Virgin Records to say bye-bye to Mariah
It did not take long for the glitter of pop diva Mariah Carey's new multimillion-dollar record deal with EMI to lose its lustre. Three months after the commercial flop of her first EMI release, the British-based music giant is seeking to buy out Carey's contract by offering her a huge lump-sum payment to leave EMI's Virgin Records label, the Los Angeles Times reported yesterday.
The Times put the value of Carey's contract at $80-million for four albums, although other reports said she signed for as much as $118-million for five albums. Representatives for Carey, EMI and Virgin Records could not be reached for comment.
EMI signed Carey in April after the singer had endured an increasingly unhappy stint at Sony Music Entertainment, which is run by her former husband, Tommy Mottola. Her shift to Virgin came at an awkward time for Carey, described by some observers as caught between such teen stars as Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera and more adult performers such as fellow Virgin artist Janet Jackson.
Glitter, Carey's debut album at Virgin and the soundtrack to the film she starred in, sold a disappointing two million copies worldwide since its release in September. By comparison, her 1993 album, Music Box, released by Sony, sold more than 20 million copies.
Carey is one of numerous high-profile recording acts - among them R.E.M., Macy Gray, and Shelby Lynne - whose latest albums tanked during a year in which the music industry has seen declining sales overall. The retail fizzle of Glitter also capped a personally trying period for Carey, who was hospitalized for a mental and physical breakdown in July and suffered a relapse in September.
Carey's health limited her availability to do advance promotion for the album and movie, a semiautobiographical film in which she starred as an aspiring young singer who dates a DJ to help her break into the business.
According to The Los Angeles Times, EMI agreed in April to pay Carey a $20-million advance for each of four albums under her contract and to provide a $6-million music video production fund and about $1.5-million to promote four singles. Sources cited by the newspaper estimated the label spent more than $10-million to market and promote the ill-fated Glitter. (The National Post)
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