Mariah Carey: queen of the divas
 | The cover star of this Sunday's Observer Music Monthly is Mariah Carey with an engrossing interview by Paul Morley inside. Not sure about Mariah's real diva status? We weren't either, although we'd read all the tabloid reports about how she flies her dog everywhere first class, travels with 11 bodyguards and 100 pairs of shoes and expects Egyptian bed sheets and a red carpet on arrival at her hotel.... And then we tried scheduling our photoshoot... One of our art directors, Jamie Sage, picks up the story: In the end, we waited seven hours for her to arrive and then 20 people turned up with a film crew and the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air in tow (Mariah's manager Benny Medina is the real life boy from the 'hood, taken in by a rich Beverly Hills family). But what else were we expecting?
This was our fourth attempt at shooting Mariah. Previous sessions had been arranged in London and New York. Then it was scheduled to happen in LA: a dog was given a mohawk especially for the occasion. Now, on a wet spring night, we're in Paris. Her own lighting man comes over to "check out what you've got going on". "I like it," he says and proceeds to change what we've spent most of the day setting up.
Photographer Jan Welters starts shooting and Mariah's entourage, which includes a make-up artist, hairdresser and body make-up artist, come out to hang and feel the vibe. "I just wanna listen to house music today," says Mariah, so dance mixes of tracks from her new album start bubbling loudly from the speakers.
If she takes any direction at all, it's through Benny. What he says goes. "How about she stops pouting?" I ask. "We don't do moody, but we DO do bitch," says Benny.
Between eating sushi and drinking wine, all the flunkies start boogying around, shouting: "exactly Mariah," as she turns her head; "that's what I'm talking about Mariah," as she put her hand on her hip; "yeah Mariah, yeah," as she turns to the left. "More wind," says Benny, and someone runs to crank the machine up.
Benny gets on everyone's nerves by trying to be the stylist, lighting guy and photographer all in one. Apparently he's even taken the camera off a snapper before and started taking the pictures himself. Every five minutes her film crew comes over to ask to get a few of their own shots.
We're told to finish at 2am because Mariah has a 10am flight to London. Everyone screams, claps, and whoops. Lives have been saved, miracles have happened etc. The next day, after the shoot, word comes through from Mariah's camp that it was one of the best she's ever done. It was certainly one of the most ridiculous I've been on. (The Observer)
|
