Mariah Carey was born March 27, 1970, on Long Island, New York. Mariah was the third of three children born to Patricia Hickey and Alfred Roy Carey. Patricia and Alfred already had a son, Morgan, and a daughter, Alison. Mariah's heritage is a mix of races. Her mother is Irish and her father African-American and Venezuelan. Her parents divorced when she was just three - and while she stayed in touch with her father for some time afterwards communication between them was far from straightforward. Mariah already had her role model and, even at this tender age, was certain she wanted to be like Mom.

Her unusual name had musical connotations, too: the Oscar-nominated musical "Paint Your Wagon" by Lerner and Loewe featured the song "The Call The Wind Mariah". And fate decreed that another song from that show, "I Was Born Under A Wandrin' Star" by Lee Marvin was at Number 1 (if only in Britain) on the very day she was born.

She'd follow her long-suffering mother round the house, parroting back the tunes she heard from the radio or even the television commercials. She was soaking up influences like a sponge, and healthy doses of her mother's favourite soul singers like Aretha Franklin and Stevie Wonder only added to her musical education. Also on the Carey turntable during the early 1970s was Minnie Riperton, a gifted singer who's since succumbed to cancer but whose 1975 hit "Loving You" demonstrated the kind of coloratura vocal effects Mariah would incorporate into her own distinctive style a decade and a half later.

With sister Alison and brother Morgan ten and nine years older than her, and Patricia working nights as a singer, Mariah knew early on what is was like to be home alone. "I'd just do whatever I wanted," she now recalls of these part exciting, part frightening times. "Eat all the icing out of jars by the spoonful, watch whatever I wanted on TV." Yet she recognises it forced her to grow up quickly, depsite those sweet, elfin looks. "I think it made me what I am, in a strange sort of way - because I was independent." School would prove a problem because, as she says, "I found it har to accept rules and regulations because I knew how to look after myself already. I've always been like a grown-up... Mom would say I was six going on 35."

But underneath that supposedly confident exterior lurked a troubled child. She bore the mental scars of the racial prejudice her family had encountered - but it had been Alison, both the oldest and the darkest-skinned of the three children, who found herself with the heaviest burden. "They'd shout racial slurs at her and beat her up," Mariah later recalled. "Then my brother would go in and fight for her, even though he was handicapped. It was tough." Poisoned pets and damaged cars were further problems the Careys would encounter in a decade where mixed marriages were not nearly as common as they are now, nor attitudes as enlightened.

As Mariah has mentioned, her brother had faced a physical handicap in the shape of mild cerebral palsy and epilepsy, but had overcome this considerable blow - along with one leg an inch shorter than the other - to live a relatively normal life. His determination served as a constant inspiration to his younger sister who, until her secret love was revealed, credited him as "the only man in my life". He, in turn, was supportive of her single-minded pursuit of singing stardom.

Indeed, it was his contacts which first saw Mariah's voice committed to recording tape. A Manhattan group with access to studio equipment enlisted her as a backing singer as they cut innumerable demos to hawk round the record companies in a vain search for that all-important big break.

That never came... but the arrangement continued for many months as Mariah continued to show up at school bleary-eyed. No-one, either pupils or teachers, would share her dream, so after a while she didn't even bother explaining. No tears were shed on either side when she graduated, though the alternative - waitress work or checking coats - was hardly pleasurable.

Mariah would find herself burning the proverbial candle at both ends by taking the subway crosstown from Long Island, having changed out of her school attire, then travelling back as dawn broke to snatch a few fitful hours of sleep before her long-suffering mother shook her awake once more. This had few long-term benefits, except the fact that, when Patricia woke her sleeping beauty daughter, she was greeted by little more than a squeak, so hard had she worked her vocal cords the night before. This distressed Mariah to the extend that she consciously worked to strengthen those vocal muscles, and this helped give her the seven-octave range she enjoys today. "I've always sung to myself as a little girl," she says, "and it's like a friend."

 

The year of 1989, Mariah's twentieth on this earth, was mostly spent above it - amassing air miles as she commuted between Tarpan Studios at San Rafael, California, and the hit factory in New York, laying down tracks for her first album release. Rhett Lawrence was involved with the West Coast Sessions, and was immediately smitten by "Vision Of Love", a song Mariah and Margulies had written just after she'd signed. She described it as not so much a love song but a celebration of her life at the time, and Lawrence saw promise in it - but not before he played a part in revamping it. "It was a different tempo at the time," he reveals, "a 1950s sort of shuffle." The experienced producer changed the tempo - then, in a stroke of genius, took Mariah's vocal from the original demo and used it as a second voice in the tag of the song. The effect was immediate.

As 1990 dawned, the sense of anticipation was simply too much to bear. The release of "Mariah Carey" had been scheduled for June but much was still to be done. In April, she performed at an intimate soirée in New York where, with Richard Tee accompanying her on piano, she sang just three songs to an invitation-only audience. This went so well that June saw her repeat the experience in front of the television cameras at two of America's most influential television productions - The Tonight Show and The Arsenio Hall Show.

In-between times, she'd created a big stir when she sang the national anthem at the NBA national basketballs finals, an honour usually accorded a showbusiness veteran, not a hitless slip of a blonde. Slowly but surely, the name of Mariah Carey was getting onto the lips of a nation. Columbia Records' strategy was working!

Finally, in June, the wraps came off "Mariah Carey" - and after months in the making the verdict was almost universally favourable. Columbia were aiming at Whitney Houston and Anita Baker, the two current dominant divas, with no little success. But hang on a moment... wasn't this girl white? It was a confused issue that many would puzzle long and hard over, but in the end music would win out.

"I guess when you're part Irish and part Venezuelan you're not completely connected to any one thing," she says of herself. "You're different. Lucky for me I had my music to hold on to as a goal..."

As if to underline the futility of debate on colour and soul, the top single in July was "She Ain't Worth It", a duet between Hawaiian-born Glenn Medeiros and Boston-born homeboy Bobby Brown (later, of course, Mr Whitney Houston). The song that pushed this off the top after two weeks was of course "Vision Of Love" which had entered the chart on June 2 and hit the top nine weeks later, staying there throughout the month of August. This was the summer sound of 1990 - and when you consider the song nestling underneath it was Billy Idol's "Cradle Of Love" maybe it was set to be a romantic season!

Love seemed to be the abiding theme of Mariah's self-penned songs, even though she admitted to having had little experience. "I use everything I've ever thought about in my songs," she explained. "And whatever the melody makes me feel is what I gear the lyrics towards." Yet lend an ear to "Alone In Love", one of the standout ballads about a failing relationship, and it's hard to credit she's plucked the words from thin air.

The album had entered the Billboard listings at Number 80 - a creditably high position for an unknown artist's debut - on the last day of June, and moved slowly upwards, as if pulled along by the momentum of the single. It wouldn't be until March of the following year that it finally sat at the chart summit - but once there it spent a marathon 22 weeks in pole position en route to selling more than 12 million worldwide.

It's domination was undoubtedly due to the string of singles that, extracted at appropriate intervals, were to create musical history. A pattern was soon established, the uptempo vitality of "Vision Of Love" followed by a cool, reflective ballad. And behind the follow-up lay a fascinating story - because Columbia had literally stopped the presses to ensure the song, "Love Takes Time", was included on Mariah's album - even if it wasn't listed on all the sleeves that had already been printed.

"Mariah Carey" had been at the mastering stage when Mariah and Ben Margulies came up with a song that they thought would be the first single off her second long-player. Margulies had come up with the initial idea, an improvised gospel-flavoured piece of music, which the due then began working on together. "It was on a work tape that we had... and we recorded a very quick demo. I played live and she sang it."

Mariah was currently making a mini promotional tour with pianist Richard Tee and a backing vocal trio of Billy Scott, Patrique McMillan and Trey Lorenz. All five were aboard a Columbia private jet with Columbia chief Don Ienner, who was taking a personal interest in Tommy Mottola's protégée. When the subject of the next album came up, Mariah played the tape and was immediately told that this song was, in music industry speak, a "career-maker". It simply had to go on the new album!

But how could it be done? It seemed crazy to entrust the task to someone who'd never produced anything on his own at that point - but that's what Columbia did. Brazilian-born Walter Afanasieff had impressed the label when he'd been working on Mariah's album with producer Narada Michael Walden, and had been taken onto the payroll as executive staff producer. It was to be quite a baptism of fire!

"Tommy Mottola called me up," he explains, "and said that we've got the album done but there's a track she and Ben wrote that is phenomenal. I want to try everything we can to get it on the album... you only have a couple of days." The only solution was for Afanasieff to cut the backing track, then put the tape in the suitcase and fly to New York to record Mariah's vocals over the top. "She did all the backgrounds, practically sang all night," he recalls. Then he leapt back on the plane and retraced his steps to the Sausalito studio to remix it.

"Love Takes Time" was finally debuted on NBC's prestigious Saturday Night Live in late October, and just three weeks later had hit the top. In Britain, the music scene had been slower to catch on, but even they couldn't resist Mariah's musical charms. "Vision Of Love" reached Number 9 in September with its parent album climbing three places higher. "Love Takes Time", though, was to disappoint in rising no further than Number 37 in December.

Mariah had been invited back to The Tonight Show in November - no surprise, given her combination of vivacity, good looks and a stunning singing voice. Television was to play a major part in her success, and the videos she made were to achieve heavy rotation on MTV, the music television channel that had taken the States by storm and would soon spread its transmissions worldwide.

The visual appeal would be recognised in February 1991 with the release of "Mariah Carey: The First Vision", a compilation of video clips she'd made to illustrate the first album's songs: it charted in both Britain and the States, and contained nine tracks. Six were from the album, while a seventh, "All In Your Mind", was performed as an acappella (voice-only) showcase. The eight, Aretha Franklin's classic "Don't Play That Song", was also unaccompanied, as was another non-album cut "Who's Loving You".

It was an interesting release which gave new insights into Mariah's vocal talents. Yet February would be memorable for more than just that one reason. The 33rd annual Grammy Awards, held at New York's Radio City Music Hall, were to turn into something of a Mariahfest: from five nominations, she took home Grammies in two categories - Best New Artist and, for "Vision Of Love", Best Pop Vocal Performance.

Just ten days later, "Mariah Carey" finally made it to Number 1, underlining her continuing success: it would rack up six platinum disc awards from America's RIAA certification agency and in the years to come it would receive some more platinum discs. Readers of Rolling Stone - America's hippest music publication - voted her Best New Female Singer. Lastly but by no means least, she came away from the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles with three more honours in the R&B/Urban Contemporary category courtesy of the Soul Train Awards. At this rate, she'd need more wall and shelf space to house her discs and statuettes!

 

She took time to reflect on her new-found fame. "For me," she revealed, "it's always been a dream just to have my name on an album and hear those songs on the radio. The biggest obstacle was just getting a record deal in the first place." The Soul Train awards meant a lot, since they came from the black record-buying public, and it ended any debate as to whether Carey's appeal crossed the racial divide. Mariah's answer, to follow her heart, had borne fruit. "My (demo) tapes would be returned with comments like 'You're too black for the market' or 'You're too white'. Everyone had their opinion. It's very confusing unless you really stick to your guns and do what you believe in."

The success of "Mariah Carey"s third single, "Someday", was all the more satisfying since it knocked Whitney Houston off the top of the US charts. When Mariah and Ben Margulies had been pitching their songs at record publishers in the pre-fame days, one had suggested they submit them as possibles for Whitney to record. Mariah, ever protective of her "babies", had vetoed the possibilty straight away!

"Someday" had been remixed for the UK market and made the Top 40 there, but in the States it went all the way. Interestingly, it had been one of the four songs on that legendary first demo tape wasn't a million miles from what the writers had come up with themselves. "The original arrangement was very simple and funky," Ben Margulies reveals. "It had a simplicity to it that kind of drew into it. To take it and make it too much of a production would have ruined the vibe of the song."

It had evolved from a typically Mariah melody over a drum machine and bass line. By the time Margulies had come up with a new twist to the arrangement, she'd finished the lyrics and it was ready to record. And true to that spirit, Ric Wake's production was completed in a matter of two or three hours. Mariah, who'd warned Rolling Stone she "hadn't been open to working with a superstar producer," approved wholeheartedly.

The result was a new jack swing-flavoured workout, so there was no surpirse that the next US-only single to be released, "I Don't Wanna Cry", was a ballad. It also reinforced those Whitney Houston comparisons, teaming her as it did with producer Narada Michael Walden. The pair had first met at a writing session in the Hit Factory studios, and the producer found her quite withdrawn. "I asked her what she liked. She said she liked George Michael, so I got an idea of where whe was coming from." Coincidentally or not, Walden had produced the ex-Wham! star's duet with Aretha Franklin, "I Knew You Were Waiting For Me" - something Mariah must surely have known.

Their initial collaborations had all been dance tracks. "I wanted us to slow the tempo down," Walden said, explaining that he was after the feel of a song like Percy Sledge's "When A Man Loves A Woman", "those kind of dramatic ballads. I kind of pulled it down from the sky and started singing this to her and she got into it."

The pair didn't totally hit it off, and Walden's comments on how "I Don't Wanna Cry" came together highlight Mariah's perfectionist attitude. "She's very astute in the studio, very picky: she knows she wants to hear herself sound a certain way." And when she wanted to re-do a vocal line, Walden had to fly the master tape to New York for her to make the change. As he remarks, though, "Mariah was 19, 20 years old, making her first album. She really wanted it to be special."

And special it was, no question about it. More uncertain by far was the form her follow-up would take. So many artists impress with a first album, only to find that the demands on their time and energy made by touring and promoting it leave them creatively drained when it comes to consolidating their newly-won reputation.

Mariah had fought notoriously shy of touring on any more than a modest, acoustic scale, so had few problems on that score. Besides, as the success of "Love Takes Times" had already proved, her creative wellspring of musical ideas had yet to dry up. One thing that would change, though, was her relationship with Ben Margulies. Their profound and profilic partnership ended as the new album started: Carey had never been straightforward as to the reason. "Be careful what you sign," she hinted darkly to Q magazine, adding: "You hear it a thousand times and I heared it a thousand times. When you're struggling you still do it. I blindly signed. Later, I tried to make it right so we could continue our professional, our artistic relationship, but he wouldn't accept it. What can you do?"

Whether she elaborated "off the record" is not known, but her interviewer's understanding was that before they signed with Columbia the pair had entered into a contract that gave Ben Margulies nearly half the millions of dollars she earned from her debut album rather than just the music publishing to which he was clearly entitled. Whatever the truthm the next album was going to see different credits follow the song titles... something that must have worried all concerned. All, that is, except Mariah.

The song styles were the same, but the changes that had taken place behind the scenes meant that in place of the huge number of producers and collaborators the first album had entailed, just two teams of producers/co-writers took the lion's share of the credits, one for the ballads and the other for the uptempo dance tunes. Assisting on the dance side was David Cole and Robert Clivilles, better known as C&C Music Factory, who'd have hits of their own with "Gonna Make You Sweat" and "Things That Make You Go Hmmm", while the tried and trusted Walter Afanasieff proved the ideal partner on the ballad production line.

Not that Mariah was any slouch when it came to knob-twiddling and fader-fiddling. She'd already established her own credentials on the first album with the track "Vanishing" - bot a hit single, but probably the most artistically successful song in terms of the R&B content. "Provided that she is allowed to choose her own material and take an active role in the production chores," noted one industry observer, "she has the ability to knock most of the competition out of the window." And so it proved.

Her lifestyle was hardly that of a normal girl in her early twenties. "I've done this album in four months, literally staying in the studio every night until around five in the morning. I go home to sleep, and wake up around 2.30, three, go back to the studio and repeat the same thing, so it's not as though I have so much time to go out and meet people and do the normal everyday things."

 

The second album, originally to be titled "The Wind" after one of the tracks it contained, had taken on the name of the proposed lead single "Emotions" when it was released in September 1991. The album saw her gain a co-writing credit for each and every track. As mentioned, first out of the box as a single was "Emotions", which made it five Number 1s in a row on its release in mid October. Penned by the Carey-Clivilles-Cole team, it was premiered by Mariah at the eighth annual MTV Awards ceremony in September and its rapturous reception must have been music to the ears of anyone in Columbia fretting about Carey's ability to manage without her usual co-writer.

This of course, was the song that beat the Jackson Five's 21 year old record of four US chart-toppers in their first four releases - a fact that was much a thrill for the two former DJs as it was for the girl who sang the song. "Working with Mariah was fun," Cole revealed. "Robert and I came up with a whole bunch of grooves. If this worked, cool, if this doesn't work, next. We would all come together and decide..."

Both Carey and Clivilles came up with separate ideas for "Emotions", the title of which paid homage to the 1970s girl group best known for their collaboration with Earth Wind and Fire for "Best Of My Love" and "Boogie Wonderland". They borrowed the celebratory feel of those records, but stopped short as Mariah put it of "stealing the damn record... we're not dumb."

Indeed, "Emotions" debuted highest of all her hits to date, entering the US listings at Number 35 on the last day of August 1991 and taking just six weeks to reach the top where it would stay for another three before being ousted by Karyn White. But by that time chart history had been rewritten.

Clivilles and Cole were also behind "You're So Cold", a track originally slated as the first single before "Emotions" overtook it on the priority list, and the house-styled "Make It Happen" which eventually became the third single from this album. This was clearly a song close to Mariah's heart, with its autobiographical slant and the message that anything was possible if you believed in yourself and worked hard enough. The original title track, "The Wind", belied her critics' claims of lightweight lyrics by addressing a friend who died in a drunk-driving accident.

In-between "Emotions" and "Make It Happen" came the first ballad out of the box... and the first disappointment. It was inevitable the record-breaking run of chart-toppers would come to an end someday, and "Can't Let Go" was the first "failure". It only managed to make Number 2, thanks to the dominance of vocal quartet Color Me Bad. But it was produced by co-writer Walter Afanasieff who, a victim of his own success, was having a difficult time dividing his attentions between Mariah and his other project Michael Bolton.

"Mariah and I started writing together for the album a few months before starting to record. I was doing Michael's album, and during the time he would do a small tour or take a break over the holidays I'd have the opportunity to write with her." "Can't Let Go" was one of the first results.

The most interesting collaboration on "Emotions" was "If It's Over" which paired Mariah with Carole King. After penning a string of pop hits for others with then-husband Gerry Goffin in the 1960s, King had reinvented herself for the following decade as one of the world's top singer-songwriters, and though she wasn't operating specifically in the soul field had been covered by artists from Aretha Franklin to Celine Dion. Mariah clearly admired her craft, and was delighted to have the opportunity to work with such a self-contained legend.

The album saw Mariah using the full extent of her amazing multi-octave vocal range - and that's something she can thank Clivilles and Cole for encouraging. "The high stuff is what she's known for," Cole admitted not long after the session, "and we had to include it. But as we started working, we decided we didn't want to use it as much as we could have. We didn't want it to become a gimmick. But it's amazing. Listen to the very low note and you compare that to the high notes that she hits. She's got an incredible range."

Mariah's continuing close relationship with Tommy Mottola was causing not only gossip but resentment in record-company circles. Any hint of romance would, it was felt, give her an unfair advantage over her label mates, sullying her success with accusations of favouritism. What was more, the generation gap between a man in is forties and a girl barely out of her teens was even more of an eyebrow-raiser. Such talk, in public and behind her back, can't fail to have hurt Mariah - but she did a creditable job of not showing it.

"You have to expect people to talk about you," she responded. "You can't think you're just going to put a record out and be really successful and people are not going to gossip about you. And there are a lot worse things they could say. When you work with someone on such an intense level as we do, people are going to say things when it's a girl and a guy. If I was a man or working with another woman, they wouldn't say it. I can't worry about what people think."

As for fame itself, she remained remakably leavel-headed. "When you start believing the hype that's when you go downhill. I definetily feel the same person I was two years ago when no-one wanted to listen to my tape. That's what keeps me grounded. Maybe because I'm doing the same thing, music - that's what gives me the most pleasure." And it was her great pleasure to accept an invitation to sing "If It's Over" at the 34th annual Grammy Awards in February 1992.

For some people, though, Mariah's success was simply not enough. She had yet to prove herself in the live arena, and critics claimed she was a "studio creation", so delicate that should she subject herself to the stage she'd simply blow away like candyfloss. The project that was next on the agenda would dispel such doubts once and for all, as well as repaying a debt to MTV for helping her mark.

 

The Unplugged series of shows had featured artists from all corners of the music world, the idea being to strip them of their glossy veneer and showcase them in an intimate setting in front of an invited audience away from arenas and big theatres. The result would often be a new perspective on even the most established stars, and Eric Clapton, Neil Young and Nirvana were among those to take the plunge. For Mariah, who'd never ventured into the big "aircraft-hangar" style venues, it was a natural move.

And it would prove nothing less than a turning point in her career as far as live performance went. "It was the first time I did that many songs in front of an audience," she'd later reveal. "I had to learn in the public eye, and I'm still learning." The video would be released commercially at a later date with three extra clips from the "Emotions" singles added.

A spin-off from such shows was often a best-selling album, and so it proved in Mariah's case. A seven-song selection from the set, entitled the "MTV Unplugged EP", was released in July 1992. It included her five biggest hits to date, while the six track was "If It's Over", her collaboration with Carole King which she sang the heart and soul out of. But it was the one song she'd yet to commit to recording tape that, extracted as a single, would prove the most memorable. And suitably, given the group whose long standing record she'd eclipsed, it was taken from the repertoire of the Jackson 5.

"I'll Be There" had been the Motown legends' fourth and history-making Number 1 single back in 1970, following "I Want You Back", "ABC" and "The Love You Save" to the top of both the pop and R&B listings. And just as Michael had shared the spotlight with his siblings, so Mariah had a companion in backing singer Trey Lorenz.

As if to prove that one good turn deserves another, she helped Trey cut his own album in 1992 for Epic Records, which produced a Top 20 hit single in "Someone To Hold". The track was co-written by Trey, Mariah and Walter Afanasieff and produced by the last-named duo. Walter had also played keyboards in the Unplugged band along with David Cole and Dan Shea, other members being Randy Jackson (bass), Gigi Gonaway (drums), Ren Klyce (celeste, timpanis) and Sammy Figueroa (percussion).

"I'll Be There" would re-establish her chart-topping touch - and, in a nice gesture, its profits went to benefit four charities: AmFar (the American Foundation for AIDS Research), the United Negro College Fund, Hale House and the TJ Martell Foundation. In Britain, where the original had reached Number 4, familiarity bred content as Mariah's version hit Number 2 behind Erasure's "Abba-esque". It was her best showing there to date, paving the way for further successes to come, while both British and American record-buyers dug deep to send the "MTV Unplugged EP" to Number 3. In the Netherlands the single and the album both reached the top spot.

In December, the release would pioneer what was publicised as a technical breakthrough as Sony, the Japanese giant who owned Mariah's record label, chose her latest recording to start production of the MiniDisc. It would sell respectably on that format, but MiniDisc failed to emulate her remarkable surge to recognition.

 

Mariah's fourth year of stardom, 1993, began with the usual clutch of awards - this time Favourite Female Pop / Rock Artist and Favourite Adult Contemporary Album at the American Music Awards at the Shrine Auditorium. But better was to follow in April when a New York court threw out a lawsuit by one Joseph Vian shich had hung over her for more than a year.

No-one had been more delighted than Mariah when mother Patricia had announced her intention to marry again. But neither of them could have realised that, when Pat's marriage to Vian broke up, Mariah's short-time stepfather would attempt to claim a share of her success. The papers he filed at Manhattan Federal Court made accusations that were both wide-ranging and specific. He claimed that he supported her emotionally, paid for her Manhattan apartment, a car and dental work on the understanding that he would be repaid when she found success. He also claimed that Mariah had "actively sought to break up the marriage" between him and Patricia.

Federal District Court Judge Michael B. Mukasey dismissed the charges on April 26, bringing to a close an uncertain period in Mariah's life. It wasn't her first brush with legal action: a songwriter had claimed authorship of "Hero" after that song had hit, and only by producing rough versions of the song in her "work in progress" notebooks did Carey successfully contest the claim.

Mariah's combination of winning looks and tremendous talent had made her one of pop's pin-up girls. So thousands of hearts were broken when her romantic relationship with Tommy Mottola came out into the open in the most dramatic way possible - their June 5, 1993 marriage. "We have a very, very special relationship," she'd said of the man who discovered her. "I admire himm and respect him enormously." That there was more to it than that became public knowledge only after the service at St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Manhattan. The pop and showbiz worlds were well represented by the like of Bruce Springsteen, Barbra Streisand, Billy Joel, Robert DeNiro, Gloria Estefan, Tony Danza, Dick Clark, Michael Baldwin, Michael Bolton and, bizarrely, bat-eating heavy metal singer Ozzy Osbourne.

All had been sworn to secrecy, as had those helping make the day a special one. One role model had, in fact, not been invited - Princess Diana, whose wedding video had been replayed again and again as Mariah looked for style hints. "I never, ever thought I'd get married," she'd later reveal, "because I always had such a bad outlook on the whole thing. My parents' divorce made me very independent from an early age." But she was clearly happy not to have to conceal the truth. "Now it's out in the open I don't care what people say. Tommy is my best friend, and I'll never be able to thank him enough for what he's done for me."

Typically, the pair cut short their Hawaiian honeymoon after just a week to get back to the business of making music. MTV Unplugged had proved a profitable diversion, both commercially and artistically, but the time was now right for Mariah to re-enter the mainstream. The chosen vehicle was "Music Box", her third full-length release in four years and the one which took her back to the top of the album listings. Its predecessors had stalled at four and three respectively. But why the title? "The beautiful tinkling sound that comes out of a music box is so pretty and so delicate. I love it."

The choice of the lead single was as ever of the highest importance: just as the runaway success of "Vision Of Love" had pulled the debut album to pole position in its wake, so it was crucial to choose the right cut. After the "revivalist" nature of her last hit the choice was made to kick off with something highly contemporary - "Dreamlover", penned by Mariah and Dave Hall, with Walter Afanasieff joining them on the production front. It was a medium tempo new jack swing-styled song and proved good enough to go all the way. The follow-up, as ever, was a Carey-Afanasieff ballad, "Hero", which emulated its predecessor.

 

Emboldened by her new sequence of Number 1 singles, Mariah laid the foundations for something the world had long been waiting for - her first real tour. Sadly for those based far and wide, it would be a short, six-city affair in November 1993, and anyone who stopped to think about buying a ticket would have been out of luck. Her hometown concert at New York's Madison Square Garden sold out in less than an hour.

The day came when she had to make her full-scale concert debut at the Miami Arena in front of 15,000 people. "I was okay until I had to walk up this ramp to the stage and I heard this deafening scream," she admitted. "It was kinda like everything in my life, this whole incredible whirlwind I'd been going through, it had all been leading up to that insane moment - and there I was. That was so intense. And then that killed me. Not the audience - they knew it was my first show, they were very supportive. I got really bad reviews, though."

There were, she explained with more than a touch of paranoia, "a lot of critics out to get me. This girl's sold all these albums, she'd never toured, let's get her. So they did." She turned on her television that night to hear the CNN newscaster spell out the first negative reactions she'd ever encountered. "It really hurt me a lot."

The people to benefit were the audience at her next performance, at Worchester, Massachussetts. "I put all my anger into it, let go all my inhibitions and just lost myself in performing," she recalls. "Not that it matters to me, but the reviews were raves..."

It did matter, of course. And for a star who'd grown used to universal rave reviews, it was probably a timely reminder that she had to continue to work to keep up her high standards. And by her own reckoning she still had a long way to go. "Anybody can be famous - you don't really have to be talented. The people I really respect are Barbra Streisand and Aretha Franklin. Divas forever, they're untouchable..."

Thanksgiving Day, America's biggest public holiday, saw the NBC television channel confirm Mariah's own ascent to diva status by airing a television special entirely devoted to her rather than the traditional blockbuster movie. She'd spent the summer filming it, and included among the footage was a version of "I'll be there" filmed in Schenectady, New York State, with members of the Albany Police Athletic League band.

This television special would later be released as a home video, called "(Here is) Mariah Carey". The special package includes, besides the special, additional behind-the-scenes footage and a bonus music video of the single "Dreamlover".

"Dreamlover" had reached the UK Top 10, a not unreasonable achievement - but September had seen her greatest success to date when "Music Box" entered at the top in the UK... a full, six weeks before it did the same in the States! There'd been talk of her 1993 release being a gospel album, but in terms of breaking big in Europe her prayers had already been answered. In the Netherlands the album stayed at the top for 12 weeks and became the best selling album of 1994.

And even better was to come when, in February 1994, "Without You" gave Mariah her first ever UK Number 1. The song had already topped the British charts two decades earlier in the hands of the late, great crooner Harry Nilsson - who, ironically, had died just five weeks before its return. And just as "I'll Be There" had struck a chord of recognition, so the British public warmed to an old favourite given an exciting new slant. The song gave her full rein to let her top notes fly, and Walter Afanasieff's co-production as ever added the now-expected gloss to the proceedings. Despite staying atop the British charts for a full month, this single would only peak at Number 3 back home. However in Europe "Without You" became her biggest hit ever.

This blockbuster was followed in June by "Anytime You Need A Friend" and then, in September, her first "official" duet. Labelmate Luther Vandross had clearly lent an ear to Mariah's earlier harmonising with Trey Lorenz, and requested her presence as he re-cut the Diana Ross-Lionel Richie classic "Endless Love". The two voices made a spectacular combination, Luther's rich chocolate tones contrasting vividly with Mariah's swooping soprano, and the result went all the way to the UK and Billboard's Top 3.

 

There seemed no limits to what Mariah could achieve, given the opportunity. Yet certain critics still wanted to shoot her down in flames, especially on her lyrics which even she would admit were not her strongest point.

"I tell my stories in my own way," she explained, adding "I'm still a young person writing about what I've experienced in my life. Once you've achieved a certain amount of success people expect you to dance like Janet Jackson, sing like Aretha Franklin, write lyrics like Bob Dylan and music like Stevie Wonder. Everybody can't be everything. I'm writing about what I can relate to, and a lot of people my age can relate to it too."

Something else she'd have to relate to was the sadness brought into the family circle by sister Alison. She'd contracted the HIV virus after the birth of a child, when she was apparently given contaminated blood, and the tabloid press - thwarted in attempts to find a darker side of Mariah - inevitably turned their attention to her sister. "It's difficult to have public family dramas," Mariah commented, "especially when someone has real problems and it's treated like a gossip item. We are talking about something that affects little children's lives."

It couldn't have been a bigger contrast to Mariah's own domestic bliss, she and Tommy having moved onto a $20 million home containing 12 bedrooms, six bathrooms, a ballroom, rifle range, two swimming pools and a separate servants' wing - not forgetting the obligatory recording studio if the pair wanted to bring their work with them. As a final touch, "his" and "hers" jacuzzis had been specially positioned to give an uninterrupted view over the nearby Mountains.

Having maintained a schedule of an album release in every year since she won her recording contract, Mariah took a different slant in 1994 and made her release a festive one. "Merry Christmas" was very reminiscent of the early 1960s girl groups who made Phil Spector's legendary Christmas album "A Christmas Gift To You". Indeed, it featured Darlene Love's "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" among a selection of tracks weighted towards the traditional: "Hark The Herald Angels Sing", "Silent Night", "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" and more.

"Merry Christmas" also contained three new Carey-Afanasieff compositions. "All I Want For Christmas is You", "Miss You Most (At Christmas Time)" and "Jesus Born On This Day". The first was up-tempo, a love song that could quite easily have been written for Tommy Mottola, full of images of the Christmas magic that was all too often lost after childhood.

"Miss You Most (At Christmas Time)" was a sad ballad, very much in the line with the work Mariah had produced in the past, the type of tune that had provided most of her hits. Over keyboards and a synthesized orchestra, courtesy of Walter, Mariah sang of a long-gone lover, crystallizing the way that Christmas brought memories of the past into focus.

But of the new songs, it was "Jesus Born On This Day" that was the most surprising. A full-blown production number, it employed not only Walter's synthesized orchestra, but background singers and a children's choir as well. The tune was quite solemn and hymnlike, but the arrangement, oddly, made it less religious and rather more glitzy, behind lyrics that overtly praised Jesus.

As Mariah told Larry Flick in CD Review, "You have to have a nice balance between standard Christian hymns and fun songs. It was definitely a priority for me to write at least a few new songs, but for the most part people really want to hear the standards at Christmas, no matter how good a new sing is."

The result was a collection that maybe more than any other showed her gospel roots. "Sometimes, when I'm singing gospel," she's said, "everything seems to be right. I'm not thinking I don't know how I'm going to sing the next line because I'm letting go... there's an uplifting spiritual moment where the voices connect with the music and what I'm feeling... it comes from somewhere else."

"Merry Christmas" certainly appaered set to do well in its first year, entering the Billboard chart at Number 30 within two weeks of its release. The video for "All I Want For Christmas Is You", with Mariah romping in the previous winter's snow, was premiered on MTV with much hoopla on November 28. The song was not released as a single in the USA, but in Europe it reached the Top 10 in mist countries.

But the star on the tree came on December 14, with the "Mariah Carey Christmas Special" on MTV. In conjuction with the release of the album, the music video channel had run a contest that offered the prize of a trip to New York, $10,000, and a chance to meet Mariah and attend her December 8 concert to benefit the Fresh Air Fund.

The one-hour special featured extensive footage of the winner, and showed her spending some of her winnings. It also included the alternative video for "All I Want For Christmas Is You", presented in black-and-white sixties style, with go-go dancers, backup singers, and Mariah herself, in a minidress, white boots, and teased-up hair, looking for all the world like a member of the Ronettes.

The show climaxed with an out-and-out gospel performance of "Joy To The World" from the Fresh Air benefit show. Helping underprivileged children had long been close to Mariah's heart, and the benefit, which combined that impulse with her singing, was a truly bighearted gesture. With "Merry Christmas" climbing rapidly all the way to Number 3, it made a perfect cap of the year. But that was far from the end of the story for the record. Every subsequent Christmas it would be released, and by early 1998, it had sold 8 million copies - a phenomenal number for a seasonal album.

 

Even as Merry Christmas reached the stores, Mariah was looking ahead to her next "real" record. "I already have seven songs," she told Craig Rosen in Billboard. "I don't know when it's going to come out, but I want to go into the studio soon and start recording. I don't really stop writing and stop having musical ideas. I like to keep everything flowing." But the album was still in the formative stages. There was plenty to keep Mariah occupied, not the least of which had been the Fresh Air Fund benefit concert at St. John the Divine, a Manhattan cathedral.

The Fresh Air Fund was dedicated to taking underprivileged kids from New York to summer camp in the country, exposing them to another world. "I had gone to a camp when I was little," Mariah recalled in a radio interview, "it was an underprivileged kids' camp and I hated it. It was the worst experience of my life, so I thought that I could contribute to making something not so horrific as that for those kids. So they happened to have a camp that needed someone to get behind it and help with the finances and things."

Her concert did more than just raise a little money for the camp, a Career Awareness Camp in Fishkill, New York - it completely funded it, bringing in $700,000. And that was enough, in July 1995, to have it renamed Camp Mariah. "It's amazingly flattering to me of course," she said, "but it dictates to me that I should do even more. I want to teach the kids about the recording business and show them they can be singers, engineers, record company presidents or secretaries."

Mariah had become involved in other charity work, primarily with the Police Athletic League in Manhattan. In one instance, combining good works with her love of fashion, she attended a Chanel show and luncheon to benefit the obstetrics department of New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center. While no one would have doubted that such things were in her heart, she did say, "I try to be a good person and make a difference where I can, in the world and with people."

Her involvements with the Fresh Air Fund had sprung from childhood memories, but a family event proved to be the catalyst. Mariah's sister, Alison, had been diagnosed as HIV positive. She'd been addicted to drugs and worked as a prostitute, although she was the mother of a son.

"When I found out she had AIDS I cried for days," Mariah recounted in Bravo. "She could never really care for her son again. He now lives with my mother [during 1995, this would lead to claims of kidnapping from Alison, which divided the family]. This sad family story made me care more about other children in need. To give them advice and to see that they get a better life. I think organizations like the Fresh Air Fund are really important because some kids just don't have a role model in their lives, someone they can get comfort from, to point out the right direction in their lives."

No Christmas would have been complete without gifts, and that year Mariah had bought the ultimate gift for Patricia Carey, the kind of thank-you she's always wanted to give - a new house. Patricia was still living out on Long Island, and with Mariah spending most of her time up in Bedford, it was hard for them to see each other. Mariah's solution was to move her mother closer, and she planned the whole thing as a complete surprise.

"I said, 'I want to get a house for you, but right now there's nothing on the market.' So, I made up the whole lie," she recounted in an interview with Jamie Foster Brown. "It was almost a year ago. So I said, 'What we can do is take some of your stuff out of the house and put it in storage, because when you move, it'll probably be January or February and there won't be any time.' I said, 'It'll be too much too much snow on the ground to get the piano and all that kind of stuff.' So she thought there was something going on, but when I sent the people over there, I had them write out a slip and makee like it was going to storage."

Then Mariah took some time and decorated the house she'd secretly bought for Patricia. "I put everything in there down to her food and pajamas. I got all her old pictures of her and her mom and framed them and put them on a wall." The furniture - all picked out by Mariah - was new, but she knew her mother's tastes. Finally, Mariah was ready to present the house to her mother. She installed two friends, Ronnie and Carol, in the house, making it seem as if it was theirs. Then she told her mother the friends were coming along to help them look at properties, but they'd have to pich them up first.

Mariah pulled into the driveway of the rustic, secluded place, and her mother was enchanted. "Carol was standing in the door. She said, 'Come on in, Pat.' And we walked in and she was looking around and saying, 'Wow, this is gorgeous!' So all of a sudden, I point up to the wall and I go, 'Mom, look.' It was her pictures and everything, and she almost fainted. It was the most incredible thing I've ever been able to do."

 

Mariah might have started 1995 with several songs, but it would be another nine months before her fans got to hear them. The first thing they heard, at the end of September, was "Fantasy". If "Dreamlover" had seemed like a great single, this one was even better, with a slinky hip-hop groove, a sensuous vocal, and the kind of hook that just sank into the brain.

It was as close as absolutely perfect pop as Mariah had come. That seemed to be the overwhelming opinion all across the United States. On its release, "Fantasy" did what only one other single (Michael Jackson's "You Are Not Alone") had ever done before: it entered the Billboard Hot 100 at Number 1. This made Mariah the first woman ever to accomplish this, and it meant that "Fantasy" was playing almost everywhere during the fall, as it stayed in the top position for eight staight weeks.

The single was coproduced with Dave Hall (who'd worked with Mariah on "Dreamlover"). "I had the melody idea for Fantasy and then I was listening to the radio and I heard Genius Of Love [the 1982 hit for the Tom Tom Club, a side project for members of Talking Heads], and I hadn't heard it in a long time," Mariah told Fred Bronson. "It reminded me of growing up and listening to the radio and the feeling that song gave me seemed to go along with the melody and the basic idea I had for Fantasy. I initially told Dave Hall about the idea and we did it."

Once the idea had clicked into place, and permission had been gained from the Tom Tom Club to sample the song, putting everything together was a snap. "Mariah brought me Genius Of Love and I laid some strings on it," Dave Hall recalled, "and put it to a groove that I felt would really fit her. And that song didn't take us but a minute to do, because she really busted that out within two days. We did a rough copy and let Tommy Mottola hear it and he loved it, so all we had to do was bring it back and mix it down."

The song itself made a huge splash, but what went one better was the remix that was included on the single, by Sean ("Puffy") Combs, with a rap by O.D.B. (Ol' Dirty Bastard) of the Wu-Tang Clan. This giant step toward hip-hop was going to get noticed, although Mariah insisted that she'd "always been a fan of hip-hop music," and having grown up in New York, it was likely she had been.

The choice to use Puffy, who wasn't widely known outside hip-hop circles then, seemed odd; Mariah could have had her pick of any name producer to do the remix. "He's so known in the street and he's one of the best people out there. We kind of did what we both do and having O.D.B. took it to another level. He was my ultimate choice, so I was really happy about the way it turned out."

If Puffy had seemed like an odd selection, O.D.B. was just plain weird. No one had thought of a collaboration between Mariah and Wu-Tang. I've been a fan of his style since Wu-Tang first came out," she said. "I just think it's kind of unique about how he raps and kind of sings, too. I thought that because we were using the Tom Tom Club track that his voice was perfectly suited for it. We got a hold of him, and we did it. He basically went in and freestyled."

Even with this first single, it was obvious that Mariah had been very involved. She'd even directed the video for "Fantasy", which premiered September 7 on the MTV Music Video Awards. Set in one of Mariah's very favorite places, an amusement park - the same old park where scenes from "Big" and "Fatal Attraction" were shot - it showed Mariah roller-blading, the odd image of a clown tied to a pole, and Mariah singing along on a roller-coaster ride.

"They did not expect me to get that shot!" she admitted. "They were saying, 'How's she going to sing on a roller coaster?' We put a little speaker in the bottom of the car, where my feet were. We built the rig in front of the roller coaster and the lent kept falling off!"

Directing seemed a natural extension to Mariah, given that she'd been unhappy with some results in the past. "I just wanted to do it because it's my song and I really want it to come out the way I want it to be." For a debut, it was very impressive, as professional as any other video out there. Taken all together, the pieces seemed to indicate that this was a new Mariah, taking herself and her music to new places, very much in control of what she was doing.

Certainly, she was projecting herself at new markets. Before Daydream, as the album would be called, was released in the United States on October 3, it would be issued overseas. Mariah flew to London to publicize "Fantasy" there with an appearance on "Top of The Pops", a British television chart show, as well as a live performance, via satellite, for Asian television. There was even talk of a world tour in 1996!

 

With the performance of "Fantasy", it was no surprise to anyone that "Daydream" went straight into the Billboard album chart at Number 1. The single had gained Mariah a lot of new fans, and after all, Music Box had ended up selling a staggering 23 million copies worldwide. Daydream couldn't quite match that, but it did manage to sell 10 million copies in the United States alone, with 20 million around the globe, and it spent three weeks in the Number 1 position.

The new record showed a somewhat different Mariah, one who seemed to be distancing herself from the image created by "Music Box". That album had been heavy on the ballads, which were still there on "Daydream", but not to the same extent. Instead, there was a leaner sound, a good deal of which seemed weighted toward R&B. "Fantasy" scored there, but so did "One Sweet Day", Mariah's collaboration with Boyz II Men; "Always Be My Baby", which teamed her with well-known hip-hop producer Jermaine Dupri; "Daydream Interlude (Fantasy Sweet Dub Mix)", which she co-produced with club guru David Morales; and "Melt Away", a collaboration with the amazingly successfull Babyface, a track Mariah produced herself. There was even another cover, this time of Journey's "Open Arms", which she said, "was my idea. For years I have been a fan of [Journey' singer] Steve Perry. He has a fantastic voice. I have been singing his songs since my youth! I already have sung a lot of covers, but I keep enjoying it. I used to love singing along with the songs on the radio. The version of "Open Arms" is my own interpretation."

For the slower material, Mariah had again collaborated with Walter Afanasieff, both in the studio, behind the boards, and writing. But even the ballads were more sinewy than before, the arrangements stripped down, particularly on "Looking In", where Mariah seemed to reflect on her life and career so far. "It's a very personal song," she agreed, "but it is more about a mood. We all go through different moods, you can't always feel happy - it's showing a different side. When you are in the public eye, people seem to think they know all about you - they form a perception which often bears little relation to the person."

After "Fantasy" had been number 1 for two months, it was replaced by Whitney Houston's "Exhale (Shoop, Shoop)", from the "Waiting To Exhale" soundtrack. But it stayed there for only one week, as the second single from "Daydream" did something unheard of - it became Mariah's second single in a row to enter the Billboard Hot 100 at Number 1, a feat unequaled by any other artist.

"One Sweet Day" teamed Mariah up with Boyz II Men, an irresistible combination of two of the hottest talents in music. "I wrote the initial idea for "One Sweet Day" with Walter, she explained, "and I had the chorus... I stopped and said, 'I really wanna do this with Boyz II Men', because... obviously I'm a big fan of theirs and I just thought that the work was crying out for them, the vocals that they do, so I put it away and said, 'Who knows if this could ever happen, but I just don't wanna finish this song because I want it to be our song if we ever do it together.' "

For Mariah, whose good friend David Cole, the man who'd worked with her on two albums and "MTV Unplugged", had recently died, the song was about the "whole idea of when you lose people that are close to you, it changes your life and changes your perspective."

Finally, she had the chance to team up with Boyz II Men. "When they came into the studio I played them the idea for the song and when [it] finished, they looked at each other, a bit stunned, and told me that Nat [Nathan Morris] had written a song for his road manager who had passed away. It had basically the same lyrics and fitted over the same chord changes."

Was it coincidence, or just meant to be? "It was really, really weird," Mariah said. "We finished the song right then and there." "We were kind of flipped about it ourselves," Shawn Stockman agreed. "Fate had a lot to do with that. I know some people won't believe it, but we wouldn't make up such a crazy story."

The recording session itself was the video, and that meant, as Walter Afanasieff recalled for Fred Bronson: "It was crazy! They had film crews and video guys. I'm at the board trying to produce. [Boyz II Men] are the busiest guys in the world. Their managers and bodyguards are in the waiting room and it's 4:30 and they have until 7 o'clock. You've got four guys and you haven't even worked out their parts yet. So I was sweating. And these guys are running around having a ball, because Mariah and them are laughing and screaming and they're being interviewed. And I'm taping people on the shoulder. 'We've got to get to the microphone!' They're gone in a couple of hours, so I recorded everything they did, praying it was enough. After going home to my studio, I put the tracks together and did a rough blend of the four guys. And then Mariah went in and did some more voices to fill in a little bit, because it sounded like it's all Boyz II Men and there wasn't enough Mariah Carey on it."

But it wasn't enought for "One Sweet Day" to break one record. With that combination of talent, and that song, it just kept on selling and selling, keeping its Number 1 position against all comers. Previously, the longest any song had stayed there was fourteen weeks (a tie between Whitney Houston and Boyz II Men), but "One Sweet Day" cruised past them all, ending up with an amazing sixteen weeks there, and giving Mariah yet another record to add to her collection.

 

"One Sweet Day" was eventually replaced from the Number 1 position by Celine Dion's "Because You Love Me", but Mariah wasn't finished with the singles chart yet. On May 4, 1996, "Always Be My Baby" toppled Celine's single. It hadn't gone straight in at Number 1, but it did manage to climb there, giving Mariah her eleventh Number 1 hit (which put her in tie with Whitney Houston and Madonna as the female artist with the most top singles). And, as with "Fantasy", there was a hip-hop remix, featuring a rap by Da Brat, with a video shot at Camp Mariah.

Mariah had been a fan of musician and producer Jermaine Dupri ever since she'd heard Kriss Kross's "Jump" (Dupri had gone on from there to found his own So So Def label). For "Always Be My Baby", Mariah noted, "Jermaine, Manuel [Seal] and I sat down and Jermaine programmed the drums. I told him the feel that I wanted and Manuel put his hands on the keyboards and I started singing the melody. We went back and forth with the bridge and the B-section. I had the outline of the lyrics and started singing 'Always Be My Baby' off the top of my head."

Although the background vocals included longtime co-horts Kelly and Shanrae Price and Melanie (formerly Melanie) Daniels, it was mostly Mariah, buidling the wall of voices that she loved. This would be true for all the album's backing vocals. This time out, there was no long stay at Number 1, but that didn't matter. The singles from "Daydream" had given Mariah more than six months at the top, something virtually unbelievable in the modern age.

Overall, "Daydream" won over the critics, even those who'd been harsh in the past. In People, David Hilbrand called it her "best album", and noted that "Daydream vaults over its pop predecessors because the material is both funkier and mellower. Carey also has better control of her instrument - her voice evincing greater muscularity and agility." He concluded that the remarkable thing about the record was that "Mariah makes it all sound so effortless."

Entertainment Weekly's Ken Tucker found the ballads "grandiose", but found plenty to enjoy in "One Sweet Day", "Always Be My Baby", and "Forever". To him, however, it was "Daydream Interlude (Fantasy Sweet Dub Mix)" where "the singer really defines herself. At her best, as she is on this clipped, spunky track, Carey is a disco diva for the '90s, a worthy successor to women like Donna Summer and Vicki Sue Robinson, R&B singers with an affinity for the endless groove."

And the New York Times reviewer felt that Mariah's "songwriting has taken a leap forward, becoming more relaxed, sexier, and less reliant on thudding clichés", and called Daydream "subtly innovative". It was obvious, the review stated, that Mariah was "struggling to develop a more presonal lyric voice. Whether or not she succeeds almost doesn't matter so long as she continues to make pop music as deliciously enticing as the best moments of Fantasy".

So Mariah finally had what she'd been striving for for five years - respect. The public loved her, but it had taken a long time for the critics to come around to her side. But, in truth, this was her best album yet, the sound of someone who was finding herself, asserting her own identity.

 

"Fantasy", with that nagging Tom Tom Club sample, led things off on a very high note indeed, a breezy, catchy piece of pop music that worked off a groove as much as a melody, with Dave Hall providing all the instruments and programming. While it harked back to the eighties, there was still a completely contemporary feel to it.

"Underneath The Stars", which followed, was the first track recorded for the album, and it "has a real '70s soul vibe", Mariah thought. "We even put those scratches you hear on old records to give it that kind of flavor. It was a good place to start, because it got me into the head of making an album that was more R&B - more in the vibe of the Minnie Ripperton era, which has always been an inspiration to me." And indeed, it had that feel, melodic and airy. But unlike Minnie's recordings, there was little evidence of Mariah's higher register. Indeed, as she'd progressed from "Mariah Carey", she'd used it less and less (on her 1999 album "Rainbow", she started using her higher register once again). As she explained to Tabitha Soren on MTV, "What I tried to do is put it, sort of, as more of a texture on a lot of songs, like as a background part I did certain things, and you know I just meant to get a little bit more creative with it." Which was exactly what she'd done. Her reputation and following were strong enough now that any gimmicks were unnecessary.

"One Sweet Day", along with "Fantasy", was the song most people knew from the album, and with its run at Number 1, it was almost impossible not to have heard it. But it was a high point for a reason, a gorgeous, sad melody, with Mariah's voice working off and around the harmonies of Boyz II Men, over the keyboard work of Walter Afanasieff. It was the kind of song to resonate with anyone who'd ever lost someone, but without ever being a dirge, and a strong indicator - as was everything on this record - of the way Mariah's writing had grown.

"Open Arms", the Journey song, was released as a single in Europe, but not in the USA and Japan. The cover of the single was one of sophisticated beauty, which showed Mariah in all her glamour. It became a small hit in the Netherlands and it was the second song Mariah also sung in Spanish. The Spanish version was called "El Amor Que Soñé". For her next album Mariah would sing a third song in Spanish.

"Always Be My Baby" lightened the mood considerably. The rhythm was still a little downbeat, but the changes had a warm feel, and Mariah's vocal almost purred over the top. Indeed, on much of this record, she sounded slightly different from the Mariah of old, a little sassier, a little more R&B, like a soul sister. And it wasn't someone playing a wannabe, either; this was in her blood and was gradually coming out. Her love of soul, gospel, R&B, and hip-hop all fed into it. While not quite a slow jam, the song had a lush, sexy vibe that just glowed.

From there, the album moved to the closest it would come to gospel, "I Am Free". With Loris Holland on Hammond organ behind Walter's keyboards and programming - Holland had helped out on "Merry Christmas" - the gospel feel was perfectly genuine and unforced, an indication that Mariah wasn't abandoning her roots by any means. However, her writing and arranging were both becoming more sophisticated, as the lines of the chorus seemed to cascade into each other, something a less technically gifted vocalist would have trouble singing, but which seemed just right coming from Mariah.

Mariah was slowly moving away from the "standard" ballad, and edging slowly toward territory that seemed more Toni Braxton than Celine Dion. It suited her, but ballads had been her bread and butter, her stock-in-trade, since "Mariah Carey", and she wasn't about to abandon them completely. Nor did she need to. "When I Saw You", cowritten with Walter, showed she hadn't lost her touch. About love at first sight, it rang with hope, and offered a reminder of just how powerful her voice could be when she chose to unleash it.

From there, it was a quick return to hip-hop/R&B territory with "Long Ago", where Mariah let her voice slide silk over an insistent bassline. Her second collaboration with Jermaine Dupri and Manuel Seal in writing, arrangement, and production, it could easily have been Daydream's fourth single, with a nagging chorus and a sliding instrumental hook.

But "Melt Away", which Mariah had written and performed with Babyface, by now a massive star in his own right, could just as easily have served as that single - but it never happened. A gorgeous slow jam, it lived up to its title, as the two voices really did melt into each other, after Mariah's low "Barry White" introduction. It was curious that Mariah produced this track alone, given Babyface's pedigree at the controls; but, there was no denying that she'd done a superb job, as the song glided into its chorus, as strong as any jam released in the nineties, and one that would find a lot of favor late at night with dancers.

"Forever" brought up memories of fifties ballads in its chord changes and in the way guitar arpeggios stayed at the forefront of the music. In many ways, the song harkened back to the feel of Mariah's first album, but with a richness to the voice and the sound that she hadn't been capable of then. In some countries, like Australia and the Netherlands, this song was Daydream's fifth single.

For "Daydream (Fantasy Sweet Dub Mix)" Mariah had brought in David Morales, best known for his club mixes, to help remix "Fantasy" into soemthing quite different, something that brought to mind dub music, with elements dropping in and out of the mix. The result was something quite adventurous, with Mariah's voice being just one element (and not necessarily the main one) in the musical stew. Its sights were quite firmly set on the dance floor, and in those terms, it succeeded, a declaration of intent that Mariah was expanding her horizons. Dance music in particular, but also hip-hop, had changed beyond recognition in the last few years, becoming much more a part of mainstream culture. When Mariah made "Dreamlover", Walter had been unfamiliar with the technique of using loops; now it was common practice. Hip-hop ruled the charts, R&B was decidedly radio-friendly, and the dance revolution had spread across the country. Mariah was familiar with it all. She listened avidly to the radio, took it all in. And, at twenty-five, she was young enough to be a part of it all, something she wanted to be, a member of her own generation, not someone isolated and timeless, which had seemed to be where Columbia had wanted to put her after "Music Box".

Even Mariah's ballads had an edge, and the closing cut on Daydream, "Looking In", moved into far more personal territory than anything she'd done before. This was as naked as she'd let hersef appear on record, the accompaniment suitably stripped down, as she refelected on her life now, the changes she'd gone through, and the difference between the public perception of Mariah Carey and the real person. Intimate and revealing, it made an appropriate end to the album, and was evidence that Mariah was growing, changing, and becoming much more herself, confident of who she was and what she could do. As she explained in Vibe: "I sometimes defer to people who've had more experience. That was my motto for a long time. But now I'm able to say, 'I don't agree with you.' Now if I don't do what I want, I'm the only one to blame."

Was Mariah now in the position she really wanted to be in, or was she still an artist in transition? With Daydream she'd definitely changed the face of her music, turning it toward R&B, and a sound that was more contemporary than classic. But it was a process that had begun with Music Box, albeit very tentatively. "Dreamlover" had dipped the tip of a toe into the water, and she'd obviously been pleased with the result. Daydream saw her up to her knees. It was a record that could appeal to a new audience, but without going so far as to lose the fans who'd fallen in love with her for her "classic" sound. But this wasn't a case of hedging her bets. Her roots were in soul, gospel, even hip-hop, but also in pop. It all meant a lot to her, and out of it, Mariah was learning to create something that was uniquely hers. She was getting there, bit by bit; where she went from here would prove to be very interesting indeed.

 

Where Mariah went was a place not many had expected her to go: she started her own record label. Her aim was not to release her own records - she was very firmly contracted to Columbia, and had no wish to change that - but to run the label herself, under the auspices of Sony, which would give her excellent distribution.

She'd spent a lot of time talking to people at Sony about it, and planning everything. The label, which she christened Crave (although she would never reveal why), was set to become operative during 1996. In many ways, it would be a vanity project, not unlike Madonna's Maverick label, which was distributed through Warner Bros. However, it would also be a viable commercial entity. "I want to discover new talent that otherwise would end up nowhere," she said. "I know exactly how it feels to have a tape and not to have anybody listening to it seriously. I had a lot of luck. I was there at the right moment. For a lot of upcoming talents it is very hard to get in touch with the important people."

The first act Mariah signed was a hip-hop duo from Queens, New York, called Blue Denim, which included Kimberly ("Kimmie Kat") James, the younger sister of Salt'N'Pepa's Cheryl James. Immediately, Mariah was working with them in the studio, writing and singing hooks on a few tracks, on an album that would be released in the fall of 1996. But it would be early 1997 before Crave achieved its first chart hit, when the single "Head Over Heels", by the all-female R&B group Allure, cracked the Billboard Hot 100.

"I'm trying to work with any of the artists who want my input or want help or want to collaborate," Mariah told Fred Bronson. "And it's cool for them because I'm a peer. I reached success at an early age and it's easy to relate to me as a friend, not just a record company person."

But a label wasn't the only thing on the horizon as 1996 began. There was the small matter of a few concerts around the world, principally in Japan and Europe, and the awards she'd been nominated for, including two American Music Award nominations and a remarkable six Grammy nominations (and an appearance on the awards show, singing "One Sweet Day" with Boyz II Men). Daydream had obviously had a major impact on the awards committees. But it was the American Music Awards that provided the greatest gratification, as Mariah won the award for favorite female artist in both the Pop/Rock and Soul/R&B categories. For someone who was just beginning to see herself as an R&B singer, this was heartwarming indeed.

It was certainly better than the Grammy show. After her performance, Mariah spent the rest of the evening in her seat, passed over time and again in every category in which she'd been nominated, as Joan Osborne and Alanis Morrissette walked away the big winners of the evening. "What can you do?" she'd say later. "Let me put it this way. I will never be disappointed again. After sitting through that whole show and not not winning once, I can handle anything. But - and I know everyone always says this - I wasn't expected to win."

However, she didn't let the losses get her too far down. Once the show was over, the parties began, and although there were reports that Mariah spent the entire time in a corner, sulking, that simply wasn't the case. In fact, she said emphatically, "I actually had a great time there and was one of the last to leave. I practically closed the joint."

There was little time to reflect on the disappointments, however. Mariah - who'd been officially acknowledged as the "World's Best Selling Recording Artist" at the World Music Awards, with a total of 80 million records - was about to leave for her dates in Japan.

 

When the tickets had gone on sale in January for three shows at the Tokyo Dome, with its 50,000 seats, every one was sold within three hours, breaking the gate receipt for the venue, which had been held by the Rolling Stones. As the anticipation for Mariah's arrival and her shows grew, Japan found itself in the grip of Mariah mania. There were articles and pictures everywhere. She was even covered on the national news! Merry Christmas became Japan's all-time top-selling album, only to be surpassed a few weeks later by Daydream. This would give Mariah four of Japan's top five all-time best-selling albums.

Of course, she had been quite visible in Japan for a while. In 1994, Sony had made her its "image girl" in a MiniDisc advertising campaign. And "All I Want For Christmas Is You" had been the theme song for a very popular Fuji TV Christmas drama. Then, to coincide with the tour, Mariah's face began appearing in lipstick ads for her own brand, manufactured by the Japanese cosmetic company Kose (one of the sponsors of Mariah's Japanese dates).

The concerts - on March 7, 10, and 14 - were spaced apart to allow Mariah's voice to recover from each show. "It's very strenuous to sing all my songs back to back," she explained. "But," she added, "I'm really looking forward to it."

Mariah's warm-up for this date had been about as big as it was possible to get - a sold-out show at Madison Square Garden during the fall of 1995. It was a one off show, partly to celebrate the release and immediate success of Daydream, but mostly to prepare Mariah and her crew for Japan. And it also provided the opportunity for another home video, "Fantasy: Mariah Carey at Madison Square Garden", again directed by Lawrence Jordan. It might have been Mariah's second concert video - amazing for a performer who'd only played a handful of live shows - but it was more relaxed and upbeat than her last outing. This was immediately apparent when Mariah took the stage clad in the pants and shirt she'd worn for the album cover and went straight into "Fantasy".

She was accompanied by the people who'd become her live musical core: Dan Shea on keyboards, Vernon Black on guitar, Randy Jackson playing bass, Gigi Conway on the drums, percussionist Peter Michael, and music sequencing by Gary Cirimelli. All were under the direction of Walter, while Kelly and Cheree Price, Melonie Daniels, and Cindy Mizelle provided backing vocals. It was a crew that was used to each other, that worked well together.

The concert offered a selection of material old and new, with the emphasis on tunes from Daydream. Mariah was joined by Boyz II Men for a glorious version of "One Sweet Day", and then Wanya Morris took Trey Lorenz's part for "I'll Be There". Perhaps the biggest surprise to everyone came at the end of the concert, however, when Mariah left the stage after "Vision Of Love". The Puffy remix of "Fantasy" began to play over the P.A., and Ol' Dirty Bastard was suddenly onstage, rocking the house with his rap, as images from the video flashed on the screen.

All in all, the concert was a huge success, giving Mariah the chance to air her vocal chords in public. And for someone whose performances had been limited, she seemed remarkably at ease in such a big place, working the crowd, establishing a rapport. There was even a snippet on the video from the Fresh Air Fund benefit she'd done the year before at St. John the Divine, with Mariah singing "Joy To The World", as well as footage of Mariah at Camp Mariah, talking to the kids. And, to round things off nicely, there was also the video for "One Sweet Day."

And now Mariah was ready for Japan. Everything reached fever pitch on March 7, as Mariah took the stage in Tokyo for the first time. Japanese audiences had a reputation for being reserved, but they quite openly adored her. For Mariah, though, it was nerve-racking at first. "First of all, you're in front of so many people that basically don't speak your language," she said on MTV's "Week in Rock", adding "It took a little getting used to, but I think by the end of the show, you know, everybody started to kind of relax." She even managed to rouse the crowd enough to sing along to "Always Be My Baby".

The stage show, which took as its basis the Madison Square Garden concert that had been edited down for the Fantasy home video, began with "Daydream Interlude (Fantasy Sweet Dub Mix)" as the dancers moved around onstage, setting the scene for Mariah's entrance, and her first song of the evening, "Emotions". Then she went into two ballads, "Forever" and "I Don't Wanna Cry", before lightening the mood with "Fantasy" and "Always Be My Baby". Then, as she changed costumes, the background singers got a chance to shine on Shaka Khan's "Ain't Nobody", before Mariah reemerged to perform "One Sweet Day", with the video backdrop of Boyz II Men from the Madison Square Garden show. After that, she sang "Underneath The Stars", "Without You" and "Make It Happen", before going into her second cover song of the evening (one she hadn't recorded, but had used on her previous American tour): the SOS Band's "Just Be Good To Me". Then it was "Dreamlover" and the dancers' turn in the spotlight, as the "Fantasy" remix played, and the video was shown on the giant screens that flanked the stage (ensuring that everyone could see Mariah). The final section of the show began with "Vision Of Love", building through "Hero", to climax with "Anytime You Need A Friend", which went straight into its Clivilles and Cole remix version.

And then it was over, and the lights went up. Mariah had performed fourteen songs, as much as her voice could stand in one evening. The show had been very much a "Best of Mariah", but that was perfectly understandable. These people had waited six years to see her, and they wanted to hear the hits that had made her so famous. It was as is she was obliged to perform them, and she did.

Her world tour would cover a lot of territory, but not too many shows. After Japan came a break, quite a long one, until the late spring and the early summer - late May and June - when she toured Europe, playing England, France, Holland and Germany. And that was it. By the end of June, her commitments were complete, and Mariah was able to rest and begin thinking ahead to her next record. For her, it was never too early to be doing that, even though she had no plans to enter the studio before January 1997.

 

The remainder of 1996 saw Mariah writing, working in her home studio in Bedford, and thinking. Thinking about her life. Success could seem like an end in itself, and Mariah was continually surrounded by the rewards of everything she'd done: the awards, the platinum records, even the house itself, which she and Tommy had spent a reported $10 million on, splitting the cost right down the middle. She was beginning to have an inkling, however, that something in her life wasn't the way she wanted it to be. Everything seemed idyllic, almost as if her life was charmed, but that was simply on the surface. Deeper down, Mariah wasn't happy. As usual, she'd be staying up all night, working until 7am. Or if she was spending time in the city, she'd be out, hanging out at clubs, hearing the latest music.

She could sense the changes happening in herself. She was ready to have her music move even more radically toward R&B and hip-hop for her next record, but according to sources, Columbia wasn't too happy about that. When she'd done the Fantasy remix with O.D.B., she said, "Everyone was like, 'What are you, crazy?' [Columbia is] very nervous about breaking the formula. It works to have me sing a ballad on stage in a long dress with my hair up." While Columbia president Don Ienner, who'd been involved with her career at Columbia from day one, said he'd been "incredibly positive" about the remix, he did admit that "There might have been some [who fought it]."

But the remix worked. Not only did it garner a lot of press, it was incredibly popular, proving Mariah right. And she was realizing that the girl who'd built her career on ballads had grown up, had become a sensual woman. The big ballads no longer represented her quite the way they once had done. It was a change that had been happening gradually, but it was definitely there. Now she was, by her own definition, R&B. "She gets in the car, puts on her radio stations, and it's always R&B," said Walter Afanasieff. "She knows every song, every word, every rap out there."

As the year progressed, Mariah found herself taking on a number of different writing partners for her upcoming project. There was Walter, of course, but also people like Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliot, who was just starting to hit it big; Cory Rooney (who also happened to be in charge of Black Music at her Crave label); and Stevie J. She'd even be talking to Sean "Puffy" Combs about having him produce one of the album tracks, as opposed to just a remix. This time out, she was going to fully show her colors. "I'm not this one-dimensional girl who sits in a field wearing a flannel shirt or stands onstage singing only ballads," she insisted. "And I feel I'm in a better position to ecpress myself at this point."

According to some, Tommy preferred her singing ballads. Perhaps it was something that illustrated the eighteen-year age gap between them. Perhaps it was his personal taste. It made for an odd situation, albeit one they'd always managed to work out. He was her husband, and ultimately her boss. But she was one of his star attractions.

By January 1997, Mariah was ready to record, eager to get into the studio, a place that, over the last few years, had been virtually a home to her. But at the same time, that feeling gnawing at her made her want to try something new. In early interviews, she'd always denied wanting to get into movies, but now she started acting lessons, five days a week, with renowned New York coach, Sheila Grey. In some ways, it worked as therapy, giving her a chance to return to some of the rocky terrain of her childhood. "It's been an incredible release for me," she admitted. "I would come out of sessions emotionally drained, because I was getting in touch with all this stuff that I'd never really dealt with - even things from my childhood." One moment of revelation came when Grey asked her to return to a place in her life where she'd felt safe and "I didn't have one. I couldn't think back to a place that didn't give me a feeling of shakiness or some negative memory."

Whether the acting lessons were the catalyst, or whether something had been building for a long time and finally reached a head, on May 30 Mariah and Tommy announced their separation. To those who'd said from the very beginning that they were an unlikely match, it was time to rub hands gleefully as their predictions came true. In reality, however, it was a sad time; there's never joy to be found in the end of a marriage. Immediately, rumors began to fly about the causes. Some charged that Tommy had been nothing less than a control freak, refusing to let his wife have handsome men in her videos, not wanting her to wear tight, sexy clothing she loved, even monitoring her calls at home.

Supposedly, in December 1996, Mariah had begun spending more and more of her time in Manhattan, rather than Bedford, using New York studios to do all her pre-production work on her new album, and living in hotels. There were also unconfirmed rumors floating around that she'd begun an on-and-off affair with New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter, whom she'd met at a benefit for the Fresh Air Fund in November. A few went so far as to cite this as he cause for the breakup. Naturally, there were cynics who believed that Tommy had married Mariah both as a trophy and as a ticket to greater success for his label, and those who felt she'd wed him as a way to further her career.

All this, however, was nothing more than speculation and innuendo. But it was generally agreed that Tommy hadn't wanted the marriage to end, and that Mariah had done her utmost to make it work. "She gave it a million percent," one friend commented. Many factors can strain and break a marriage. It was quite possible, in this case, that the age difference and the difference in tastes had something to do with it. And the mix of personal and business situations couldn't help but complicate any other issues. Mariah was twenty-three when she married, and still had a lot of growing to do. Her childhood might have been hard, but for the most part, her adult years had been insulated, hidden away in recording studios. She hadn't had a change to spread her wings and truly discover herself. Perhaps in Tommy she saw the father figure who had never really been present in her life.

Whatever the reasons, with the announcement, the marriage was largely over after a little less than four years. Both Mariah and Tommy had stayed largely quiet about the causes. They hadn't been the ones assigning blame and firing salvos at each other. Instead, they'd taken the high road of silence. But no matter what they said or didn't say, the rumors would have flown, anyway; that was the nature of the world. And silence was all for the best in more ways than one. Tommy had signed a new contract with Sony that would keep him in his position for another five years, and Mariah still owed the company five albums, which meant they'd be working together for quite a while. Acrimony wouldn't have served either one of them well. "I love Tommy, and he always be a part of my family," Mariah said in an interview with Elysa Gardner in The Los Angeles Times. "There's absolutely no bitterness between us. The best thing I could hope for would be to have a great friendship with him, becuase he is someone I respect and admire and look up to in many ways. But right now, it's my time to grow as an independent woman."

And that, if the tabloids were to believed, meant being seen out with all manner of men. Besides Jeter, Mariah was linked with Sean "Puffy" Combs, rapper Q-Tip from A Tribe Called Quest, and even Boyz II Men's Wanya Morris, the two having apparently fallen for each other during his birthday party at the Metrodome in New York. There were also rumors that she was partying with gangsta rappers. Not long after the rumors appeared in print, Mariah's application to buy a Manhattan apartment in a co-op building was turned down by the board. "It was ridiculous," Mariah said. "There were rumors and lies about me about me being the next queen of gangsta rap, which did not help."

And, she admitted, the press attention she was receiving was unlike anything she'd known before. "I've never had to deal with this before, because I've never been out there in this way. All of a sudden, [journalists] are like, 'Whoo! Here she goes! Stop the presses, she's going wild!' The fact is, I end up collaborating with more men than women in my work, and I form friendships with most of the people that I work with. But that doesn't mean that I'm sleeping with all these guys! I'm not!" In truth, the last thing Mariah wanted was to go into another relationship. "I have a lot of trust issues," she admitted in Cosmopolitan. "I don't know if there's anybody whom I fully trust. And I don't need to sleep with, like, one hundred guys to make up for lost time. If I'm with somebody, it's going to be because I really love him, not because I feel the need to go wild."

She'd made the personal break from Tommy, although she'd never had any intention of leaving Columbia - for one thing, she was legally tied there. To signal the start of a new life, a new Mariah, she also parted company with her manager, Randy Hoffman, and her attorney, Allen Grubman. Her new manager would be Hollywood dealmaker Sandy Gallin, who was based on the West Coast.

 

The public got its first taste of the new, freer Mariah when the video for "Honey" premiered on MTV. As it was meant to do, it turned heads. Suddenly, Mariah was grown up, Agent M, very sexy, showing a lot more of herself - in more ways than one: in action escaping from a mansion, riding a jet ski while evading the pursuing thugs, and ending up on a beach safe in the arms of a hunk. This was, for the first time, Mariah as a babe. Not only that, but the music was different. "Honey" went all the way into hip-hop, further than Mariah had ever gone before, thanks to Puffy being at the controls. Apparently, he had been given a free rein to do his magic - magic that already produced two consecutive number 1 singles, "I'll be missing you" and "Mo money mo problems".

The idea for the video had been entirely Mariah's. "It was my whole concept," she said. Director Paul Hunter and I talked about it for a while, and collaborated on it." Shot during the summer in Puerto Rico, "It was a grueling process, I'm not going to say it was easy. I got up at 3 am every day, and worked until 9 in the morning the next day - for four hours in a row, swimming in my Gucci pumps! I can't say that I really jumped off the roof, but I did dive into the pool. But I did wear and swim in those pumps, and I was not happy."

It all seemed innocent enough, another video with a story line, plenty of spy overtones, and action. But there were people eager to read a lot more into it, a subtext of Mariah escaping the controlling grip of Tommy Mottola. Even Walter Afanasieff, who was loyal to both Mariah and Tommy (his employer), called it "the most incredibly coincidental thing that you could put out. Everything in the video is 'Fuck you, Tommy.' "

Mariah, however, insisted that that simply was not the case. There was no slight to Tommy intended in the video, and the people who thought there was were just imagining things. Even so, a few insisted that the video was a parody of the way she'd been treated. And what was Tommy's reaction? "Tommy loves the video," a spokesperson said, "and says it's the best yet from Mariah. With its clothes and sensuous looks, it was certainly racier than any video she'd made before. "I don't really think the video is overtly sexual," Mariah contested. "But for me - I mean people used to think I was the nineties version of Mary Poppins!"

Whether the "Honey" video was controversial or truly innocent was irrelevant to most of the people who watched it on television. Or to those who rushed out the week of the single's release and geve Mariah something that had never been achieved before - her third single to enter the Billboard Hot 100 at Number 1. Its importance went well beyond its chart placing, however. "Honey" was the record that gave Mariah hip-hop credibility. Before that, she'd been seen as a pop singer with R&B tendencies, someone who might have liked hip-hop, but who wasn't really a part of the scene. "Honey" changed that perception, and even those who'd once dismissed Mariah as a wannabe were forced to take a second look.

To be fair, a good deal of this success had to do with Sean ("Puffy") Combs' production, but the song had originated with Mariah, after she'd worked with rapper Q-Tip, from A Tribe Called Quest. "They had an idea and they asked me to come in and produce the record," Combs said. So far it seemed so good. But he wasn't allowed in the studio when Mariah was doing her vocal takes - an odd situation for a producer. "A lot of people feel I'm overbearing," Combs explained, "so I wan't allowed there. I'm trying to work on that. I'm such a perfectionist, sometimes I don't people the chance to breathe. Mariah recorded "Honey" until she thought it was perfect, like a hundred times. She gave me a hundred tracks to choose from."

The combination of Mariah and Puff Daddy seemed to be magical, and there was no denying "Honey" had exactly what the charts were looking for, even if it seemed like a fairly radical departure for Mariah from the music for which she was known. But it was really the product of a woman who now felt in a position to express herself more freely. With its samples of "The Body Rock" by Treacherous 3 and "Hey DJ", on top of Q-Tip's drum programming, Stevie J's keyboards, and additional vocals from Mase and The Lox, this was a Mariah no one had had a chance to hear before: very sexy, very sassy, very contemporary. Like all of Combs' productions, "Honey" sounded dense, but there was a lot of space within the sound. "I don't know where I got the idea about honey and love, but I like it," Mariah said.

This hit not only made her the first artist to have three singles go straight in at Number 1, but it also gave her the most Number 1 hits of any female solo artist - twelve - one ahead of both Madonna and Whitney Houston. And it put her in a fourth-place tie with the Supremes for the most Number 1 singles, behind only Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley and the Beatles. She was now in very prestigious company. And, essentially, it made her a classic pop-era singer, not that she wasn't one already.

"Honey" only lasted at Number 1 for two weeks, but somehow that didn't matter. Its impact had been made, and the "new" Mariah had been announced. So when her album "Butterfly" appeared on September 16, it too entered the chart in the top position.

 

"My songs have never been this personal before", Mariah said, and once glance at the lyric sheet emphasized the truth of that statement. Musically, not everything on "Butterfly" was as drastic a move toward hip-hop as "Honey", but nevertheless this didn't seem like the same Mariah who'd made "Music Box". There were ballads, with the title track Mariah's "absolute favorite", which she called "the best ballad I've ever written". But even the ballads were lean, sinewy, and strongly weighted to R&B. And it was very notable that one of them was dedicated to Tommy.

For the up-tempo tracks, Mariah had widened her range of collaborators. She seemed to have her finger on the pulse of music, picking people who would become very hot, like Puff Daddy and Missy ("Misdemeanor") Elliot, with whom she cowrote "Babydoll". "Mariah, she listens to rap", Elliot said. "She's straight up just cool."

On remixes of "Honey", there would be raps from Da Brat and Mase, while "Breakdown" would find Wish Bone and Krayzie Bone from Bone Thugs-N-Harmony rapping. This was the album of someone way into hip-hop, not a wannabe. All the money in the world couldn't buy this kind of credibility.

"I started the album last January [1997] and finished early August", Mariah explained in Jet. "But, I did three videos in between [as well as "Honey", she made video for "Breakdown" and "Butterfly", the last of which she'd also directed]. This album is definitely something I've wanted to do for a long time. There were songs I wanted to do in the past. I recorded them, but they never got on the album. That happened even on the first album because some people felt they were too R&B or whatever the terminology was. It's been a gradual process of my being able to say that this is what I'm doing to do at this point. People owe it to you to let you express yourself. With all the changes that I've gone through both professionally and personally, it was a release to work on the album."

For the first time, she'd really thrown her caution away, and that made this album particularly gratifying, "because it's something that I feel fully responsible for and because I took chances." It wasn't just "Honey" that was getting widespread airplay. "Breakdown" was being widely requested, as was "Butterfly", particularly after the video Mariah conceived and directed began hitting heavy rotation on the music channels.

It seemed odd, at leat part of her inspiration came from the "weird dreams" she'd had after taking melatonin to help her sleep. In one dream, she'd been chasing something that leapt a barbed-wire fence. Mariah had tried to follow, but couldn't, and cut her finger on the wire. "I didn't put the blood in the video. Too gory."

"Butterfly" gave new grist to the critical mill, but the acceptance that had begun with "Daydream" seemed to more or less continue, albeit rather halfheartedly. Writers seemed to want to point out Mariah's split from Tommy, noting its impact on her lyrics, now that she was a "free woman" again. "Fans will find Butterfly full of the kind of glossy, richly decorated love tunes that shimmer when illuminated by Carey's bright voice", noted David E. Thigpen in Time, pointing out, "It continues the evolution that Carey began on Daydream - away from pure pop toward a keener-edged R&B and hip-hop influenced sound." He felt this was a much more adult record: "Underneath its cool sheen runs a thread of insecurity and loneliness that gives Butterfly a richer, more mature outlook."

In Entertainment Weekly, David Browne found her a slightly unconvincing R&B queen, simply because of the "penthouse-culture setting" that was her lifestyle. He was willing to concede, though, that she was moving toward R&B, but she was "caught between old and new habits and taking cautious baby steps into the future." Overall, the record didn't convince him. While it was "pleasant", he felt that "Carey's attempt at musical maturity ends up backfiring. The very-slow-jam grooves have an intimacy lacking in her previous work. But the arrangements - especially the oozing vocal harmonies on many tracks - mute the impact of the lyrics. The most distinctive tracks on Butterfly are still its gushy, sky-high ballads."

While it was true that there were out-and-out dance tracks on the album, that had never been Mariah's intention. Hip-hop had largely moved away from the freneticism of Public Enemy to catch a groove that was more laid-back, a groove that suited Mariah's voice perfectly. Whether or not the critics accepted it, those involved in hip-hop did, and most importantly, so did the fans, the final arbiters of what was good or bad. If they hadn't liked the album, they wouldn't have gone out by the millions and bought it, quickly sending it to triple platinum in the United States and to number 1 in Japan.

The release was celebrated, not with a concert, but with a rare public appearance by Mariah, who autographed copies of the disc at Tower Records, at Sixty-sixth Street and Broadway in New York. Crowds lined the street overnight to have the chance to see her. The day before, she'd been on Oprah Winfrey's show, singing "Butterfly" and "Hero", and on November 12, she'd been the musical guest on "Saturday Night Live" (just as she had been when "Mariah Carey" appeared), singing "Butterfly" and "My All". And on September 16, came the "official" launch of the record, with a party at New York's Pier 59 Studios.

 

"Butterfly" was, without doubt, more focused than anything Mariah had done before. And, as she'd wanted it to be, it was an R&B album. Even the ballads she'd written with Walter, fully half the record, had a sound that definitely leaned in that direction. "Butterfly" started off, as Mariah's albums tended to, with the first single, "Honey". Beyond question, this was a hip-hop track, driven by Q-Tip's drum programming and Stevie J's keyboards, all lined up behind Mariah's voice (although longtime cohorts Melonie Daniels and Kelly Price would add some background vocals throughout the album), and a production - by Puffy, with a little help from Mariah - that managed to be both dense and airy. This went beyond anything she'd done in the past. It was street hip-hop music, with a booming bass, built around samples of "The Body Rock" and "Hey DJ". But it was also pop, with a catchy chorus, combining hip-hop and pop into one for something that simply wasn't going to be denied by anyone, and offering a powerful start to the record.

"Butterfly", the next song, more than live up to the promise. Mariah had described it as her favorite, and the best thing she'd ever written, and it was easy to hear why. Co-composed with Walter, who, with Dan Shea, handles all the instruments, it was very personal, and different from any ballad she'd written before - richer, sexier, more grounded on the R&B she loved, but without any traces of gospel influence (indeed, there'd be none of that on "Butterfly"). As it was meant to, it soared.

"My All", another collaboration with Walter, took Mariah deeper into the territory she'd explored with Babyface on her last album. The surprise, really, was that Babyface hadn't been involved with the song. The sound, the lushness, even the style seemed to have his marks. But Mariah and Walter wrote, arranged, and produced the whole thing themselves. Even the guitar arpeggios were not quite real, sampled then played on the keyboard. But "My All" succeeded; it had the kind of slinky, slow-jam R&B sound that Toni Braxton had once made her own, and it fit Mariah like a glove. When it was released as a single, it became Mariah's 13th Number 1 hit.

Then the beats per minute increased a little for the groove of "The Roof". Incorporating bits of "Shook Ones" into its sound and produced by Poke and Tone with Mariah, it had been composed by Mariah with a number of others, including Cory Rooney, who contributed keys. Lyrically, this was some of her best work ever, the melody slinky and overtly sexy, confirmation - as if any was needed by this point! - that this was a new Mariah.

"Fourth of July", another ballad co-written with Walter, was as close to the old Mariah as "Butterfly" came. And even this was jazzier than she'd been in a long time, much closer to, say, "Vanishing" or "The Wind" than to "Hero". But even then, it was less straight-forward, with more of a swing and even a touch of sass.

The next two tracks, "Breakdown" and "Babydoll", were, perhaps, the album's backbone, its real declaration of independence. "Honey" stood at one extreme, while some of the ballads stood at the other. Pure R&B, these songs occupied the middle ground. "Breakdown" saw Puffy and Mariah behind the boards again, with guest raps from Wish Bone and Crazy Bone from Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, who also helped out with the backgrounds. Like "Honey", "Breakdown" showed Mariah treading forcefully into territory that was new for her and making it her own; it had a melody that simmered under her vocal, and a groove that was irresistible.

"Babydoll" teamed Mariah with yet another writing partner, Missy Elliot. "I had the hook already," Mariah explained, "as well as a melody and lyric for the chorus. Then she and I collaborated on a new melody for the verse, and we did the first verse, and the second half of the second verse together." Unlike much of the album, which was recorded in New York at Mariah's Crave Studios or The Hit Factory, or even at WallyWorld in California, Walter's home base, much of "Babydoll" came together in Atlanta, where Missy lived. This had a bonus, since it helped reunite Mariah with an old friend who lived there - Trey Lorenz, who added to the background vocals. "Babydoll" was a vocally driven piece, as sensuous as Mariah was likely to get, with a sparse arrangement kicked along by some inventive drum programming by Cory Rooney.

Following these came two ballads, "Close My Eyes" and "Whenever You Call", which, while up to the standard of anything Mariah had done before, suffered in comparison. But even here you could hear the new Mariah in the spareness of the arrangements and the way it was her voice, rather than any instrument, that controlled the song. She'd grown to the point where having less behind her really proved to be more, for the song and for her. It was notable, too, that like the other ballads on the record, these two leaned very much towards R&B.

"Fly Away (Butterfly Reprise)" - essentialy Butterfly's "Fantasy (Sweet Dub Mix)" - was a chance for David Morales to take the tune apart, and for Mariah and him to create something new out of it. This included adding some lyrics from an old Elton John song. "It's like a twist on the original record," Mariah said. "Actually, when I wrote Butterfly, I had a house record in mind, but then I started thinking about it while writing it, and it turned into a ballad. But I had to do the other one too, so they're both on the album." This gave them a chance to explore the original possibilities of the song, and it did kick along to a thumping house beat, propelling some inventive keyboard and vocal work, showing yet another new facet of Mariah.

After that, it all quieted down again for a cover of Prince's "The Beautiful Ones" with Dru Hill. This wasn't a reprise of "One Sweet Day" in any way, but a homage to one of Mariah's favorite artists, done with the help of one of the best R&B groups around. Voices slid into each other, showing how simple, but how good and how effective the song was. And while it might not have added anything to the original, it did offer a lovely vocal outing.

It all came to a close with "Outside", a ballad Mariah had written with Walter. Interestingly, for the first time on one of the ballads, they added a third person in the control room, Cory Rooney, who added to the song's feel. Spare, pleading, this was Mariah stripped to the basics, lyrically and musically, finishing it all as she'd started: stronger, prouder, a new woman, a natural woman who'd come into her own.

 

Six months after her split with Tommy, Mariah was secretly dating somebody; it was New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter. The pair had met at a charity function and found through casual conversation that they had a lot in common. For starters, Jeter, like Mariah, came from a biracial background. Their relationship progressed swiftly from friendship to romance, and according to reports, they became lovers not long after they met. But it would not be an easy relationship to maintain. Both had professional lives that took precedence, and in Jeter's case it often took him out of town for extended periods of time. And it was the first time either had dated another high-profile celebrity. But they reportedly were equally matched when it came to passion, and so, when they did get together, the sparks flew. Word eventually leaked out that Mariah and Derek were an item. Jeter, ever the gentlemen, would say only that they were seeing each other. Mariah did not deny that they were dating but would not reveal much. All she said was, "We connected because we had similar backgrounds. He's a nice guy."

The relationship was marked by a lot of spontaneous behavior in public. Gossip columns and tabloids reported that when the Yankees were in town, Mariah and Derek were spotted regularly at late-night candlelight dinners in trendy restaurants, kissing and holding each other tight. In fact, their love match reportedly began to take its toll on Jeter's on-field performance. About the time that the couple's romance began, Jeter went into a batting slump that his fellow Yankee players blamed squarely on Mariah. They complained that she was not allowing Derek to get enough sleep, showing up at his apartment at all hours of the day and night.

Word of Mariah and Derek's romance eventually got back to Tommy who was heartbroken at the news. This was a surprising change of attitude from Mottola who, in the early stages of their breakup, had been indifferent to their deteriorating relationship. He had always hoped that he and Mariah would somehow patch things up and get back together. But now he was convinced that Mariah had moved on, and so he went ahead and sold their dream home, the ten-million-dollar mansion. Mariah reportedly received half of the proceeds.

Critically, Butterfly was applauded for the chances Mariah had taken, and while the reviews were not across-the-board raves, the indication was that Mariah's new musical strides were reaching a responsive audience. Her hard work and perseverance were rewarded with a slew of award nominations for Butterfly. She captured a nomination for Best Female Artist in the R&B category from the American Music Awards. The Blockbuster Entertainment Awards nominated her for Favorite Female in the pop-music category. Even her recent Grammy drought ended with three nominations: Best Female Vocal Performer, Best Female R&B Vocal Performer, and Best R&B Song.

Mariah plunged full bore into a variety of promotional appearances that seemed to indicate the singer had finally come out of her shell. She appeared, with her mother, on the Oprah Winfrey Show. That was a painful experience as Oprah probed the personal side of her life and led Mariah to shed tears several times during the hour. Mariah appeared for an autograph signing at Tower Records in New York, grateful for the rare opportunity to meet her fans face-to-face. Mariah also appeared on Saturday Night Live a second time and captivated millions of television viewers with powerful renditions of the songs "Butterfly" and "My All."

Mariah's growing popularity as a worldwide star led to requests for more concerts. And while Butterfly was burning up the charts and radio airwaves, Mariah chose to once again kick off her current round of concert tours with a series of concerts in Japan, Australia, and Hawaii and went into active rehearsal for the tour shortly before Christmas. Mariah kicked off the first of twelve concerts dates - her longest concert tour to date - on January 11 with four sold-out dates in Tokyo. Echoing her U.S. tour, Mariah's first show in Tokyo was not her best, and the nerves once again betrayed her onstage. But just like the U.S. tour, she made a quick recovery, and those who saw the remaining Tokyo shows deemed them a rousing success. A quick trip across the water for a concert in Taiwan was followed by a series of six shows in Australia. A final show in Hawaii ended the tour on a high note.

During the tour, Mariah found out that once again, she was shut out from the Grammy Awards - not one of her three nominations had won. But this time, she took it all in stride. She was on tour, the fans loved her, and at least she didn't have to sit through the whole awards ceremony and then come away empty-handed. No amount of awards could replace the popular acceptance of Butterfly and the feeling that she was now free to live her own life - creatively and personally. In fact, it was that feeling, coupled with the fact that her relationship with Derek Jeter was going well, that brought her to the decision, in March 1998, that it was time to divorce Tommy Mottola. A trip to the Dominican Republic and a quickie uncontested divorce put the official stamp on her new life. Mariah returned to the United States a free woman and, that same day, was in the stands watching as Derek Jeter had a less-than-stellar game, striking out twice. This just added more fuel to the theory that Mariah's loving was bad for Derek's game.

 

On the Tuesday evening of April 14, 1998, something very special began for Mariah. She and four other women in glitzy evening gowns waited backstage at the Beacon Theater in New York City. They were billed as the five "divas", who would perform a concert that evening called "Divas Live". Diva is an Italian word for goddess, and these five divas were Mariah, Aretha Franklin, Celine Dion, Gloria Estefan, and Shania Twain. Combined, the five had recorded over two dozen number-one hits, won nearly two dozen Grammy Awards, and sold over 200 million albums. Describing these five singers as divas was not an exaggeration. They were adored by fans the world over.

Executive producer of "Divas Live", Lauren Zalaznick, was overjoyed. "It's uncanny. It's wacky," she bubbled. "These are mega-superstars artists who, at the end of the day, have to learn how to sing duets. They're soloists. They have to figure out who's going to sing what, who comes in when, who's taking harmony, who's taking lead vocal. This is a once-in-a-lifetime lineup. This is lightning in a bottle. It will never happen again."

The concert was a benefit, meaning that the money raised from the event would go to charity. The event was organized by and televized on the music channel VH-1, which is part of a large corporation that also runs MTV, Nickledeon, and TV Land. Many other corporations where anxious to help in this benefit concert including Blockbuster Video, Taco Bell, and Visa. Money from the "Divas Live" concert went to "Save the Music", a program designed to restore music education in public schools. Even before the concert, "Save the Music" had restored 91 musical programs, affecting 27,000 school children in New York City. Sponsors of "Save the Music" insist that children educated in music also develop better mentally and therefore perform better in their academic studies. The organizers of the program believe that music is good not only for the soul but also for the brain.

Mariah Carey was one of these believers. But, brain-boosting or not, she loved music and she could not remember a time when she did not. Mariah was the first of the five divas to perform in the "Divas Live" concert. She was certainly the diva of the pop music. She had nearly sold half of the women's cumulative total of 200 million albums and claimed more than one dozen of the Number 1 hits. Jennifer Aniston, the actress who plays Rachel on the hit TV show Friends, introduced the program. Then Mariah came on stage, strikingly beautiful with long curly hair. Her wide, warm smile revealed her enthusiasm for the event. "How do you like the ensemble?" she asked the audience, twirling to show them her sleeveless, ankle-length dress. This show of pride in her shimmering gold gown broke the ice with the audience.

Mariah disliked singing one song and not being able to continue with her act, as she occasionally had to do for television shows like The Tonight Show with Jay Leno or Late Show with David Letterman. When that happened she felt that just as she was hitting her stride and really getting warmed up, her performance was over. Much to Mariah's delight, this concert was not so restricted. She would get to sing two songs back-to-back. She began by singing "My All", one of her special favorites, or "faves" as she called them. Near the end of "My All", she switched to a remix version, rearranging the song with a more hip-hop beat.

To sing her next song "Make It Happen", from her 1991 album Emotions, Mariah was joined by a choir. The song was a gospel with a funky Motown beat. Even though "Make It Happen" never made it to Number one as a single, it was still very special to Mariah. She had written lyrics motivated by the most painful memories of her past. But the song expressed her continuing faith as well. The lyrics came straight from her heart and soul. Mariah was drained when she finished singing, but she was a shrewd performer too. With these two songs she had artfully showcased her singing by effortlessly transitioning through the styles of R&B, hip-hop, gospel and Motown.

Although Gloria Estefan took the stage next, Mariah's singing was not over yet. Near the end of the concert she joined the other four divas and Carole King to sing King's classic song "A Natural Woman". The concert ended with all of them singing "Testimony". But Mariah's most thrilling moment of the entire concert came before that. In spite of all her honors and wealth it didn't seem possible she was singing a duet with Aretha Franklin - a version of Aretha's 1968 Number one hit "Chain of Fools". Aretha Franklin was a legend who had won an amazing 15 Grammy Awards. Known as the "Queen of Soul", she had kept Mariah glued to the radio as a child. Mariah wasn't even born yet when Aretha recorded "Chain of Fools", so nothing made Mariah realize how far she had come in her own life more than singing onstage with a giant of the music world like Aretha Franklin.

 

"Divas Live" aired on May 21 to huge ratings and great reviews. Mariah continued to moonlight on other artists' albums, and many of these choices reflected her wide-ranging musical interests. She sang on the song "Sweetheart" on the album by JD, duetted with the group The League on the song "Freestyle Pt. 2" on the album "Funkmaster Flex Vol. III", and sang with Patti Labelle on "Got To Be Real" on the album "Patti Labelle: Live! One Night Only".

However, the good times were still being roughed up by the constant intrusion of accusations into Mariah's personal life. This took a particularly ugly turn in June 1998 when a New Jersey limo driver named Franco D'Onofrio filed a $1.5 million lawsuit against her, charging that he had been unlawfully fired from his job as her personal driver after four years and that she owned the limousine company forty thousand dollars in unpaid bills. D'Onofrio also claimed that during his tenure as her driver, he had driven Mariah to numerous romantic rendez-vous with Derek Jeter as early as 1996, when Mariah was still married to Tommy. Mariah immediately filed a countersuit, charging that the unpaid bills amounted to no more than five thousand dollars, and that his stories were lies. The suit was eventually settled in Mariah's favor, but the damage done to her reputation and relationship with Jeter was something that would not go away.

The press simply would not let go of the Mariah-Derek romance. New York papers were particularly intrusive, speculating that the couple were already engaged, and a wedding date was imminent. The spector of Allison Carey resurfaced in these reports when they claimed that Mariah's sister's long-threatened book would state, among other things, that Mariah and Derek were already secretly dating in 1996, an accusation that Mariah had thought was resolved with the D'Onofrio suit. Derek responded by saying, "I'm not engaged. I'm not getting married." Mariah angrily added, "There is no engagement. There is no ring." And while they continued to deny the allegations, the reality was that Derek and Mariah's love affair was dissolving without the help of any outside media interference. Time apart was putting a constant strain on their relationship, and when it was all said and done, their love was not enough to keep them together. Mariah's spokesperson put the cold, final note on the relationship when she said, "Media pressure was too much for them as a couple, and they are now just good friends."

In his autobiography published in 2000, Derek Jeter spoke about their romance. "I learned that it would be very difficult to seriously date a high-profile person. I wasn't used to getting a lot of attention because I went to dinner with someone. It turned my life into a more chaotic existence than I wanted." By mid-1998, the pair had split up. Mariah was strong in the wake of the breakup, but there was a touch of sadness as well. "It just didn't work out", she said. "But there was life for a minute." Mariah recovered rather quickly from her first post-divorce romance, or so it appeared on the surface. Friends and close personal associates noticed that while she was not exactly withdrawn, Mariah was a little quieter than she had been when she was in love. "Derek" was no longer the first thing that tumbled out of her mouth, and she was not anxious to dissect the failed relationship. Her friends felt that she would survive it and move on, but like everything else, it would take time.

Once again, there were the rumors. The affair with Derek Jeter had reportedly hit Mariah so hard that she had allegedly told close friends she had given up on ever finding true love again. There were even some truly incredible reports that she was considering going back to Tommy. As always, reality fell somewhere in the middle. She had been hurt but not devastated, and it was a hurt mixed with large measures of simple disappointment. And while she would laugh off the notion that she would never love again, she was cautious, in idle conversation, in describing what kind of person she could fall in love with. It was a given that she could not love anybody who was not her equal financially and professionally. This may sound a bit un-Mariahlike, but the singer was aware of certain realities, and one of the biggest was that in order to be taken care of emotionally, any would-be romance would have to measure up in her material world as well. Of course, that did not necessarily mean that true love did not excist outside the music business. At the end of the day, Mariah knew that all she needed waws love and respect and perhaps someone to take care of her. She was sure that person was out there waiting for her - somewhere. Because, despite the rough patches, Mariah still believed in fairy tales and happy endings.

In years gone by, the first sign of stress drove Mariah racing back to the security of the recording studio to begin work on her next studio album. Psychologically, it had always worked for Mariah to squirrel herself away from the pain. Now, when she did make occasional forays into the studio, it didn't have the same effect. She would admit that it was more of a mind exercise and she was less inclined toward anything definite. At this point in her career, she felt that it would be counterproductive to consider recording an album unless she was in positive state of mind. So, the studio was on hold for now, but with her newfound freedom, other opportunities began to present themselves.

 

Jeffrey Katzenberg of DreamWorks used trickery to get Mariah and Whitney Houston sing the lead song of his latest project, the animated picture The Prince Of Egypt. He told Mariah that Whitney was doing it and told Whitney that Mariah was doing it. They both said yes. Mariah said about the project: "The way they're bringing the story to life is incredible. It's a ground-breaking movie. Our involvement in it was something special." For years, the press had painted Mariah as heir apparent to Whitney's title of Queen of the Divas and, in the process, had built up a nonexistent rivalry between the pair with reports that the two singers would often fuel this conflict with alleged snide put-downs. The reality was that no such animosity existed as far as the two singers was concerned, and doing the song would give the the opportunity to clear the air.

The recording of "When You Believe" turned out to be a joyous occasion for Mariah. She and Whitney immediately bonded, and the session that resulted in "When You Believe" was often punctuated by laughs and the kind of conversations only good friends have. Whitney agreed that "Mariah and I had good chemistry together". Added Mariah in an MTV interview, "If we were ever going to come together of any kind of record, this is definitely the right one, and really the coolest thing to me is all the drama and everybody making it like we had a rivalry. She was just really cool, and we had a really good time in the studio. We had fun."

Mariah's growing interest in acting had reached a point were she and her teacher felt that she was ready to test the waters. "She's committed to learning another craft," said her acting teacher Sheila Gray in Elle magazine. "She's willing to take a chance. I think that's courageous." So the superstar set forth into uncharted waters and started to make the rounds of auditions. Mariah was cautious and realistic in approaching Hollywood. Her name would get her in the door, but only her skills would land her the role. She knew there would be those who would try to use her in an exploitive way, and she knew that she was far from a polished actress. The movie business would have to work on her terms. From the outset, Mariah met with encouragement from the movie community. Casting agents would often comment on how she came across as a real person and that for somebody with no acting experience to speak of, she could easily slip into a wide variety of emotions at the drop of a hat. One of the first roles she auditioned for was as the love interest for Chris Tucker in the James Bond comedy spoof "Double O Soul". But, as often happens in Hollywood, the film ran into numerous production delays that precluded Mariah's involvement.

During this period, Mariah was once again entertaining the idea of a full-blown U.S. tour. For her, the performing jitters were definitely gone, as witness her August performance at radio station KMEL's All Star Jam in San Francisco. But the reality was that if she were to tour, any recording plans would have to be put on hold, and she had to be ready to drop everything at a moment's notice if All That Glitters suddenly got back on track.

With Butterfly continuing to show a steady chart presence and its sales heading toward five million copies - ultimately reaching a total of ten million - there really was no rush to put out another studio album. But with the lucrative holiday season coming, Sony was wringing their collective hands at the possibility to having no Mariah Carey album in stores for the first time in nearly a decade. The answer seemed simple. Mariah had a total of thirteen number one hits in her career, more than enough to fill a greatest hits album. And greatest hits albums by topselling artists had become something of a Christmas tradition and were usually money in the bank as well as a guaranteed chart fix. But Mariah felt that simply releasing a greatest hits package was like preaching to the converted and believed her fans should be rewarded for their support with something new as well. She couldn't spare the time to produce a whole new album from scratch, so a compromise was reached. The greatest hits album, #1's, would also contain four new songs. The bonus tracks would include "When You Believe", her duet with Whitney Houston, another duet, this one with singer Brian McKnight, "Whenever You Call", and two Mariah solo songs, "I Still Believe" and "Sweetheart". International versions of #1's also include "Do You Know Where You're Going To (theme from Mahogany)".

"It's not really a greatest hits album," Mariah told MTV. "I've only been around less than ten years. It's really only the number one songs I've had. If it were truly a greatest hits package, it would contain some other songs that did not make it to number one." Still, the process of recording the new songs and once again working with a lot of different people was just what Mariah needed. It gave her the opportunity to exercise her talents without having to deal with any undue pressure.

Given her continued status as "the franchise" for Sony, it came as a shock, midway through 1998, when Sony announced that Mariah's Crave label had been dissolved. Mariah was disappointed and relieved at the same time. Being involved with developing new artists and working with them in the studio had been a joy, but dealing with the endless rounds of paperwork and the corporate bottom line had not. During its one year of existence, Crave had produced one top ten single - "Head Over Heels" by the group Allure - and its other acts had shown across-the-board promise more than enough to justify Crave's survival. So, what happened? The press reported that the end of Crave was caused by a combination of financial considerations and Mariah's lost of interest in the day-to-day work required to run a label. The rumor-mongers immediately jumped on Crave's end as a not-too-subtle act of revenge against Mariah in the aftermath of her divorce from Tommy. Mariah did not want to believe that was the case, but she confessed in Lounch magazine, "My situation with Sony is far more unique and complex because of the personal aspect of what it used to be."

But Mariah's disappointment with the end of Crave was shortlived as the November 1998 release of #1's indicated that her name still carried strength with music buyers. Despite being essentially a greatest hist package, #1's quickly rose to number four on the album charts and, in the ensuing months, would quietly go triple platinum. The consensus among the music press was that Mariah's insistence on including the new material made the difference in increasing sales figures more than expected. Including some new with the old in a greatest hits package had been tried from time to time by other artists with varying degrees of success, but with the triump of #1's, it would become a regular element in nearly all future greatest hits albums. As such packages go, #1's was a solid retrospective of Mariah's chart hits, but because these songs were oversaturating the radio, including a favorite nonhit album track or two might have made a nice change. The new songs were a definite bonus. And while some would occasionally make appearances in Mariah's live shows, collectively, they added up to a nice touch but little more.

 

As 1998 began to wind down, Mariah felt at ease, so much that she decided to take the month of December off to spend some quiet vacation time on the slopes of Aspen, Colorado. Aspen had long ago become the getaway of choice for the superstars of the entertainment industry, and since celebrity sightings are considered part of the scenery, the stars are pretty much left alone. Mariah wanted to be ignored for a while. This was the kind of get-away-from-it-all Christmas she was yearning for. The real-estate agent who rented Mariah her Aspen retreat was a big fan. What Mariah was unaware of was that her agent had a friend who had, coincidentally, rented a house to Latino singing sensation Luis Miguel, and that they had decided to moonlight as matchmakers. Mariah's agent told her that Luis was in town and wanted to meet her. Miguel's agent told Luis that Mariah was interested in meeting him. "Of course, they both kind of lied," laughed Mariah. Mariah hesitated. She was a bit unsure. After all, she came to Aspen looking for solitude, not a date. But she decided that with the relative anonymity Aspen accorded her, it couldn't hurt to meet Miguel. She was, in fact, a fan of his music. So, unless he turned out to be a complete nincompoop, they would have something to talk about. Free and easy was what she had in mind. The pair got together the day before Christmas Eve. It was love at first sight.

Mariah admitted that she did not know where the relationship was heading during those first few days. Neither did Luis. The Latin singer had recently ended a long-term relationship with actress Daisy Fuentes and was gun-shy about getting romantically involved again. But both would later admit that something magic passed between them on the day they met. For Mariah and Luis, even the most mundane moments were the greatest things on earth. They were together constantly, and the intimacy and romance followed quickly. On Christmas Eve, Luis presented Mariah with a diamond necklace. But Mariah would later state that while the pure emotion of love washed over them, there were certain realities that instantly bound the two together. Their personalities meshed. Luis was a totally optimistic person and free with his attentions. And most important, he was not the controlling type, which fit perfectly with Mariah's insistence on having her freedom.

"Since Luis Miguel came into my life, I am a much more happy person," she cooed in Gente magazine. "He's a very self-confident person. That's what I like about him. At this moment in my life, I'm so happy with the relationship. We have a lot in common. We both understand the pressures and the time you have to dedicate to this job." Which was why, the same month they met, Mariah was not too upset when Luis had to jet off to the other side of the world for a series of concerts. Mariah was in love, but she was also cautious. She conceded that the whirlwind romance could have been a result of rampant emotion that could well have burned itself out. But, in the coming months, when the gifts, phone calls, and visits continued, Mariah knew this love was for real. "I used to have this dream when I was a little girl that someday I would meet somebody who was mixed race like me and who had a similar life, and that we would live happily ever after, and that he would complete me," she told Rolling Stone.

Mariah continued to set her sights on acting roles and, when her starring vehicle "All That Glitters" was once again delayed, she went after other parts. She auditioned for the role of Natasha in the live-action film "The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle". She came close to landing it but ultimately lost to Renu Russo. Then she was rewarded with her first part when she won the role of Chris O'Donnell's ex-girlfriend in the romantic comedy "The Bachelor", which would begin filming shortly after thhe New Year. "The Bachelor" was an eye-opening experience for Mariah. It was only one day of filming, but it proved to be a strenuous one. Mariah played an opera singer in a scene that called for her to sing a rousing aria from the opera "La Traviata" before suddenly falling over dead. "It was totally over the top," recalled Mariah in a Mirabella magazine interview. "The director said, 'Okay you need a stunt double for that fall, right?' And I said, 'Nah, I can do that', not realizing I was going to do thirty more takes. By the end of the shooting, my hips and knees were killing me, and a medic had to bring me ice."

When she was not working, Mariah would hop a plane and jet off to be wherever Luis happened to be, which often meant far-flung locations such as Paris and Mexico City where the pair would be spotted holding hands and kissing in restaurants and other public places. Initially the couple had attempted to keep their relationship out of the public eye, but now, confident that their love was real, they made no attempt to hide their feelings. And for Mariah, the sensation proved liberating. She was tired of hiding her love affairs in dark corners and dodging the prying eye of the press. If she had taken nothing else away from her relationship with Derek Jeter, it was that she was not going to hide any future love affairs.

Given Mariah's state of romantic bliss, it was surprising that in May 1999, an old jealousy would once again surface. It involved Samantha Cole (Walter Afanasieff's one-time girlfriend) and a very public display of Mariah's temperament. Mariah and a group of friend were partying at an exclusive New York nightclub when Samantha Cole walked in. According to eyewitness reports, chronicled in the New York Daily News, Mariah began chucking pieces of ice across the room at the singer. When that did not persuade her to leave, Mariah reportedly went to the bouncers in an attempt to get her removed from the club. Mariah and her spokespeople were mum on this incident, but Samantha had plenty to say: "She [Mariah] is always talking about me. I regret that we can't be friends. There's room for ten more pop divas out there."

 

Following the completion of "The Bachelor", Mariah turned her attention back to "All That Glitters", which was once again green-lighted. Part of the deal was for Mariah to compose the songs and music for the film, and so she immediately settled back into the studio. Drawing on her own life for the fictional story, Mariah had soon fashioned several songs that reflected moody, emotional highs and lows but, in keeping with the seting of the movie, with a definite eighties feel. At the rate she was going, Mariah felt that the soundtrack would be completed just before she stepped in front of the cameras. Unfortunately, "All That Glitters" start time was pushed back yet again, and so Mariah was once more left in limbo with a handful of songs. "I was like okay'", she told the Baltimore Sun. "If I'm going to do this, I'm either going to use some of the songs from the soundtrack or go back to square one and do a completely different album. So I decided to take the songs I had already done and just do a completely different album."

Sony was delighted at the news that they would get a new Mariah Carey album in 1999. Once again, they were less than thrilled when Mariah announced that she would be recruiting such rap and hip-hop stars as Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg, Da Brat, and Missy Elliot to help her make further inroads into rap and R&B. Although never made public, many in the Sony Records corporate empire believed that Mariah worked the experimentation out of her system with "Butterfly", and that she would now return to safe and potentially more lucrative middle-of-the-road pop. But with her newfound sense of independence, Mariah was having none of that. "It's a challenge to work with other artists," she told Breakout magazine. "On my first four albums, there were no songs with other artists because I was not allowed to. But, now that I decide what I do, I ask everybody to join in on my records." For "Rainbow", Mariah also made the decision to record in Capri, Italy rather than her normal recording haunts in New York. Part of the reason was personal. Luis was currently on tour in Europe, and by recording in Italy, it made it easier for the couple to get together for some private time. But business also figured into the equation. "I love New York," she told a Blitz TV interviewer. "But if I'm there, I want to go out, friends come to the studio, and the phone rings constantly. But in Capri, I am in a remote place, and there is no one I can run into."

Mariah immediately rang up Walter Afanasieff who was integral to creating her trademark ballads. Unfortunately, Afanasieff, who had become an in-house producer for other Sony acts largely because of his work with Mariah, was busy working on another album and was not available. Mariah was disappointed and just a little bit suspicious. Again, she speculated that the fact that Walter was not available for her new album was Sony's doing; it was another stumbling block put in her path because of lingering hard feelings resulting from her divorce from Tommy. The falling out between Walter and Mariah appeared to be due to creative differences and not just to Sony's interference, but the record company's insistence on not responding to rumors only fueled suspicions that they were interfering with Mariah as some kind of revenge for her breakup with Tommy.

But she was not going to let the absence of Walter derail the album. David Foster had a reputation as a producer who knew his way around a ballad and who had a keen commercial sense. He was available and anxious at the opportunity to work with Mariah. For the album's dance-rap hip-hop songs, which she felt would end up taking at least half of the album, she chose the solid-gold hip-hop-rap producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. While she talked up Jam and Lewis to Launch magazine, Mariah, uncharacteristically, took the opportunity to take a shot at Walter. "I think Jimmy and Terry have added a different direction musically. I told them how great it was to be able to sit there (in the studio) and not have to say: No, not so schmaltzy."

As she had with "Butterfly", Mariah was going for an eclectic mix of styles and sounds. One of the more adventurous steps was a R&B-laced pop-ballad remake of the Phil Collins hit "Against All Odds (Take A Look At Me Now)". Mariah's respect for Collins' original was such that she recorded a demo and had it shipped directly to him to get his opinion. She added it to the album's playlist only when Collins wired back his okay on what she had done. At the suggestion of Foster, Mariah also brought in singwriter Diane Warren to help her hammer out the lyrics for two ballads, "Can't Take That Away" and "After Tonight". Warren, who had written for Joe Cocker and Aerosmith, amongst others, would later recall that there had been a strong give-and-take relationship in the writing sessions with Mariah. She mentioned that Mariah would often stop her in mid-lyric to say that what she was writing did not work for her and demand something better. But she was also quick to accept the Warren contributions when they did work. Mariah was particularly happy with "After Tonight", feeling that the lyrics spoke very much to her real-life relationship with Luis Miguel. She felt that the song would work perfectly as a duet, and that she and Luis singing together would be ideal musically as well as romantically. But according to David Foster who supervised the sessions on "After Tonight", the experiment in love and song was a total disaster. "The song had been written just for Mariah," the producer stated in a New York Daily News article. "I had Luis and Mariah record the song as a duet several times. But it never really sounded right." Mariah painfully recalled the failed experiment. "After Tonight just wasn't in Luis's key. To change it, I would have to redo my vocals, and we just didn't have the time."

The failed recording made for some tense moments in the studio between Mariah and Luis. After hearing the recording later, Luis reportedly became so upset that he cut the tape up into pieces and mailed it back to David Foster. But that incident aside, Luis's visits to Capri during the recording of "Rainbow" were a tranquil and positive time for Mariah who was in a cocoon of love and good feeling as she recorded the album. There were those days when Mariah and Luis would walk hand-in-hand throught the market shopping stalls or sit for hours in local outdoor restaurants. "Yes, I am in love," she cautiously explained to Caras magazine, still weighing the need to keep things private. "I don't want to give details about my private life. I'm living in a very nice period after having really bad and stormy years."

Even when Luis was not around, Mariah was enjoying the spartan existence while recording the album. Capri was a hilly island, which meant that Mariah had to walk everywhere. For a while, Mariah would make the long daily trek up a steep hillside to the recording studio. But after a time, that daily climb took its toll physically, and so she began to sleep in the studio. Mariah quickly settled into a routine. When Luis was not around, she would wake up, sing in the studio until her voice gave out, and then go back to sleep. In the studio, Mariah was hands-on despite the presence of first-rate producers, and she won the respect of the other music-makers. The "Rainbow" sessions, even more than those for "Butterfly", were turning out to be carthatic and, to a large extent, biographical. The song "Heartbreaker", which had its inception in the "All That Glitters" era, was a mirror on Mariah's life played out against the backdrop of different musical styles and emotional lyrics. Even before the sessions ended, "Heartbreaker" was the odds-on favorite to be the first single. Here was yet another tune that seemed to reflect where Mariah had been and where she was going.

 

Mariah had a long and diverse history of involvement with charitable causes. In the early nineties, she became involved in the Fresh Air Fund, which took underprivileged New York kids to summer camps in the country in an attempt to let them see a different world. Her other generous involvements include working with the New York Police Athletic League and working for the benefit of the obstetrics department of New York Hospital - Cornell Medical Center. "I try to be a good person and make a difference where I can, in the world and with people," Mariah said. Her list of charity causes increased once again during the recording of Rainbow when famed opera singer Luciano Pavarotti asked her to perform, along with such stellar celebrities as Ricky Martin, B.B. King, and Joe Cocker, at a charity concert in nearby Modena, Italy on June 1, 1999. Mariah jumped at the chance to perform in front of an Italian audience for the first time and, by all reports, put an electrifying show. A CD of that show, entitled Pavarotti & Friends, would be released in September and featured Mariah and Pavarotti duetting on the song "Hero" and her live rendition of "My All".

By the end of summer 1999, Mariah had completed Rainbow in what was for her the record time of three months. She turned over the master tapes to Sony and waited for the expected gasps at the fact that Rainbow had taken an even bigger step in the direction of the street. But rather than let the pontential negative reaction of the execs to the notion that was jumping on the rap-hip-hop bandwagon bother her, Mariah was amused. "People just don't understand," she chuckled in a Newsweek interview. "I grew up with this music."

Once again Mariah plunged into the promotion stream, making the expected television appearances and the rounds of the magazine, newspapersm and radio journalists. Mariah was, for the first time, totally at ease with the media. She anticipated and was prepared for the questions about Tommy and Luis, as well as the tabloid reports, and she handled them all with style and grace. What was encouraging was that the press was interested in her music and the direction it was taking. But, most of all, Mariah came away from this latest bout with the media with the feeling that she was finally getting a measure of respect. In an interview with MTV, she indicated that getting respect has never been easy for her. "People look at me and think 'Oh, she sings all the octaves and does all that stuff' and they don't acknowledge that the stuff I do is really my own style and my own thing."

"Heartbreaker" was released in September and debuted at a respectable number 16 on the singles chart, but it would not stay there long. Audiences instantly embraced Mariah's further musical adventures into the world of hip-hop and rhythm and blues. Within a week, the single leaped to number one. By the time "Heartbreaker" hit the top spot, Mariah was winging her way to Spain for a promotional tour before the November 2 release of Rainbow. The U.S. release of the album was shaping up to be a media event of major proportions, complete with a battle of the television morning news shows. The new CBS television show "The Early Show" had the inside track on Mariah, premiering her new album live in a miniconcert on November 1. But at the last minute, the producers of "The Early Show" had trouble getting the appropriate permits for the show. NBC's "The Today Show" stepped in at the last possible moment, and so Mariah, on the appointed day, wowed a crowd outside "The Today Show" studios.

Rainbow raced up the album charts to number two amid a tidal wave of solid reviews that emphasized Mariah's new musical direction. These comments brought a smile to Mariah's face when she explained that what she was doing now was an extension of her love for the music of the street that has always been with her. But there were some brickbats aimed in the direction of Mariah's album. It was intimated that many of the songs on Rainbow sounded alike. Mariah was quick to dismiss the charges, citing the way she wrote her songs and saying that if her fans liked her music, she couldn't care less what the critics said.

Rainbow was a clean break Mariah had been looking for. Although there were gestures towards the types of songs that had made her a star, the mixing of tougher sounding R&B and hip-hop elements was even more brazen. "Heartbreaker" was the real eye-opening track, with its lyrical musings about lost love set to a slow, driving beat. "Crybaby" with the nongangsta stylings of Snoop Dogg, was also an earthy indication that Mariah's sweet-sounding vocals could mix effectively with just about any style. Easily as daring in concept and execution as Butterfly, Rainbow effectively announced the next phase of Mariah Carey's career. Along with the accolades for Rainbow came the inevitable round of statistics that gave her the highly rarefied status of superstar. By the time the dust settled on Rainbow, Mariah's worldwide sales in the nineties had surpassed 120 million copies. Her string of number-one chart singles had put her in the company of the Beatles and Elvis.

Mariah took an extended vacation during the remainder of 1999. She would spend a lot of time in Europe with Luis, often watching backstage at his concerts as thousands of young women went crazy for her man. Of course, there were also those quiet times when the love of Mariah and Luis deepened. There were the inevitable tabloid reports of possible marriage and alleged plans for Mariah to begin having children. Mariah and Luis would laugh off these reports. There would be time for those things later when they were ready. But for now, they rejoiced in what they had.

Unfortunately, during this period, Mariah's sister made good of her threat to expose the alleged truth about her relationship with Mariah when she announced on an English website that she had published a book called "Mariah and me", which, according to alleged excerpts, chronicled in detail how Allison supported Mariah through prostitution prior to her landing a record deal and that she had actually rented the limo and bought Mariah a new dress for her initial meeting with Tommy Mottola. Allison also stated that Mariah had unsuccessfully threatened and attempted to bribe her to keep the book from being published. Although Allison has said that the manuscript is completed, to date, the book has not been published, and it appears that she had only been releasing portions of the manuscript to interest a publisher. Allison is still struggling with her demons. Through her spokesperson, Mariah issued a statement that said "Mariah has supported her sister since she made her first album and continues to support her children. Any illicit activities her sister engaged in were her own means. The woman has been in and out of rehab and treatment centers. It's a sad situation."

Mariah returned to the States in mid-November to tape a labor of love, the television show "Mariah Carey's Homecoming Special", which would be filmed in the gymnasium of her old junior high school. For Mariah, this was a mixed blessing. She reveled in the nostalgia of it all as she hugged and kissed a number of old teachers and principals and accepted their praise. But the memories of these people trying to dissuade her from her dream as a young girl were also on her mind. It would have been easy to rub their noses in her success. But that was not her style. The show was a success, and the consensus was that Mariah was truly giving it a little bit extra. The Mariah Carey Homecoming Special aired on the Fox channel on December 14. Mariah received another Christmas present in early December when Disney once again announced that the off-again-on-again All That Glitters was a go and was looking at a year 2000 start date, pointing toward a hopeful Christmas 2000 release.

The door to Mariah Carey's past life literally and figuratively closed in mid-December when the mansion she had shared with Tommy Mottola burned to the ground in what authorities termed an accidental fire. Tommy had already sold their dream home, but the memories were still there. Mariah was sad at the news but also managed a wan smile at the symbolism of it all. It was also during this period that she began to hear stories about how her ex had got on with his life and was actively dating. Mariah was happy for him. Christmas and New Year's was a whirlwind of activity for Mariah. She spent some time with her family and some globe-trotting with Luis. She entered the year 2000 in a very good place. And she was once again ready to tour.