Mariah Carey: nowhere near finished
When they say the media makes and breaks an artist, they are absolutely right. The latest victim is none other than mega superstar Mariah Carey. Since her very public nervous break down, numerous articles have surfaced with the word "over" in the headlines. Depending on who you ask, you will hear that the media maybe way ahead of itself by tagging the songbird as being done with.
Mariah Carey is one of the biggest selling female artists with combined sales of over 100 million albums - with her Music Box album heading it all with over 26 million units sold and still selling after all these years. When the songbird signed the now defunct $100 million deal with Virgin records, many in the industry called it a disaster deal and predicted the worst. Well the worst seems to be that Virgin passed on a huge opportunity while paying $49 Million for the opportunity to walk.
When Alain Levy took over at EMI, the word was that he was there to clean house and de-Ken Berry the company. And his first move was dropping Mariah. Since then the Diva has been holding numerous talks with potential takes like L.A. Reid's Arista and Lyor Cohen's Defjam, where she would reportedly settle for a smaller 2 album deal valued at about $5 Million each - if she chose the hip hop giant as her new home.
L.A. Reid, on the other hand, reportedly got some serious words from Arista's reigning Diva, Whitney Houston, who is said to have called the record mogul demanding that he cut talks with the pop princess. However, those rumors where dismissed and talks are going ahead between Reid and Carey. No word on what the possible deal would be worth, but according to reports, it won't be as sweet as the one Whitney signed off on last year.
Many industry vets have said that Mariah's recent sales slump is due in part to her choice to self manage her huge career, which is unheard of in the industry where wheeling and dealing is an everyday thing. However, with all that has been going down with the Diva, she still seems to be a hot commodity with numerous record labels who are all after her talent, but it's still early to say what the outcome will be. With their market share dominance, don't be surprised if she ends up with a Universal Music Group label. (Music Dish) Many thanks to MariahC.nu.
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