Mariah Carey's collapse
"I don't know what's going on with life... I'm trying to understand things... and so I really don't feel that I should be doing music right now... What I'd like to do is just take a little break or at least get one night of sleep." This cry for help, posted on www.mariahcarey.com by Mariah herself, encapsulates the beginning of a breakdown that put the pop diva into a New York hospital for exhaustion on July 25.
Mariah has been promoting her new material non-stop, with television and radio interviews and appearances all over Europe and the U.S. to hawk her new soundtrack album and two upcoming movies, "Glitter" and "Wise Girls". The 31-year-old entertainer and self-proclaimed workaholic, who suffers from insomnia, once said while promoting her 1999 release, Rainbow, "I've been consistently sleepless since I started promotion (on the album), and I'm really exhausted."
At recent public appearances and record signings, Mariah seemed more and more distracted and unfocused. She is under incredible pressure to live up to her new multi-album deal with Virgin Records, valued between $17 million and $20 million, and in her personal life she had to put her relationship with Latin pop singer, Luis Miguel, on hold due to conflicting schedules and rigid attention to her work.
Just days before she checked into the hospital for exhaustion, Mariah made a strange, unplanned surprise appearance on MTV's "Total Request Live" pushing an ice cream cart. She pulled off her t-shirt, revealing a small tank top and short shorts underneath, and when host Carson Daly tried to cut to commercial, she wouldn't let him get a word in edgewise. She read aloud a letter to Carson from her mother and then later said, "I just want one day off when I can go swimming and eat ice cream and look at rainbows." A couple days later, in the early hours of July 25, Mariah posted some cryptic messages on her official Website, including, "If anybody gets this that really cares, just do me a favor, close down the management company that I own... Right now I need a break so I will, as a human being, take that break." (The messages were subsequently removed from the site.) Later that day, Mariah checked herself into the hospital.
Ever since she burst on the scene in 1990 after handing music mogul Tommy Mottola a demo tape, Mariah has sold over $140 million in record sales. But the buzz on "Glitter", her motion-picture debut, is not very good (it's been relegated to an end-of-August release - no word yet on the mafia-themed "Wise Girls", co-starring Mira Sorvino), and the release of the corresponding soundtrack album's first single, "Loverboy", was met with tepid response, debuting at 79 on the pop charts. Mariah is used to her music quickly burning up the charts, and the new tune did not reach number two until her label slashed the CD single's price to 49 cents.
Until further notice, Mariah has cancelled all of her immediate plans, including a performance on MTV's 20th anniversary concert. A source from Carey's management company told US Weekly that "she's getting the rest she needs, and she'll be back with us as soon as possible. We're not sure when. It's only been a few days, but the doctors will be advising us." Cindi Berger, Mariah's longtime publicist, said, "With her new music and new label and her first movie this was meant to be a new beginning. But she was burning the candle at both ends, working around the clock. She just worked too hard." Nancy Berry, vice-chairman of Virgin Music Group Worldwide also added, "Mariah is so very talented and has been working extremely hard these past few months. Whatever Mariah Needs, we are 100 percent behind her."
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