As the night's final inductee, taking the stage at midnight, Mariah Carey made a point of hammering in the core of her own narrative: as much as she is a diva, she's a songwriter. She played up the dramatics, checking that her lighting was just right and slipping her shades on in the already darkened ballroom.
But she also spoke at length about the way melodies and poetry have flown through her since she was a little girl. Carey recalled "walking by myself and coming up with melodies and writing words in a book", then pulled out a few sheets of handwritten notes to show that not much has changed. "These are legit my notes," she said. "But I just wanted to say that I constantly have to remind people I'm a songwriter."
With her induction, Carey became the 33rd woman to join the Songwriters Hall of Fame. In his introduction, Questlove highlighted that the recognition was long overdue, praising the depth and range of the singer's catalog. "That's the power of success, especially at Mariah Carey's level, because you can be overlooked in certain respects and people will often forget that you are an artist," he explained. "People forget and suddenly you just become the product." It's another instance in which gaining control of your own narrative as an artist has the potential to influence the shaping of your legacy.
(excerpt from Rolling Stone)
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