Thursday 2 February 2006

Supporters unsurprised by Carey's successful return

Don't call it a comeback, Mariah Carey's been here all along. Sure, it probably doesn't seem that way. After all, it's been nearly five years since Carey suffered a series of frustrating setbacks, both personally and professionally.

It was a humiliating fall for the Long Island native who gained fame for a 1990 debut album that produced four Number One hits. Even her 1998 divorce from Sony Records president Tommy Mottola, a move that led Carey to leave that label and team with Virgin Records, did little to tarnish her image at the time.

But in August 2001, Carey suffered a very public breakdown (including posts on her Web site in which she begged fans to shut down her production company) that resulted in the singer's hospitalization for "exhaustion".

A month later, critics laughed Carey's film debut in "Glitter" right out of the megaplex. Its accompanying soundtrack didn't fare much better and led to Carey being dumped by Virgin. A follow-up album, 2002's "Charmbracelet", did little to dismiss the notion that Carey was all but a has-been.

Today, however, the 35-year-old singer is once again enjoying the aura of a star. Carey's latest album, "The Emancipation of Mimi", scored eight Grammy nominations, including nods for record of the year and best female pop vocal and her latest Number One single, "Don't Forget About Us", tied her with Elvis Presley's record for the most chart-topping hits.

But to some observers, Carey's latest success should come as no surprise. So says Vibe magazine editor-in-chief Mimi Valdes. The singer may have been down, Valdes explains, but she was never out. "You have to call it a comeback only because Carey's last two albums didn't do as well as her previous ones," says Valdes in a phone interview from her Manhattan office. "But she's always had this amazing voice and she just needed to get the right people to guide her on the songs."

Those people were Def Jam label head Antonio "L.A." Reid and manager Benny Medina. The former is a hitmaking machine known for working with the likes of Pink, Usher and OutKast. Medina is credited for, among other accomplishments, infusing Jennifer Lopez's musical career with a healthy dose of street cred.

"When I heard she was working with L.A. and Benny I was (thrilled)," Valdes says. "L.A. has an amazing track record and this deal gave Mariah a great support system." And that's all she really needed, Valdes says, because Carey was always all that, her true fans knew it. "They were always rooting for her, saying 'we know you'll be back with another great record'," Valdes says.

Perhaps, but for every faithful follower there was also a diehard hater ready to kick a girl when she was down. Michael "Blue" Williams has seen it before. "American society builds someone up to superstar status and then, when someone turns into a train wreck, we just (abandon) that person," says Williams, a Miami-based manager whose clients include OutKast and Trina.

But the same public that dismissed Carey's "Glitter"-era transgressions has also been quick to forgive and forget, he adds. "She put out a couple of whack records and was written off," Williams says. "But Janet Jackson's also put out some (bad) albums and we could be talking about her 'comeback' next year."

All it takes, he says, is a quality record. "Mariah got back to basics and made a great album, even Bobby Brown could make a great record and be relevant again," he says. Well, maybe, but "Mimi" is an undeniably catchy and modern record. Light on syrupy power ballads and heavy on rich grooves and Beyonce-styled dance tracks, it features cameos and collaborations from Snoop Dogg, Nelly and The Neptunes.

Such touches, Williams says, were crucial in Carey's efforts to lure the much-coveted teen demographic. So was Carey's ability to use the Web as a major marketing tool. If MTV helped launch the singer's career in the early '90s, then the Internet remade the video star for the 21st century.

Carey proved to be a huge draw for Yahoo! Music's younger users when the site premiered her "Shake It Off" video in July 2005. "More than two million people watched the video during its first 24 hours online," says Jay Frank, Yahoo's head of programming and label relations. According to Frank, Yahoo! Music boasts some 25 million users each month.

"It shattered records (and) really signaled that Mariah was back," he says on the phone from Santa Monica, Calif. Then again, one could argue that she never even left at all. Although their sales pale next to previous efforts, "Charmbracelet" did go platinum (one million sold) and even the much-mocked "Glitter" went gold, selling just over 500,000 units.

"Perception is everything," says Valdes, the Vibe editor. "Mariah was totally seen as the underdog (because) those albums were considered failures." Failure or no, she adds, Carey didn't need to stage a so-called comeback, after all, Virgin paid her a reported $28 million just to buy out her contract in 2002. That figure was in addition to the $21 million she'd received earlier from the label.

"Anybody else would say, 'I'm done, I don't need to continue'," Valdes says, adding that it took "guts" for Carey to subject herself to the possibility of further public scrutiny.

(Scripps Howard News Service)



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