The darling of all divas, Mariah Carey is famous for a string of hits and albums as saccharine as the love that she sings about. Her rise to fame all began with a Cinderella-style story when the working-class girl married music mogul Tommy Mottola and warbled her way to the top of the charts, before becoming the best-selling female star of the millennium. Love her or loathe her, you can’t deny that she ticks all the boxes of superstardom.
Known, for her love of excess, she has even more Manolos than Carrie Bradshaw, and reportedly orders kittens for her dressing room and has a chauffeur for her dog. Opting for Disney cuteness over Vegas hedonism, the pop diva says: “I don’t do birthdays, I’m eternally 12.” But the star, who supposedly insisted on a £5,000 antique table being flown over from New York for her UK trip, for autograph signings, insists: “It’s still all about the music and not about being a pampered celebrity.”
Here Mariah, 39, talks about why behind her sexy persona she’s a bit of a prude and how you’ll only meet the ‘real’ Mariah in the church pews…
Did your mother give you your stage name, Mariah?
I had a million nicknames. My mother named me Mariah because she didn’t want anybody to be able to call me a nickname. My mother named me and said: “She’s going to be a star.”
So would you say your mother was the real diva in the house?
Yes. That’s how I learned the word diva when most people probably didn’t know what it meant. I know the word diva. The true diva.
Did she behave like one?
She worked very hard to support us after she got divorced. She could have gone further in her career as an opera singer but she encountered a lot of racism because of her marriage to my father. I think it’s because that’s how things were back then. She sacrificed having a family and focusing on that and that didn’t really work out so well but I think she always visualised this for me.
You’ve said there was a time when you didn’t feel pretty- that’s hard to imagine!
It’s difficult when you’re different, when you’re ethnically mixed as a person- my father is black and my mother is white and my father is part Spanish. It’s a mix. Not everybody can relate to that. Now it’s okay because I have professional people do my hair, but when I was a little kid, moving around 13 times with my mother, I didn’t have much money.
Why aren’t you complaining about getting older like most women?
I feel like the same person I was when I was 18. Every day I’m here on this earth I’m going to learn something, whether it’s dressing up for two hours before you go on stage or just maybe I had a bad moment but I pulled it off. To me, you can’t let the hurt turn to hate and bitterness, otherwise I would really not be in a good place. You can’t go through hell and come out of it if you haven’t felt a little bit of heaven.
Do you have any regrets?
I think one of my mistakes was getting married so young. I got married to Tommy Mottola under a lot of pressure. I don’t know how you would describe my marriage. It was a kidnapping in a golden cage. I look at the past and I keep the good memories. There have been bad and good times.
Would you like to have children?
It’s hard to have kids in this world. I don’t think I could properly educate a child right now. Maybe in the future, but actually I haven’t thought about it. For now I enjoy my dog Jack’s company. Some of my friends shock me with their stories of sexcapades and I think it’s funny. I say: “Be you, do what you want.” And they laugh at me because they know I’m a prude.
Why do you think you’re a prude?
It’s definitely because of childhood traumatic stuff. The whole not wanting to have a baby as a baby. I never wanted to feel violated and I know that’s kind of a weird thing to say but that’s how I am.
You’re a prude even though you wear some pretty raunchy outfits?
That is all for the show but when it comes down to it I’m very protective of myself. I feel that I should have known better but I was was young and naive. I should have been more able to say: “No. I’m not going to be pressured into doing something.” To get out of that required an enormous amount of strength. I’m healed now but there will always be an defensiveness in me when I think someone is trying to be too controlling.
Is it true your legs are insured for a million dollars?
Yes. You gotta take care of yourself.
How does it feel being a sex symbol?
I love it. I want to be lasciviously desired. Everyone likes to be loved. You have to try and stay pretty, you know.
You were going to go naked for Playboy but at the last minute you decided to pose in underwear and a bathing suit…
I have to admit that I didn’t want to cause a scandal. A lot of my fans wouldn’t have liked it if I posed nude and that’s the reason. I pose for fun, not money.
Do you sing when you’re home alone?
To really sing I’ll have to go in the shower and lock the door and tell everybody to stay away. If I’m really going to belt it, it’s loud. I need to warm up for just a few bars and then stop. Because of the unique structure of my voice I need two days off before I sing. It’s strong but it’s also very sensitive, like a baby. I drink a little concoction which is basically water with a tiny bit of apple juice, but I have to drink eight of them a night to get it back to the hydrated voice it needs to be.
You seem to live a pretty healthy life…
I guess. It’s bizarrely healthy in some ways. I have to be overly aware of people holding the microphones. Singers who are tuned into that know that if someone touches your microphone you have to sterilise it. Or shaking hands. Some opera singers won’t even leave their house unless they cover their face, because it’s your instrument.
What’s your favourite way to spend money?
When you’re out in public, you’re always working. You’re at dinner and there’s a little kid who comes up to you and asks for an autograph. You’d think their parents would tell them; “Not now, she’s eating!” But they don’t. I’m not going to be rude and hurt a little kid’s feelings. When I go on vacation I spend money. I have a great time and go to an island an get a yacht. These things are expensive. I’ve spent my money on real estate, and jewellery becomes an investment too because if you buy big stones they become more valuable. You’re talking to somebody who grew up with nothing.
Do you go to church very often?
I would like to go more but it’s a trip to go out to Brooklyn and it’s a very humble church. My pastor is just a regular guy who wants people to be there because they want to be there. It’s across the street from the housing projects so most people would never expect me to go there. It’s probably the most real I feel in my life when I get to go.
Are you at your happiest right now?
The only thing that’s not easy at the moment is to do with my voice. My throat doctor lectures me about my vocal chords because they’re very unique. The reason I can hit the high notes is that I have nodules. I don’t want to have them removed because they create the sound. If I’m tired they’re not as strong as they should be so I need constant hydration- water and sprays. I can’t do a lot of the parties because of it.
Source: OK Magazine | Text and Scans: Mariah Connection UK
It’s an hour or two before midnight. For some people in some situations this is seen as the beginning of the day. ‘Here’s the thing,’ says a chatty, relaxed Mariah Carey, clad in costly stretchy skintight black from neck to ankle, wearing shoes that blend the architectural and substantial with the glossy and ephemeral. Her legs are coyly folded underneath her body. Her long hair is tightly pulled back from her face, which is expertly made up to conquer tiredness and appear fresh. Her skin glows with success. There is no hint of any dubious celebrity tightening or enhancing around the eyes, nose, ears and mouth. Her figure implies a certain amount of almost surreal attention has been paid to maintaining fantasy curves. Oddly, when in the presence of pop performers whose image has been defined for many years by cliched magazine covers, glamorous videos and spiteful internet gossip, you find yourself checking out such things.
The singer turned 38 a few days before, and maybe this is the reason she’s got a comfortable sofa all to herself. I’m on a stiff-backed dining chair to her left at the correct journalist distance from her superstar shape. We are alone in the dimly lit room except for a member of her management team who sits a careful few metres away from us concentrating on a laptop as though he isn’t listening to a word we say.
‘Here’s the thing,’ confides Mariah, softly, extremely skilled at talking about herself to a total stranger and pretending it’s a very natural thing to do.
‘Here’s the thing,’ firmly decides Mariah, definitely not clutching any fluffy animals.
‘Here’s the thing … As a human being, this is a very abnormal state to be in,’ admits Mariah Carey about where she finds herself these days, trying out new ways to say things that she has found herself saying for years, for her benefit as much as anyone else’s.
‘To have people meet you who have already formed an opinion of who you are prior to meeting you based on these sweeping generalisations that they have read, well, not that it doesn’t happen in other jobs but clearly it happens more in this job … which happens to be a job even though people don’t think of it as a job, but it is …’
She laughs one of her sudden, winning laughs. She has many laughs for all sorts of purposes: some defensive, some cute, some really quite lusty, some fake, some perfectly calculated to woo the listener, some to demonstrate that she’s got charm, some because she just likes to laugh, some to make you see that she is very aware of the absurdity of her situation and the fact that she’s Mariah Carey, which if it is a joke and there is a world where it has been turned into a joke then: ‘I get the joke. Most of the time I am not taking stuff too seriously. Sometimes I will have a serious or cathartic moment when I am writing a song and doing whatever … but the truth is that this is freaking entertainment, you know, and I get “the joke”. A lot of the things I do are done with a wink.’
When she uses the phrase ‘the joke’ - and it is another one of her favourite phrases - she likes to represent with her fingers and her eyebrows that she is placing quotation marks around the words. Sometimes she will use the phrase ‘quote unquote’ occasionally in collaboration with the finger and eyebrow movement, when she is using certain of her other favourite phrases, or when she wants to indicate her suspicion of certain words, or when she is describing how there are those that ‘get her’ and those that ‘love to take a shot at her’. When she talks about those that hate her, mock her, repeat lies or even just unsettling truths, because of what she wears, or because of what they’ve read, or because of her obsession with butterflies, or because she’s always late, or because she has a personal masseuse on call 24 hours a day, she wears an expression that communicates much of the following:
1. Everyone is always passing judgment on me based on an image of me that’s not even real! Well, judge not, less thou be judged!
2. ‘Everyone has to have something that makes them easy to categorise. It makes people very uneasy if they cannot put you in a box. First of all me being bi-racial already makes people a little freaked out - it messes with their head, it always has and it always will.’
3. When I go to church, I can have that Mary Poppins look going.
4. I have a real connection with my fans, truly fans, who have listened to albums and not just seen a couple of videos and read some tabloid stuff. They fill a void like an unconditional love type of thing. I know that sounds strange but it’s true.
Eventually, as long as you have been invited, you get to meet Mariah Carey. You may have to wait a few hours, as the closer you get to meeting Mariah Carey, particularly when she’s got a new album to sell, the more you notice that there are other people waiting to meet Mariah Carey. Many of these people don’t know that they’re not the only ones waiting. I have been given a time slot of 5.30 in the early evening. I notice that other people expecting to meet Mariah have been given the same time slot. We are all waiting in the George V Hotel in Paris; naturally, because this is as much fairy tale as routine business, Mariah is occupying the most expensive suite in the city.
Five thirty comes and goes. It appears that journalists are slowly getting to meet Mariah and talk to her, no doubt, about her one time ‘complete emotional breakdown’, the tragic Glitter movie and subsequent fallout, her aborted multi-million record deal with Virgin, the question of whether she was the creation, prisoner and possession of her former husband, Sony president Tommy Mottola, her immense Nineties success, her 1998 divorce from the controlling Mottola, her notorious princessy behaviour, her insecurity, the falling from her pedestal in 2001, her five-or six-or seven-octave range singing, her surprising 2005 comeback with the club-pop classic The Emancipation of Mimi.
There are so many journalists waiting to see her some of them go in two at a time. Eventually, after five hours, which I spend in splendid meditation, it’s my turn. I follow the Sun, whose 5.30pm slot turned into a 9.30pm slot. There is a sudden sense of urgency as I am ushered through the grand hotel lobby, not towards the most expensive suite in hostelry history where some of Mariah’s outrageous, or mundane, secrets might be strewn across a vast luxurious bed, but a more anonymous conference room. Arranged in various states of boredom, patience and attention outside the room are signs of an entourage, a gathering of what Truman Capote called ’social protection’ when he wrote about Marlon Brando holding court in a Japanese hotel in 1956. The entourage helps give the impression that even though nothing exciting is going on, this particular hotel corridor by the toilets is the most happening place on the planet.
A door opens, and there - flash - in an ornate Parisian room the size of a basketball court smiling out of her skin like her day’s just beginning is Mariah Carey. She looks like she’d be tall even without her earth-defying heels. She does not look like she’s just been through hours of repetitive interviews. She seems indifferent to any idea that the schedule is running five hours late, or even that there is a schedule. The only thing that gives away the fact she’s been talking all night about such things as her spaced-out TV appearances, the strange, bewildered messages she left on her website in 2001, the death of her strict Venezuelan father in 2003, her Grammy awards, her Long Island accent, on marrying again, on lack of sleep and hardly ever eating, working with Jermaine Dupri and Will.i.am on her skilful, sparkling genre-blending new album, her new video directed by Brett Ratner, her mysterious breasts, her time in rehab, is the rich huskiness of her voice.
She seems pleased to see me. This might be because I am officially the last interview of the day. It might be because it’s her job to seem pleased. It might be her way of apologising for keeping me waiting, or she can sense, with the extra-sensory perception of the private jet set famous, that I consider the five-hour wait to be a vital part of the international superstar thing and I’m pleased to see her. Under the circumstances, I would have considered punctuality disappointing, and was quite happy to let time and to an extent space dissolve while I waited so that by the time I get to meet Mariah Carey I’m disorientated enough to feel I have entered the correct metaphysical zone. A grim-looking nutritional shake with bendy straw is handed to a hungry Mariah, who sighs a little pretend-sadly ‘Lovely, lovely, lovely … I so totally want to eat French fries …’ in a way that instantly communicates:
1. I am very plain and simple in my taste, although I am not averse to luxury.
2. I really want to have some fun, and I’m a fun girl, but I guess I’m working.
3. I am not really going to eat French fries in front of someone I don’t know.
4. It tastes really foul but what can you do?
5. I’m in control of fame, it is not in control of me.
6. I will answer your questions with a particular kind of honesty that gives nothing away about anything other than the fact I know how to conduct an interview whatever the angle. I will seem eager to please not because I necessarily am but because it makes for a better story. I don’t want any trouble. I’m not bitter. I’m happy. I just want to be nice. Don’t be nasty. I believe things will in their own way turn out for the best.
Within minutes of us meeting, despite or perhaps because of the third person in the room, Mariah is remembering when she would be less relaxed in such an interview. ‘We’re having a conversation, whereas back in the day, if this was happening, my answers would just be one word or one sentence. That’s what I was told to do. People around me didn’t want to think that I had my own thoughts. Whatever. I’m not going to delve into that and give a “woe is me” moment. It’s done, who cares, whatever, but at least I’m sitting here with you being myself and even if I never see you again you are seeing me at this moment as me and I don’t really know how to be more down to earth as I feel now … I mean, I’ve met a lot of famous people and a lot of them have disappointed me because I’m a huge fan and maybe they’re in a bad mood on the day but they don’t look you in the eye …’ She looks me in the eye. ‘And there’s no one there.’
She wants me to know that with her, when you look here in the eye, there’s someone there. I do notice this within seconds of being with her - and also that she’s harder, in a pleasant, straightforward way, and more sophisticated, brighter and aware than the tabloids and the celebrity bloggers would want you to believe. ‘I’m still the same person I was prior to quote unquote fame and people maybe expect me to be twisted by the fame situation and are actually disappointed if they find out I’m not. They prefer it that I have been.’ She looks at me, and smiles a steel and silk smile that is all of the following:
1. Resigned.
2. Defiant.
3. Distant.
4. Friendly.
5. Knowing.
6. People have said so much about me at this point that who really cares.
7. ‘Jay Z “gets me”. He knows that there is a person with a good heart and a sense of humour and a talent who can look good in a picture every now and then … and it’s OK to be all those things!’
8. Melancholy.
9. Guileless.
10. Shrewd.
A couple of days later, Mariah and supporting company are in London. The entourage seems to change size and personnel by the hour, depending on what business needs to be done and how far from midnight it is. Engineered attention-seeking promotional stunts have been carried off with the necessary tabloid-rousing aplomb. Various early morning radio interviews have been cancelled. The simple excuse I am given is that Mariah and entourage were up late drinking champagne in celebration of her 18th US No 1 - which takes her past Elvis, and two behind the Beatles’ all-time record. The cancellations cause tabloid outrage in those convinced that this confirms Carey is obnoxious, fragile, narcissistically deranged and addicted to attention even if it is negative.
Early afternoon, I line up among management, record company, Coca Cola-with-bendy-straw-fetchers, nail technicians, hair, make-up, dancers, musicians, in a corridor curtained off from the studio where the raucous, gaudy Paul O’Grady is recording one of his Channel 4 teatime shows. A live audience is having hysterics at a mundane conversation between John Barrowman and O’Grady. Mariah, looking nervous and jumpy in the studio but just dreamily disconnected on screen, performs her super light, electro-lithe YouTube inspired new single ‘Touch My Body’. Sat politely chatting with O’Grady and Barrowman, she wears a moist white smile whipped up into an incandescent emptiness that says:
1. I’m no threat to anyone. Honest.
2. I’m not the girl you think I am.
3. I haven’t a clue what they’re talking about.
4. I can fulfil my duties as mildly damaged middle of the road diva even as my mind wanders.
5. I’m alone. I’m trapped. The media is so powerful, its grasp so insistent and seductive. The image is the message.
In Paris, I’ve been given 45 minutes, but I don’t take that for granted, and assume from the start that the next question I ask is going to be the last question I’m allowed. For my first question, which might be it, I decide not to ask anything about her white opera-singing Irish-American mother Patricia, about the time Mariah thought Marilyn Monroe was speaking to her through her piano, how most of the female contestants on pop talent shows try to emulate her voice, her love for Ol’ Dirty Bastard, her relationship with Eminem, what she spends her money on, the lovely song on her new album about her father, the brave one about Mottola, the bright one or two or three about love and/or sex and/or about playing at being Mariah singing about love and/or sex - if anyone needs to know any of this, there is plenty of information instantly available on the internet.
We’re sat in front of a large blow-up of the cover for her new album E = MC2, which uses the idea of a sultry, provocative Mariah draped in nothing but a feather boa. Selling yourself so blatantly as a sex object surely distracts from you being taken in any way seriously as an entertainer, or the kind of expressive, inventive soul singer you want to be seen as, and plays into the slimy hands of those who like to reduce you to a cartoon, a figure of fun, a dumb female money-making puppet.
‘To be honest, I just like to have fun with my covers. It’s like playing dress up. I call myself eternally 12, because I am, and if I was 12 that would be the photo I would like to have of me. I have pictures of me at eight on a piano wearing a boa. But at nine I was reading Norman Mailer on Marilyn Monroe … The funny thing is … and you’re probably going to be, “Yeah, right,” but honestly, this is how I would dress whatever I did, if I was a waitress or whatever. I dress this way not because I’m a promiscuous person … and on the album cover I’m just selling the idea that I like the boa and it’s festive and it’s got freaking pink lettering because I like pink and I’ve turned Einstein’s Theory of Relativity into my album title. It’s not that deep, it’s not that tacky. It is what it is. I’ve taken so long to be able to have fun with this, so I am now.’
But does the 12-year-old dressing up, and rumours of tantrums, emotional meltdowns, and babyish demands, help explain to people that you are an award-winning songwriter in control of her image, music and career?
‘Here’s the thing. Calling yourself eternally 12 and wearing a boa is one part of who I am. Then there’s the writing of certain songs that I do feel could enhance people spiritually and there is real talk, real words from me about people in my life that I am trying to say something positive to. This is something that is very personal and very real to me. So clearly, I am somewhat of a conundrum and I know that there is a dichotomy between a lot of what I do and the visual presentation. If I had a guitar in my hands all the time and my hair was really wild, there might be more credibility, but half of those people are acting up anyway. The minute they get the chance they lose the guitar, they throw on a bra top and a pair of low-waisted jeans, get a blow out and put on make-up. The thing with women performers is unless you see them behind a piano for the first eight videos that they do then you are not going to think of them as a songwriter if they look remotely pleasing.
‘If you’re a solo woman and you want to be taken seriously without playing a guitar or sitting behind a piano you have to dress obscurely or differently and not too sexy. If I tried to change my image to get more credibility, well, even though praise the Lord I have accomplished what no other woman has in the music business, most people don’t want to believe that I’m capable of anything other than being the person they think I am.’
The day after the O’Grady show I watch her rehearse in another studio for an appearance presenting The Friday Night Project, C4’s crude version of America’s Saturday Night Live. A non-neurotic, matter-of-fact, dutiful and mostly shut-off Mariah is treated by ingratiating hosts Justin Lee Collins and Alan Carr as decorative bait, stooge, sidekick, moll, younger sister, hostess, alien, superstar, target, camp icon, and delicate flower. Collins seems determined to nickname their stoical guest Fine Ass Carey.
Game Mariah reads from the autocue a series of weak, squalid jokes and works hard to put up with the slapstick joshing without slipping into the touchy, demanding diva mode everyone in the studio seems on the look out for. The one real glint of potential, frustrated prima donna behaviour is when the production wants to musically represent her with her melodramatic bland soul version of Nilsson’s version of Badfinger’s ‘Without You’. She politely grimaces, hoping without wishing to hurt anyone’s feelings that they don’t go to heavy with the ‘Without You’ because :
1. That song did a lot for me but it’s not really representative of me as an artist. ‘Fantasy’ in 1996 was a classic moment in music and I’m saying that in a humble way because people have told me, in terms of the pioneering fusion of hip hop and the song, it was groundbreaking because there was me having huge success in the pop charts and there was Ol’ Dirty Bastard, who was in the hottest, grimiest rap group … It became the norm for R&B stars to combine melodies with rapped verses after me. Other people have pointed out that it was me who established R&B and hip hop as the sound of pop. Right back in 1993 on ‘Dreamlover’ I was using freaking loops.
2. A lot of my collaborations have not been on the radar of people who only look at the pop charts.
3. It is the vain, virginal-vamp, straining to impress, panic-stricken voice of the early Nineties, Sony Mariah, the one people confuse with Celine Dion, which seemed to contain no knowledge, and no soul, and no life. Her new downbeat, digitally detached voice, for her trickier, wittier 21st-century sound, a Tamla-techno hip hop cabaret, pulses with synthetic subtlety, wired intimacy and computer-generated mystery. It’s more artificial but more emotional, less real but more sincere.
4. She didn’t write it. She would like them to use something she’s written, even if it’s ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’.
I tell Mariah that I’m surprised she’s doing all the Euro interviews, telling her soapy story again and again. I’m amazed that she’s booked in for all the lightweight radio programmes and the trite trashy TV shows - surely all this will undermine her picky-perfectionist determination to be seen as something special.
‘You mean it’s like I’m doing what a new artist should be doing ? You’re not wrong, but I want this album to be successful. It’s a science these days reaching the people you need to reach, and you have to do what you have to do. I don’t want to get into a saga that’s been told 20 million times but no one seems to remember it … I grew up without a lot of money …. We moved around a lot when I was a kid and my father’s black and my mother’s white and I had a lot of issues as a kid and we moved 12 or 13 times, whatever it is. I don’t want to be inaccurate but the point is that I always had this fear that the rug could be pulled out from underneath me at any time … And so I think that got carried over. I’m a hard worker and that’s part of it … I’m almost afraid of losing what I’ve got. I’m very ambitious. People say MC, no one works like you.’
Doing the trashy stuff might not be the best way of keeping what you’ve got.
‘It’s what you have to do now, find ways to stay in the public eye without giving away your real life. Honestly, every time you walk out of the door it’s a YouTube moment, it’s a blog moment, a whatever website moment. When you appear in public it instantly travels the world … The self-promoting situation in the world now has reached the next level - it’s people’s relationships, it’s porn videos - and I have to find whatever ways to compete with that … I’m doing promotional shows but the other people use their lives as promotional vehicles. I don’t want to say anything negative about anyone else but other people just have their relationships in order to promote their careers and enhance who they are and be talked about in the tabloids. I do what I can to make sure whatever is said about me in the tabloids, it still connects to the music.’
As I watch the Friday Night rehearsal surrounded by crew and entourage, Mariah sits next to me, removing herself for a moment from the role she’s been playing. I’m surprised she even recognises me. Perhaps someone has whispered in her ear about the presence of a journalist.
She’s wearing shoes of such elevated flamboyance it makes you proud to be a biped. She stretches out her legs on the seat in front of her, sucks on the bendy straw in her non-diet Coca Cola, and asks me how’s the story coming. She asks this because :
1. She really wants to know.
2. She knows it will look good in the story that she sits next to me and asks how the story’s going.
3. She’s probably heard I wanted to ask her some more questions and she’s given me the opportunity, even though this time I’ve probably only got a minute.
I tell her that I’m at that point in the story where I asked her what she makes of Leona Lewis at No.1 in America, representing all the blank Cowell-driven Mariah Carey wannabes that there’s ever been.
Mariah keeps a perfectly straight face. ‘Honestly there has been so many “this is the new her” … and I’m like, “OK, show me the new her. Can she come and work for me and be my double?” And I’m not talking about this particular girl, because I only heard her once and I didn’t really see a true similarity, particularly in the style of music. It is what it is and they have compared me to so many people who are not really singers and they’re certainly not writers. If I was to focus on this and really dwell on that, it would really bring me down and so I just try to pray for, like, OK, lose the spirit of jealousy, it’s not a good one - envy is a really powerful thing. Not good. I don’t have anything to be concerned about because there is no new me. I am me until the day I die. Whenever that is, that is when it is.’
Are you worried about getting old and being replaced by younger, fresher candidates ?
‘I’m eternally 12 and I’m going to stay 12 for ever by saying it for ever! I may change how I dress or how I change my hair or whatever but the point is that you look at people who I look up to and who can still stand on a stage and command your attention, be it Aretha Franklin or Diana Ross. You look at them and you think, “You can grow up without losing your place,” and I’m hardly putting myself on the same level, it’s just that we’re all Aries …’
You seem happy with how old you are considering you’re always saying you’re a 12-year-old.
‘It’s because I’m not getting old. Because if you think and act old and look old then you’re old but if you don’t then you ain’t …. OK!!!!!’
You can almost see the exclamation marks pour out of her mouth, confirming that my time is up and that she can rejoin her entourage, if not travel back to her life.
Mariah sits next to me before she has to return to the Friday Night Project rehearsal. By now she has replaced Leona Lewis at No.1 in America. For a moment we’re both quiet, not sure of our roles outside the 45 minutes in Paris. I have no idea who she really is, just a fair idea of who she is when she plays at being the sweet, kind, slightly anxious and insubstantial, sexy singing Mariah her fans and those who make money from her like her to be. I tell her she’s honest and revealing in interviews and songs, but really, that’s still just a mask. She gives nothing away about who she actually is. She answers as a self-conscious 38-year-old mind and media manipulator who skilfully runs her own successful business in the friendly disguise of a professionally immature pop star.
‘Well, if you want to come out with me and my friends on a festive night then you can see who I am on a night like that …. Look, for the media, if I was to be in this interview with all my friends around me laughing it up and joking it with our private jokes, just like if you were spying on anyone at home with their best friend and family on their private lives, they’d be like, “Who’s that? Why are they acting like a totally different person.” Why? It’s because I’m with people who love me and who don’t judge me … The media are always judging me, that’s their job, so I have to hide behind whatever and have fun as much as I can, and make my music. That’s my job.’
She gets up and returns to “the fun”. She waves goodbye to me with her 12-year-old wave, walks down the steps without throwing a tantrum, and gives me a final look that says:
1. Here’s the thing, whether you like it or not, I’m quite good at my job.
· E=MC2 is out now on Universal
Source: Observer Music Monthly | Scans: Mariah Connection UK
She’s one of the biggest-selling female artists in the world, with 18 worldwide No.1s under her belt-and Mariah Carey makes no bones about it. When she jetted into London on a whirlwind promotional tour last week, she took no prisoners. One DJ suffered her wrath after he mistakenly suggested that she’d sold 90 million records rather than the 165 million she’s actually shifted.
This time around, the queen of divas is showcasing not just a brand new album, but a brand new body, too. At 38 years old, Mariah boasts the body of a teenager again- and judging by her sensational new photos, she’s not embarrassed to show it off.
It’s nearly midnight when NOW finally catches up with Mariah. Clasping a chilled glass of Chabilis, she arranges herself by a window, Her favourite white orchids are dotted around the room and she’s bathed in the flattering glow of flickering tea lights. The effect is either romantic or a bit nutty depending on your point of view.
Still this is the woman who “doesn’t do stairs” and insisted that a hotel roll out a red carpet for her. Against that background tonight almost seems reasonable.
As she spills the beans on her new body, babies and marriage, we discover that as although she has a penchant for referring to herself in the third person, Mariah’s really just an ordinary girl who craves attention- albeit on a grander scale than most of us.
On the cover of your latest single Touch My Body you’re pictured starkers, hiding behind a large black hat. Why’s that?
I’ve lost weight!
The photo’s very tasteful.
I wouldn’t do sleazy or explicit photos. Many photographers see me in the style of Marilyn Monroe. That’s why they come up with props that they’ve seen in old Holly wood photos, That’s nice, but my own style is more modern. I’d rather go around in Diesel than classic outfits.
You’re obviously in great shape. How are you feeling about your new figure?
I’m really proud. I’ve lost a lot of fat and a little muscle. Now I have the body I had in high school. My jeans size is the same as when I was 17.
You look as if you’ve lost at least a stone. How did you manage it?
I like to swim, but I don’t do it fanatically. I can run fast, but I don’t lose weight doing that- my endurance is pretty low. So I did yoga and strength training- but carefully. Too much and your legs and arms ends up even more powerful. My thighs became really hard. Here, come on, feel…
I’m not sure that I should…
Go ahead, grab my thigh.
Wow, hard and firm-congratulations! Who helped with that?
My trainer Patricia. She’s French, from Bordeaux. I met her by chance on vacation in St Barts and asked if she’d teach me aerobics. That’s her speciality. She’s teeny weensy and very thin- as thin as one of my arms. Before, I didn’t pay attention to my diet, but if you don’t eat sensibly then no amount of sport is going to help you lose weight.
So you haven’t always had to watch your weight?
I was always relaxed about it. It wasn’t the end of the world if I suddenly weighted three kilos [around 6lbs] more and didn’t fit into my pants. My proportions were OK, as everything got fatter at the same rate.
Why is your shape more important to you now?
I like to dress fashionably and the really cool things only come in size 2 or 4 [UK size 6 or 8]. I decided to pull myself together. But don’t worry: Mariah will never have an eating disorder. And she’ll never be as skinny as a rake either.
You new album E=MC2 is named after Einstein’s theory of relativity?
Pretty bold, right?
Er, yes. Do you know much about physics?
Zero! In school I was so bad at maths that I couldn’t even pass the simplest course. I was so crap, they didn’t let me study a foreign language either.
So what made you choose E=MC2?
The album title is so ironic. Einstein and me- it’s a joke.
Oh right. Besides that, does the title mean anything?
The theory of relevance. I’m often asked how I’ve been able to remain relevant with my music for almost 20 years.
How do you do that, then?
Don’t let yourself be dragged down. Be confident, but not egotistical. Listen to other people, but make your own decisions. I was married [to record boss Tommy Mottola between 1993-98], then I freed myself. I felt like a prisoner, like I was being kept down, for years. But that doesn’t work in the long term with Mariah Carey because I’m strong and can assert myself.
You don’t seem like the type to let things get you down.
Nah, but in my marriage that was the case.
There’s a track on your new album, Side Effects, with the lyrics; “You were scared that I’d become so much more than you could handle.” Is that about your marriage?
Yeah. That was my reality. I had to be tough. I always had to function and smile. I nearly had a breakdown. I also felt under pressure from my old record company. I had to always go from one appointment to the next, always witty and on the ball. No one can stand that for long, I was really unhappy.
Your 2005 album The Emancipation of Mimi was a massive hit. Did that put pressure on you when you were making E=MC2?
No, this album was fun to make. Can’t you hear that? [She sounds a bit cross.]
Oh yes, the mood’s upbeat. Were you trying to make an album that showed everyone how happy you were?
I didn’t want to prove anything to anyone. I made this for me and my friends- I want to play lively, fun music for them when they come over. I live on the 18th floor and last summer we all sat on the roof terrace and listened to my music.
Do you go out to bars and nightclubs much?
Not often. Too much partying isn’t good for me. I have to be responsible when it comes to my throat. Mostly my friends come over and we lie around and have a pyjama party. There are no guys and we prance around the apartment in pyjamas, talk nonsense and drink wine. I love that.
No guys allowed?
Sometimes there are some. The main thing is that they don’t take pictures of us when we’re sleeping. Then I would be mad. [She laughs hysterically.]
Your current single Touch My Body sounds a bit saucy, with lyrics such as; “Put me on the floor wrestle me around, play with me some more.”
You shouldn’t take it so seriously- it’s all in fun and totally cute. The song isn’t especially deep.
Do you come on to men in real life like you do in the song?
You have to forget your indecent fantasies and accept that I’m harmless and playful and anything but a man-eating vamp! Touch My Body shouldn’t provoke or shock in any way, absolutely not.
But it’s a bit filthy. Are you looking for a bit of rough?
It’s OK when a man’s a man in a way that’s playful and full of fantasy.
Like how, for example?
I’m not going to get any more intimate than that!
What kind of man do you like?
I’m not very demanding. All I want is a man who loves me for myself, who accepts me for who I am and who sees the real me and not the singing freak.
You’ve reportedly been dating music manger Mark Sudack for four years. Is marriage on the cards?
I’ve learnt that it’s better not to talk about these things. There’s a lot of speculation but why should I always add to it? I don’t find it necessary to publicise my private life.
Do you dream of one day having a family?
Of course-I’ve just turned 38. But I also don’t drive myself crazy when it comes to having children. If it happens, then I want to the one to take care of the child. I don’t want to be a part-time mother.
Mariah on…
BRITNEY SPEARS
It’s easy to say “With Britney, this and that didn’t work out,” but I’m not that presumptuous. I’ve experienced it myself. Setbacks come if you lead your life in the public eye and let people get closer to you then you should. But it was never as dramatic with me as with Britney. I’ve never done hard drugs and I always had a firm hold somewhere
LEONA LEWIS
It makes me feel old when girls like Leona say that I’m their role model-although I do have the body of a 12 year old! No, it’s an unbelievable honour when other singers say that I’ve inspired them or when people say my songs helped them through difficult times.
What’s my diet secret? Wine and Cheese!
My personal trainer overhauled my diet, so no more cookies, no more crackers and very little sweet stuff for me. I’m allowed wine, of course! But without chips and chocolate. The only thing I’m allowed to eat with wine is olives-and a little cheese.
Source: Now Magazine | Text and Scans: Mariah Connection UK
Mariah Carey is a goddess and self proclaimed diva, known as much for her hair, her body, her boobies, her butterflies, her breakdowns, tears and tantrums as she is for being The BIGGEST SELLING FEMALE ARTIST OF ALL TIME! Currently riding high on the crest of her 18th American Number 1 with Touch My Body, she secured the double whammy by going top of the Billboard 100 with new long player E=MC2, which sold 155,000 units on the first day of release.
Thursday, May 1, 2008
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