"Divas live their life, I live my career"
She has more number 1 hits than real friends, she sold over 115 million records and she has stipulated by contract that there should be Cristal champagne and fat-free, apple-cinnamon rice-crackers in her dressing room. Mariah Carey, 29, the girl behing the diva.
Mariah is joyful. She is happy for the first time in a long period. Her relationship with Tommy (Mottola) is over for good and her new love, Luis Miguel, is shown everywhere with pride. Except for today. Mariah, M.C. for insiders, has installed herself with her delegation on the Italian jetset island of Capri. Bill Gates, Cruise and Kidman, and Mick Jagger preceded her. Mariah is lying on a stretcher by the pool on the private terrace of a luxury 5-stars hotel. A glass of white wine in her hand, a pair of cut off jeans and a pink top, and a well-meant smile on her face. Only her breasts are fake. But they are beautiful!
Shortly after her debut in 1990, the first critics called her "another white girl who tries to sing black". Now they blame Mariah for being too much "hiphop", something the many-sided diva still can get mad about. "First of all, you can't call me white. Maybe I look white, but I'm not. I'm a mixture, such people do excist! My father is one-quart Venezuelan, one-quart African and the rest American. My mother comes from a lily-white Catholic-American family. I'm a child from forbidden love. My mother was banned by her family, my father beaten up. We didn't belong in a white neighbourhood and we didn't belong in a black neigbourhood. Our dog was poisoned and they burned crosses in our front garden. I couldn't see the beauty of my mix. The only thing that was going through my head was the thought that I was wrong. If black was wrong, so was I! Now I'm going through the same struggle once again. The record company made me look like a classical diva, who had to look conservative. That shy and innocent girl was a part of me, but at school I was known as someone who wore very tight and very short skirts. Now that I do what I wanna do, people find me dissolute. I would deny my image."
Aren't you pissed off that it is never OK?
Mariah smiles. "I'm the same girl that grew up in New York and went to shows where dj Red Alert was playing. I heard my mother sing opera, I loved Barbra Streisand and Olivia Newton-John, but I also listened to Aretha Franklin and Stevie Wonder. I am the product of a family from Jamaica, Queens and one from Springfield, Illinois. Come on, we are almost in a new millennium. Isn't it ridiculous that I can't be who I am, and can't do what I wanna do?"
Do you ever think back of the days you were a serving girl and ate macaroni from a can?
"I never really took the time to think about it. Frequently, I pass by my old appartment, because there is a recording studio close by... But often it are other people who remind me of that period. People like Lenny Kravitz. He belonged to a group of 'artistic people' from the upper westside. I was the little girl who hang about in that neighbourhood and looked up to him. The time in the beginning in New York was wonderful and horrible at the same time. For the first time I was on my own feet, could finally work at my career. On the other hand, I was with four other girls in a too small appartment, I worked as a waitress and background vocalist, and slept on my mattress on the floor with only 5 dollars in my pocket. We used to get free bagels and tea from the boy from Deli. It was that bad."
Considering that period, don't you think you earn too much money?
"Hhhmmm. I earn much money, but not ridiculous much. In the beginning of my career I was screwed a lot. I was 19 and had to fight against a multinational. I lost and half of my earnings went to someone else. By now, I have straighten that. Do you know what is with money? The more you make, the more people you have to pay. Every video, every album that I record, I have to pay for myself. The record company substract all their expanses from my paycheck. With what's left I have to support my family."
You stay in one of the most expansive hotels, wear clothes of top brands and you have a house that's worth a couple of millions.
"I don't have a house worth a couple of millions. Tommy has a house worth a couple of millions! I only payed half of it and it wasn't cheap. I've lost all that money. Stupid, because I did not even wanted to live there. I preferred the city with all my friends. I thought that such a house would make me. That it would radiate who I was, what I had accomplished. In reality I felt unhappy and alone. And about the expansive hotels... I have to. In chic hotels people don't bother me, no idiots can enter my room and at nights screaming fans won't keep me awake. Personally I am happy everywhere, as long as I am with friends."
What would have happened if you haven't given that cassette to Tommy?
"At the moment I went to the party where I met Tommy, my negotiations with Warner were almost finished. But whatever side my career would go, I'm sure I would have never given up. Who records an album every year, writes 99% of the lyrics, and promotes every album? People think that divas go on stage and sing other people's lyrics. For once I wish that someone would do that work for me. But something inside me tells me I have to do it myself. Divas live their life, I live my career!"
Do you ever dream of being unknown?
"Everytime I look in the mirror I see a girl who was uncertain all of her life and who has gone through a lot of shit (she means Tommy). A girl whose best friend ran of the house because she had never seen a Negro (in this case, my father). I see myself, not a celebrity. I still can walk down the streets. If people want a autograph, I give them one. And after that, I keep on walking." (Veronica)
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