Mariah Carey is notorious for delivering sassy one-liners during interviews and on Twitter. But when it comes to Oprah, there's no room for shade. On Sunday, Carey posted a truly hilarious response to a video in which Oprah tries - and heroically struggles - to sing along to her "Heartbreaker" lyrics.
In the behind-the-scenes clip, taken from O's May cover shoot and accompanying Instagram story, a fan suggests that the O of O doesn't know the words to Carey's beloved 1999 track. In her response, Carey confirmed that she's more than fine with Lady O taking a little creative license with her lyrics.
"Honey, if Oprah wants to rewrite my lyrics it's fine with me," she wrote, noting that the last part was "said like Miss Sofia from the Color Purple". Of course, Oprah memorably made her movie debut in Steven Spielberg's 1985 movie The Color Purple, and was nominated for an Oscar for her performance as the strong-willed Sofia.
"Heartbreaker" aside, there are plenty of other behind-the-scenes clips where that snippet came from, including a video of her singing along to Whitney Houston's "I'm Every Woman".
Mariah and Oprah's relationship dates back several decades. In 1998, Carey joined Houston for a segment on The Oprah Winfrey Show to shut down rumors of a rivalry between them, promoting their duet track for the movie The Prince of Egypt, "When You Believe". In 2002, Carey then gave a memorable and candid interview on The Oprah Winfrey Show to mark the release of her ninth album, Charmbracelet.
"It was very important to me, even just starting out, to be a songwriter and express myself. Starting out really young, they can put you with different people and have you sing other people's songs, and I just wanted to do my own, because it's a form of expression for me, an outlet," Carey told Oprah.
She went on to discuss the lead single from Charmbracelet, "Through The Rain", a song which she said was very personal to her. "I did write it after all the hectic mess and all the rumors and all that stuff, and I wrote it for myself. But I also wrote it for other people, to inspire other people to get through whatever things they go through in their personal life. Because none of us are perfect, we're all human," Carey said.
So what "hectic mess" was Carey referring to? In 2001, headlines claimed that she reportedly suffered a breakdown.
"People look at the sensationalized stuff from last year, or they read into different things the way they want to read into them," Carey said. "They look at that and see that piece of my life and say 'Oh, it's been a rough year.' But really, my life hasn't been a fairy tale, and making music and writing songs has been something that carried me through, even as a little girl."
It's well worth watching this full vintage interview to realize how far she's come as an artist.
(Oprah Mag)
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