Saturday 27 August 2005

Mariah Carey cements comeback

Hitting the top of the music charts again can be sweeter than the first time. Mariah Carey is living proof. As a sign of her resurgence with the album "The Emancipation of Mimi" and the single "We Belong Together", the high-note-hitting singer will be among the performers at the 2005 MTV Video Music Awards. The music channel televises the event Sunday, Aug. 28, from Miami's American Airlines Arena.

Diddy, the latest name being used by Sean Combs, will serve as host. Other artists set to perform include Kanye West, Kelly Clarkson, Green Day, the Killers, Shakira and Ludacris. Carey enters this year's VMAs with two bids for "We Belong Together" (best female video and best R&B video), but Green Day tops the nominee list with eight bids. Gwen Stefani and Missy Elliott follow with six each, and U2 has five.

The ultimate contest - video of the year - is between Coldplay (for "Speed of Sound"), Green Day ("Boulevard of Broken Dreams"), Stefani ("Hollaback Girl"), Kanye West ("Jesus Walks"), and Snoop Dogg featuring Pharrell ("Drop It Like It's Hot").

However she may fare at the 2005 VMAs, Carey feels great these days, and why not? Her trademark sound on "We Belong Together", her 16th song to hit No. 1 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart, has made it the most successful single in the history of the Island Def Jam Music Group. And "The Emancipation of Mimi" has gone triple-platinum in sales since its release in April. Add her much-noted showcase with an African children's chorus at the recent Live 8 concert in London, and it has been quite a summer and year for Carey.

"It is a complete and total thrill," she says from Germany while on a concert and promotion tour. "The first week I was like, 'Wow, OK, this is my biggest first week ever', and that was amazing. You know that you'll usually go right from No. 1 to No. 22, and that would have been all right. It still would have been a triumph for me, and I would have been ecstatic with what had happened, but the consistency is what's really been making me feel proud. This record really represents who I am. I feel like I took a lot of flack for a long time for doing this or that, but it was all what's in my heart."

After performing earlier this summer at the MTV Movie Awards, Carey is glad to return to the channel. "With the people who work there, it's not like dealing with people who aren't young and creative and innovative," she reflects. "They deal with visuals constantly, and it was my manager Benny Medina's idea to do a 'Sin City'-esque color scheme for 'We Belong Together' on the Movie Awards. I got a lot of compliments on it, even though I can't really take any credit for it."

However, Carey does accept credit for the hugely romantic post-breakup tune "We Belong Together", despite being amused when people deem it to be in the tradition of many other Carey hits. "It's funny, because 'Always Be My Baby' was the first song I ever wrote with Jermaine Dupri, who is primarily a hip-hop producer. It became one of my biggest records, and this song has totally eclipsed that. I had hopes for it, but never did I think it would become the biggest song of my career. It's a very huge blessing, and I'm very happy it's with Jermaine. He understands and knows me as a friend as well as an artist."

To have such a level of success again, Carey attests, "makes you appreciate that much more when you go through difficult times. You embrace the fact you're having that kind of moment, and you accept it and deal with it and center yourself. That's what I did, and it felt like I was getting back to that spiritual place where I was before I ever put a record out, the faith that I had in myself. I had to put aside losing all the fanfare and the hype and whatever negative things people had to say. Not to use the title of one of my songs, but I had to 'Shake It Off' literally and fully get into the music."

The approach clearly paid off for Carey, who stresses, "The fact that people have embraced the record means that much more to me. It's a wonderful feeling of validation. The first time I had success, of course, it was amazing whenever I'd hear one of my songs on the radio. I didn't really experience it fully, though. Even that first year when I went to the Grammys and won," Carey says, "it was like living somebody else's life. It was all so surreal and it all happened so fast, but now, I know to take things in and enjoy them and be grateful."

(Zap2it)



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