The once great diva Mariah Carey is now the biggest laughing stock in the entertainment industry. Lip-syncing disasters, almost daily wardrobe malfunctions, a car-crash engagement to a billionaire followed by a rebound romance with a toyboy staffer.
And all painfully documented by cameras for the most ill-advised reality show in showbiz history. Now the singer's glittering career lies in tatters, with friends fearing it will take years for her reputation to recover... if it ever can.
As a huge fan of the superstar singer who ruled the music industry in the 90s in the same way Adele does today, this is something I never wanted to see happen. However, the decade's biggest self-inflicted showbiz meltdown cannot be ignored.
At the weekend, Mariah's flimsy grasp on reality became evident again as she tried to justify her mortifying on-stage mishap in New York on New Year's Eve. Despite the fact she was being broadcast live to millions, the 46-year-old halted her headline performance and in the process revealed that she was miming to pre-recorded vocals.
Her paranoid team claimed Mariah had been sabotaged, but the highly respected Dick Clark production company insisted she simply had not rehearsed properly. It seems Mariah still believes the "wreck of a New Year's Eve" wasn't at all her fault. She moaned: "For me, there's different rules. I don't know why, it's not OK that I was victimised and vilified by the situation."
Right now it's hard to recall that two decades ago Mariah was the world's top pop star, selling more than 200 million records. Her powerhouse vocals on tracks like Vision Of Love, Dreamlover, Fantasy, Hero and the now-iconic festive anthem All I Want for Christmas Is You made her a superstar.
In 1997, she carried out her reinvention when her four-year marriage to her powerful record company boss Tommy Mottola, who was nearly two decades her senior, ended. She re-branded herself as a sex bomb and the hits like Honey, We Belong Together and Touch My Body kept coming well into the Noughties.
But the last nine years have seen Mariah languishing in the wilderness. She hasn't had a UK top 20 hit since 2008 and her last single to chart here, 2015's Infinity, only got to No 154. A bid to become relevant again as a judge on American Idol fell flat - she lasted only one season.
There was another failed marriage to US TV host Nick Cannon, who Mariah married in 2008. They had two kids but officially divorced last year. The notoriously difficult singer went through a string of different management teams, firing staff members left right and centre.
But she finally settled on working with Stella Bulochnikov - and that's where the real trouble began. The brash former stand-up comedian has been slammed for acting like a "fame-hungry Russian dictator" behind-the-scenes and driving away many long-time staffers who had Mariah's best interests at heart.
Stella was behind the now disastrous move to secure Mariah a Kardashians-style reality series on the E! channel, where Stella made herself a central character. The decision certainly didn't appear to be about money - Mariah's fortune is estimated at £420million.
Over eight hour-long episodes the series, called Mariah's World, did more damage to the singer's reputation than decades of reports about her outlandish diva demands. Captured for the world to see was a delusional star entirely reliant on a team of sycophantic staffers who cared more about advancing their own careers than protecting hers.
Filmed on last year's disastrous Sweet Sweet Fantasy European tour, she seemed to have no idea what country she was in much of the time as she was filmed giving lacklustre lip-synced concerts where she often arrived on stage hours late.
She conducted many of her truly weird interviews for the show fully made up, in sunglasses, dressed in skimpy lingerie and lounging on hotel beds. Viewers quickly turned off, with ratings plummeting from two million at launch to around 500,000 by the end of the car-crash series last month.
The timing could not have been any more disastrous - Mariah was filming the show just as her ten-month engagement to Aussie billionaire James Packer, 49, was breaking down in September. Sources close to Packer, who is worth £2.8billion, revealed that Mariah refused to sleep with him before they wed and would only engage in kissing. He was also concerned about her outlandish spending, which included £80,000 a month alone on purchasing exotic flowers.
Conveniently at the same time as the engagement broke down, Mariah began an on-camera courtship with backing dancer Bryan Tanaka, who is just 33, which included her giving him an on-stage lap dance. When Packer finally pulled the plug on the romance last October, Tanaka was there to be by Mariah's side in public.
Some friends cruelly say he acts "more like a carer than a lover". There have been many cringeworthy public displays of affection designed to prove Mariah is over her engagement, including an over-the-top beach romp where she popped out of her cossie.
Bizarrely, pictures of Mariah in unflatteringly revealing outfits have been put on her Instagram by manager Stella's 12-year-old daughter Mishka, who was put in charge of her social media. Now I am not for a moment saying that Mariah looks anything other than beautiful with her voluptuous curves. But it is sad that many of the pictures she posts are so obviously Photoshopped and airbrushed.
Most people in the industry have their own Mariah story. I spent the day with her, and her huge entourage, in London a few years ago, which included our own photoshoot. That's where things got interesting. Out came her personal lighting assistant, who travelled with her wherever she went. Getting one frame she was happy with took an age. But not surprisingly, it's the best picture of me ever taken, at the top of this story. Airbrushed to ridiculous lengths, my face looks slimmer, more tanned and chiselled than it ever has in real life.
Things have got so bad for Mariah that her publicity-shy ex-husband Mottola - the man responsible for her early career success - released an unprecedented public statement. In an obvious dig at Stella, he wrote: "My only advice is that she should hire more seasoned and respected professionals to surround her and help her with her career. I would never have encouraged her or guided her to do something like a reality television show. I don't get it. That does absolutely nothing for her integrity, her credibility or her massive talent. She should take a step back, think carefully and figure out what to do next."
But Mottola still believes it is possible for his ex-wife to return to her former glory. He added: "Hopefully she will find her way to the right professionals for guidance. It's never about the fall, it's all about the recovery." Manager Stella immediately hit back, saying: "Really? Tommy is a relic. Did he give you that statement from a rotary phone?"
It was simply yet another example of why Mariah needs a wholesale clear-out of the people currently around her - especially the ridiculous Stella - if she is to have any chance of returning to the top. Based on her recent behaviour, I don't have high hopes.
(The Sun)
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Ignacio Pineda from United States wrote:
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Sad, but true. I miss the days when Mariah was about her voice and lyrics. I think she needs to let the 20 year old do the skimpy outfits and she needs to go back to being "The Voice". Love her to death, though.
(Monday 20 February 2017; 21:50)
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Will from England wrote:
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"Disastrous Sweet Sweet Fantasy European tour"? Which part? The great reviews, the sold out shows, the good performances? Other than that section, painfully true the rest of the article.
(Monday 20 February 2017; 23:56)
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Gemma from Australia wrote:
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Yeah sadly I agree with this article. I really wish Mariah would grow up a little, she is a mother now, enough of acting like a slutty hooker. You can still be a sexy momma without wearing as little clothing as possible. I hate being ashamed of being a Mariah Carey fan. The only section of this article I don't agree with is that she should get rid of her new toyboy. He's hot. Good on her for getting together with him lol.
(Tuesday 21 February 2017; 6:29)
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Betty from Canada wrote:
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This guy smiles, gets a nice picture with MC, then writes an article like this about her. I cannot believe someone can be so hypocritical because I doubt MC thought he would write something like this when she took the picture with him. Shame on you Dan Wootton, it is so wrong to do that. Be nice or leave.
(Tuesday 21 February 2017; 13:52)
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CzechLamb from Czech Republic wrote:
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You can have a positive outlook on life or negative and this article is an example of a negative outlook. Hopefully people use their own brains because only a [censored] could agree with the stuff written here.
(Thursday 23 February 2017; 11:52)
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