Music icon Mariah Carey is celebrating being named one of the 30 Greatest Living American Songwriters. The New York Times released its controversial list this week, and Carey was named among artists such as Taylor Swift, Jay-Z, Nile Rodgers, Lionel Richie, Babyface, Carole King, Bob Dylan and Lana Del Rey.
Diane Warren, who is behind hits such as Celine Dion's "Because You Loved Me" and Aerosmith's "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing", also made the cut.
Carey, who has written and co-written all of her No.1 singles, is often praised for her songwriting by both fans and music critics. Despite writing hit songs such as "All I Want for Christmas is You", "Fantasy", "Dreamlover", "Hero", "My All" and "Emotions", the 57-year-old says it's still hard for her to say she's good at songwriting. "It's really hard for me to do that," she told the publication.
Carey's late mother, Patricia, was also a singer and played a huge role in shaping her career. "I remember one time my mother said to me, 'Don't say if I make it', say 'when I make it'. I would sit in with her musicians. I was probably nine at that point. That's when I really picked up what creating something was."
The 5x Grammy Award winner says she started writing poetry first, and then added melodies to make songs. "There's a pen involved. There are voice notes involved. There was an occasional thesaurus," she said. The singer's fans know very well that she put that thesaurus to work. Thanks to her pen game, they have added words like acquiescent, reverie, and rigamarole to their everyday vocabulary.
Carey says she is "incredibly honoured" to be on the list of greatest songwriters. "All I ever wanted to be known as, before anything else, is a songwriter. Being in the company of the genius songwriters on this list is an honour all on its own," she wrote on Instagram.
Carey also thanks fellow singer Victoria Monét for the "generous words" she wrote about her in The New York Times. "Her songs often live in that space between vulnerability and strength. She writes melodies that move in unexpected ways but still feel natural to sing," Monét wrote. "Every run, chord change and lyric feels like it’s serving the story of the song. She mastered stacking harmonies and creating moments where the vocals almost become part of the production."
(Jacaranda FM)
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