 1999.  "Heartbreaker" (with Jay-Z) is an example of the Hip Hop elements she began including in her songs.  She continued to have success for the time being, reaching #1 with it and selling over two million singles.  

Carey won World Music Awards for Best-Selling Female Artist of the Millennium, Best-Selling Artist of the 90's and Best-Selling R&B Female.  

Mariah won a Special Award at the Billboard Music Awards in 1998 and she was nominated for Female Artist of the Year in 1999.  She also won Blockbuster Entertainment Awards for Favorite Pop Female Artist and Favorite Album by a Female Artist.  Carey feels this is one of her better songs, but it too failed to chart.  Here is "Can't Take That Away (Mariah's Theme)".

Carey had moved on to a new singer for a boyfriend and "Thank God I Found You" is about Luis Miguel.  It is the result of a late-night session with producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis.  It made it song #14 to reach #1 in the U.S. and also peaked at #2 in Canada and #10 in the U.K.  "Thank God I Found You" has been certified Gold.

Carey won an Achievement Award at the American Music Awards.  We also want to feature "Petals".  It is Carey's heartbreaking story about "Dandelion" (her sister), "Patriarch/Valentine" (her relationship with Mottola), and "Boy" and "Girl" (his two children). 

Rainbow was the worst-selling album of her career to this point.  Still, Carey's early years propped her up, and she received the Artist of the Decade Award from Billboard and Best-Selling Pop Female Artist of the Millennium from the World Music Awards.  Mariah signed a five-album deal with Virgin Records for $100 million that in hindsight, Virgin now likely wishes they hadn't agreed to.  

Be there for Part Four of Mariah Carey!