Mariah Carey Connection

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A five-octave voice, five Grammy Awards, 160 million records sold worldwide, 18 number one singles on the Billboard music charts. She is worth about $225 million and is considered among the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine. It might seem like it is all about the numbers but pop diva Mariah Carey has found her formula for success. At 38, Mariah is now moving on to physics with E=MC2, her 11th studio album.

CNN-IBN’s Priya Krishnamoorthy speaks to the living legend on her new album, life and more.

Mariah Carey: We are not Einstein and there is no pun intended with E=MC2 as the album title.

Priya Krishnamoorthy: But why this title? A lot of your fans have written on www.ibnlive.com and all of them wanted to know what is with the name E=MC2. We know there is Mariah Carey somewhere in it.

Mariah Carey: It was basically a joke like ‘I am world renowned just like Einstein’. I really don’t think so and it is just supposed to be funny. I was most likely the worst maths student in the history of my school. I was terrible. I couldn’t even get past the seventh grade maths. So the title of the album was a play on words because MC is what most people, who know me, call me. Most people don’t call me Mariah unless they don’t know me.

I have never looked at albums as my comeback but Emancipation of Mimi was seen by many as my ‘comeback’. And this new album is that much more free and emancipated than anything else.

Priya Krishnamoorthy: With E=MC2, you have done what many have not been able to. In April 2008 the single Touch My Body became your 18th number one hit on the Billboard music charts, even surpassing Elvis Presley’s record of 17 number one singles. And there is more reason to celebrate for you are the only singer alive who is likely to succeed the Beatles with 20 hit songs.

Mariah Carey: The people that we have been talking about with these records are legends.

Priya Krishnamoorthy: And you are one now.

Mariah Carey: Well, I make music and I love what I do. I celebrate when I hear my new song on the radio for the first time. It’s still exciting for me. What is fun is being able to write and produce my kind of music. I get a chance to live vicariously through my own songs.

Priya Krishnamoorthy: When we talk about living vicariously through your songs what we have seen is that it’s all about fun. I have heard that you even co-direct the videos. Is that true?

Mariah Carey: Yes, it is. Touch My Body has been directed by Brett Ratner who is a very good friend of mine. He loves comedy and he knows that I have a sense of humour about myself.

A lot of people think that I am this person who stands seriously on stage and sings but they don’t know that I even write my own songs.

Priya Krishnamoorthy: If your music and videos are colourful then so is your life. Recently in a surprise wedding you married 27-year-old actor Nick Cannon within weeks of meeting him. This is something I came across and I quote you, “I don’t think I have ever experienced a relationship of the calibre I write about in my love songs.” Do you feel differently now?

Mariah Carey: Completely different. Yes. And it’s interesting because I have had this conversation with my husband also. Everything has heightened because you really are in love now. Everything has suddenly changed. I feel I had written about those things because I had connected with people like that. I had romanticised about other relationships but they were never what my relationship is now. People wrote to me saying I am an eternal optimist but unrealistic for believing in one person who I am destined to be with. When it actually did happen to me, it was an amazing thing because it answered all my prayers. Lot of people don’t believe in all this, but I do.

Priya Krishnamoorthy: They called the wind Mariah, was a song created in 1969 for a musical starring Clint Eastwood. It is this song that gave a little girl with golden voice her name. The voice went on to hit the highest of notes and rule the hearts of millions across the world. What were your earliest memories of singing and did you ever imagine success like this?

Mariah Carey: I saw things on TV and in movies and wondered what the idea of glamour was. I would always think that that is what I want when I grow up. I don’t know what I expected but I just knew that I loved singing, writing poems and I never let go of faith throughout my life especially as a little girl.

Priya Krishnamoorthy: Your mother, an ex opera singer, is perhaps one of the reasons why you dreamed big.

Mariah Carey: My mother encouraged me to believe in myself in a way that was not in a stage mother type of a thing. She really believed in my abilities and she was right.

Priya Krishnamoorthy: Your career took off at the young age of 20. A self-titled album not only went multi platinum but also bagged a Grammy Award. Your single Fantasy from the 1995 album Daydream debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 making you the first female artist to achieve a number one debut in the US. According to the Billboard magazine you were the most successful artist of the 90s in the US.

Mariah Carey: Most people would desire to be famous. It is just because you are lacking something inside, maybe you don’t feel unconditional love and that is why my music has connected with different kinds of people. I have also felt like an outsider in many ways.

Priya Krishnamoorthy: While your albums peaked on the music charts, your marriage to music executive Tommy Mottola, who was responsible for your early success, failed. Following your separation, you introduced elements of hip-hop you’re your music. The good girl image gave way to a more glamourous and sexier avatar. What was the thought process behind the image transformation?

Mariah Carey: When I started I was really young. And I was under the impression that I was not allowed to have an opinion of my own. I didn’t like certain things. I liked some music videos but that was not in my record company’s plan. They didn’t want anything threatening.

Priya Krishnamoorthy: While you were set to live life on your terms, not all went well. Your much hyped acting debut Glitter was a box office disaster, and so was the accompanying album. Around the same time, you suffered an emotional and physical breakdown. Your subsequent albums did not do much for your popularity especially after the new crops of singers like Christina Aguilera and Jennifer Lopez made waves.

Mariah Carey: Starting young is very difficult and growing up in this industry can really mess up people’s lives.

I was always the class clown. I would always make up jokes. It was my own little way of coping with things. I like to believe that I am eternally 12, which means that I rather laugh than dwell on the negativities of life. And the well out there is quite deep, believe me.

Priya Krishnamoorthy: After hitting a low, Mimi, as you are fondly called, came back with a bang in 2005 with an aptly titled album Emancipation of Mimi. The album was a huge critical and commercial success and it even bagged three Grammy awards. And now with your latest album E=MC2, you have upped your career once again.

Mariah Carey: With this album I just wanted to be myself. I know that I have to try to put certain songs on the record like Side Effects or Bye bye. Even though they might be very personal songs and clearly there are some parallels with own life too. But I think it is important to write for other people who made me in a relationship. So I need that bit of inspiration to get out of it.

Priya Krishnamoorthy: It is this ability to touch people’s heart with your music that got you onto the pages of Time magazine. In 2008, you have been voted as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Mariah Carey: I didn’t even understand. I thought it was just entertainment. I had no idea of the enormity of the situation or what it meant. So when I found out, I was like ‘are you serious?’

Priya Krishnamoorthy: The icing on the cake came as praise from musician Stevie Wonder.

Mariah Carey: Stevie Wonder is my ultimate favourite artist. We share a very close relationship because he knows how inspirational he has been to me. So to see what he wrote about me, I had to just call him and thank him for everything. His words were the highest points in my career.

Priya Krishnamoorthy: What does success, power and money mean to you today?

Mariah Carey: Obviously there is commercial success which we have to have particularly once you become famous. But I think that all of us who are in entertainment should get involved and make a difference to this world.

Priya Krishnamoorthy: When are you planning to come to India?

Mariah Carey: I want to go everywhere and I really want to come to India. Please let my fans in India know how grateful I am for their support.

Priya Krishnamoorthy: Thank you so much for talking to us.

Mariah Carey: Thank you.

Source: CNN-IBN Live