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

 

(Continued from Part Three)

In 1999, Carey received a Congressional Award for her work with Camp Mariah and other causes and for "expanding opportunities for all Americans through their own personal contributions, and [setting] exceptional examples for young people through their own successes in life".

Finally, Mariah revived the Glitter project but in July of 2001, Carey suffered a public physical and emotional breakdown.  She posted strange, disturbing messages on her website and appeared erratic in public.  On July 26, Mariah was hospitalized and remained under the care of a doctor for two weeks.  

 

Both the movie and soundtrack album had to be delayed because of her condition.  When they finally were released, both failed miserably.  "Loverboy" stopped at #2 but did go Gold.  It captured the Billboard Music Award for Top R&B/Hip-Hop Single.

Three other singles from the album failed to chart and Virgin promptly paid Mariah $28 million not to record any more music for them.  Mariah moved to Italy and signed a deal with Island Records to launch the record label MonarC. 

In 2002, Carey starred in the movie WiseGirls and performed the American national anthem at Super Bowl XXXVI in New Orleans, Louisiana. She released the album Charmbracelet, which did not sell well.  "Never Too Far/Hero Medley" from her Greatest Hits album, and "Through The Rain" stopped at #81, and her string of failing to reach the Top 40 reached five straight.

Mariah toured North America, Europe, and Asia for three months to promote the album.  She performed "I Know What You Want" with Busta Rhymes and with his help, the song hit #3 in the U.S. and the U.K. and sold over one million copies.  The video was nominated for Best Hip-Hop Video at the MTV Video Music Awards.

Carey received a Diamond Award at the World Music Awards for sales of over 100 million records (combined singles and albums).  After two more singles from Charmbracelet failed to chart, Carey made an historic comeback with the album The Emancipation of Mimi.  "It's Like That" moved to #4 in the U.K. and #15 in the United States and went Gold.  It was nominated for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance at the Grammys.

Carey gave 40 performances in North America, Africa, and Japan to support the album.  "We Belong Together" became Carey's 16th #1 song and racked up 14 weeks at the top spot, second only to "One Sweet Day".  It has sold over eight million copies in the U.S. alone.

Mariah received World Music Awards for Female Entertainer of the Year, Best-Selling Pop Female Artist, Best-Selling R&B Artist and World's Most-Played Single (for "We Belong Together").

Carey earned 10 Grammy nominations and won for Best Contemporary R&B Song and Best R&B Song and Best Female R&B Vocal Performance (for "We Belong Together").  It was also nominated for Record of the Year and Song of the Year and for Best Female Video and Best R&B Video at the MTV Video Music Awards.  

When "We Belong Together" and Mariah's next single, "Shake It Off" held the #1 and #2 positions on September 25, 2005, Carey became the first female to achieve that feat.  "Shake It Off" was also nominated for Best R&B Video at the MTV Video Music Awards.

Mariah was nominated for five American Music Awards, winning Favorite Soul/R&B Female Artist (among nominations for Artist of the Year, Favorite Pop (Rock) Female Artist, Favorite Pop (Rock) Album and Favorite Soul/R&B Album.  "Don't Forget About Us" also roared to #1 and has sold over two million singles.  Carey received Grammy nominations for Best R&B Song and Best Female R&B Vocal Performance.

The Emancipation of Mimi was the best-selling album of the year with five million copies sold and has now cleared 12 million worldwide.  It earned 11 Billboard Music Awards from 16 nominations--awards for Female R&B/Hip-Hop Artist of the Year, Female R&B/Hip-Hop Artist of the Year, Top R&B/Hip-Hop Artist, Top R&B/Hip-Hop Female Artist, Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Artist, Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Artist and Top R&B Hip-Hop Album and nominations for Hot 100 Artist of the Year and R&B/Hip-Hop Artist of the Year, and awards for Hot 100 Song of the Year, Rhythmic Top 40 Title of the Year and Hot 100 Airplay of the Year and nominations for Top Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Song and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay Songs (for "We Belong Together").

Carey released the album E=MC2 in 2007, with "Touch My Body" becoming her 18th #1 song, #1 in the United States, #2 in Canada, #3 in Australia and #5 in the U.K. and has sold two million copies.  It also earned a nomination for Best Female Video at the MTV Video Music Awards.

The album debuted at #1 and Carey was nominated for Favorite Pop (Rock) Female Artist and Favorite Soul/R&B Album at the American Music Awards.  Mariah starred in the movies Tennessee and Precious.  On July 7, 2009, she performed "I'll Be There" at Michael Jackson's memorial service.  

She received a World Music Award nomination for Best-Selling R&B Female Artist.

When three subsequent singles failed, she released the album Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel, which reached #3 but in the less-competitive era, was by far the lowest-selling album of her career.  The lead single "Obsessed" peaked at #7, which allowed Mariah to tie Elton John and Janet Jackson for fifth all-time in Top 10 hits with 27.  It has sold three million singles to date.

Carey received a Special Achievement Award at the World Music Awards and an Honorary Award at the American Music Awards.  But four more singles failed, with the ill-advised remake of the Foreigner classic "I Want To Know What Love Is" the best of the bunch at #60.   

Mariah was named Hunger Ambassador of the World Hunger Relief Movement in 2008.  She married Nick Cannon in 2008 but they divorced in 2016.  In 2010, Carey released the holiday album Merry Christmas II You, which peaked at #4.  She also collaborated with Tony Bennett on the song "When Do The Bells Ring For Me?".

Carey received the Icon Award from BMI and was one of the judges on American Idol in 2012 and she appeared in the movie The Butler in 2013.  Mariah recorded "Almost Home" for the soundtrack album to the memorable movie Oz the Great and Powerful.   

 

In 2014, Mariah released the album Me.  I Am Mariah...The Elusive Chanteuse.  She began a residency at the Beacon Theatre in New York City.  "Beautiful" (with Miguel) sold two million singles but stopped at #15.  

She won World Music Awards for a Legend Award, Pop Icon Award and Solo Artist with the Most Number One Singles in America.

Unfortunately for Carey, her streak of singles that failed to chart has now reached 24 in a row.  She jumped labels again to join Epic Records in 2015 and began a residency at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.  She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame that same year.

Carey released the compilation album #1 to Infinity and directed the Hallmark Channel movie A Christmas Melody, which she also starred in.

Mariah toured Europe for the first time in 13 years in 2016.  The next year, she voiced a role in the animated film The Lego Batman Movie.  She then joined Lionel Richie for a tour.  She also worked on her own animated Christmas movie, Mariah Carey's All I Want For Christmas Is You, released in 2017.  

In 2018, Carey returned to Las Vegas and then toured Europe and Asia.  Her song "The Star", from the movie of the same name, was nominated for Best Original Song at the Golden Globe Awards.  She released the album Caution.  The title song is one that was not released, but is among her best.

When her re-release of "All I Want For Christmas Is You" in 2019 peaked at #1, Carey became the only artist in history to enjoy a #1 song in four consecutive decades and it gave her 19 career #1's.

Mariah was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2020.  The event hosted by Elton John raised over $8 million which was donated to research and supplies needed for COVID-19.  Carey also performed on the Rise Up New York! virtual telethon which raised over $115 million for victims of COVID.

Mariah released her memoir, The Meaning of Mariah Carey, and the EP The Live Debut - 1990 in 2020.  She released the compilation album The Rarities, which included the lead single "Save The Day".  

Carey's range and melismatic style have influenced a generation of singers.  Among the many stars who credit Mariah as an inspiring singer are Rihanna, Beyonce, Christina Aguilera, Kelly Clarkson, Pink, Mary J. Blige, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande.  Stevie Wonder told Richard Harrington of The Washington Post, "When people talk about the great influential singers, they talk about Aretha, Whitney and Mariah.  That's a testament to her talent.  Her range is that amazing.

Carey has won 20 World Music Awards out of 24 nomination, 8 American Music Awards from 37 nominations, 5 Grammy Awards from 33 nominations, 19 Billboard Music Awards with 28 nominations, 6 Blockbuster Entertainment Awards out of 7 nominations and 1 People's Choice Award with 7 MTV Video Music Award nominations and a Golden Globe nomination.

Carey has 48 career hits, with an impressive 27 of those reaching the Top 10 and 19 of those going to #1.  She hasn't been quite as popular with adults, but still 30 career hits with 21 Top 10's and 7 #1's.

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!

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

 

(Continued from Part One)

Carey and Afanasieff's songwriting partnership was paying big dividends and the two would continue to work together through 1997.  Mariah's 1993 album Music Box became the biggest of her career.  "Dreamlover" rose to #1 in the U.S. (for 8 weeks) and Canada and landed in the Top 10 in the U.K., Australia, New Zealand and the Netherlands.  It has sold over two million copies. 

"Dreamlover" was nominated for Favorite Soul/R&B Single at the American Music Awards, and Carey was nominated for Favorite Pop (Rock) Female Artist and Favorite Soul/R&B Female Artist.    

 

The Mariah Carey we heard in the early days was largely a manufactured Mariah Carey.  As we will see, she didn't have good instincts, though she was kept from making mistakes in her early career.  As we see here, she didn't want to record what turned out to be one of her greatest and most-loved songs.  While she was working on Music Box, Epic Records (a division of Sony) asked Mariah if she would write and record a song and release it on the soundtrack to the movie Hero, starring Dustin Hoffman and Geena Davis.

Afanasieff talked to Fred Bronson for the book Billboard's Book of #1 Hits about the writing of the song:

        I went to New York and we were in the studio

              and came to a break. I was sitting at the

             piano and told Mariah about this movie. 

             Within two hours, we had this incredible seed

             for this song, '"Hero". It was never meant for 

            Mariah to sing. In her mind, we were writing a

             song for Gloria Estefan for this movie. And we 

             went into an area that Mariah didn't really go

             into-in her words, it was a little bit too 

             schmaltzy or too ballady or too old-fashioned

             as far as melody and lyrics.

As the two completed work on the demo, Mottolo, CEO of Sony and Carey's fiancé walked into the studio.  After hearing the rough version, Mottola became interested in it, asking what project the song was for.  Mariah explained the concept and how the song would be used in the film.  "Are you kidding me?, Mottola responded.  "You can't give this song to this movie.  This is too good, Mariah, you have to take this song.  You have to do it." 

As usual, Tommy was spot-on and Mariah was wrong.  It rocketed to #1 for four weeks, sold over four million copies, was the #5 song for the year and is one of The Top 500 Songs of the Rock Era*.

Carey picked up another American Music Award for Favorite Pop (Rock) Female Artist in 1995, and she was nominated for Favorite Adult Contemporary Artist, Favorite Pop (Rock) Album and Favorite Soul/R&B Album.  She also won a Billboard Music Award for Top Female Artist and "Hero" was nominated for Top Single.  Mariah's voice lends a nice touch to the Nilsson classic "Without You".  It reached the Top 10 in every major country in the world, her 11th consecutive Top 10 hit.

Music Box, a #1 album in virtually every country in the world, has now sold 28 million copies worldwide.  Mariah wrote this song when she felt desperately alone, cut off from her friends, as Mottola controlled not only her professional but her personal life as well.  The thoughts expressed in the song are Mariah's belief in God and what she thought God would say to us in times of fear.  Carey broke away, with the relationship ending in divorce in 1997, but her singing career would never be the same.  This is "Anytime You Need A Friend".

Mariah went on her first headlining concert tour to promote the album, something stage fright had prevented her from doing for the first two releases.  Here is "Music Box".

Carey won Best-Selling World Recording Artist, Best-Selling Pop Artist and Best-Selling American Recording Artist at the World Music Awards.  Carey and Luther Vandross collaborated on a remake of the classic "Endless Love".

Mariah was nominated for Grammy Awards for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female for both "Dreamlover" and "Hero" while "Endless Love" earned a nod for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals.

Mariah released the holiday album Merry Christmas, which featured what has now become a standard, "All I Want For Christmas Is You".  It is featured in the great movie Love Actually and has now sold over 17 million singles, one of the top-selling songs of all-time.

Thanks to the single, Merry Christmas has sold over 15 million units globally.  Carey delivered a great version of "Joy To The World" that is also one of The Top 150 Christmas Songs of All-Time*. 

Mariah began shifting away from what had made her popular, introducing more R&B elements to her music on the album Daydream.   

"Fantasy", however, was a massive hit, debuting at #1 and remaining there for 8 weeks in the U.S. and also going to the top in Australia and Canada.  The single has sold over six million copies.

Carey took home Blockbuster Entertainment Awards for Favorite Pop Female Artist and Favorite Single.  "One Sweet Day", with superstars Boyz II Men, raced to #1 and stayed there for 16 weeks, breaking the all-time record for weeks at #1 in the United States, while also topping charts in Australia and New Zealand.  It too is over six million in single sales and won a Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Adult Contemporary Single and the video was nominated for Best R&B Video at the MTV Video Music Awards.

Mariah won Billboard Music Awards for Top Hot 100 Singles Artist and a Special Award signifying the all-time record at #1 for "One Sweet Day" and the song was also nominated for Single of the Year.  "Open Arms", Carey's remake of the Journey classic, did not chart in the U.S., but did reach #4 in the U.K. and #8 in New Zealand.

Mariah donated proceeds from "One Sweet Day" to charities.   While recording Daydream, Carey also wrote, produced, and contributed backing vocals for Chick's album Someone's Ugly Daughter.  "Always Be My Baby", #1 in both the U.S. and Australia, made it three Triple Platinum singles from the album.

Carey captured World Music Awards for Best-Selling Overall Female Recording Artist, Best-Selling Female Pop Artist, Best-Selling American Female Recording Artist and Best-Selling Female R&B Artist.

Mariah won American Music Awards for Favorite Pop (Rock) Female Artist and Favorite Soul/R&B Female Artist in 1996 and she was nominated in both categories the following year as well as Favorite Adult Contemporary Artist, Favorite Pop (Rock) Album and Favorite Soul/R&B Album.  "Forever" was a #2 smash on the Adult Contemporary chart.

Carey scored Grammy nominations for Album of the Year, Best Pop Vocal Album, Record of the Year and Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals (for "One Sweet Day"), Best Female Pop Vocal Performance (for "Fantasy") and Best Female R&B Vocal Performance (for "Always Be My Baby".  Daydream has sold over 20 million copies worldwide.  Carey toured Japan and Europe, but only gave seven combined performances.  Although "Underneath The Stars" was released as a single, it had limited pressings and did not chart.  Still, it is regarded as one of the best songs on the album.

Join us for Part Three!