THE SPLIT 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.
HONEY 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 overly 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 gave 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 wasn't allowed there. I'm trying to work on that. I'm such a perfectionist, sometimes I don't give 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.
A NEW MARIAH "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 "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.
THE BIG BREAK 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.
DIVAS LIVE 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.
GOOD TIMES - ROUGH TIMES "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.
WHEN YOU BELIEVE 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.
LUIS MIGUEL 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."
RAINBOW 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.
HEARTBREAKER 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" debuted at a respectable number 60 on the singles chart, weeks before the actual release. After it was released in September, it jumped to number 16. 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.
RAINBOW TOUR Despite her phenomenal sales in the United States and a number of well-received television specials, Mariah was feeling a bit guilty about the fact that she had not toured her native country since 1993 and had, in fact, performed more live shows in Europe and Asia than she ever had in her place of birth. Now, she reasoned, was the time for the payback. Actually, there was a lot in it for Mariah herself to tour at this time. Her confidence as a performer had grown considerable since 1993, and she felt U.S. audiences would see her at her best, which was important to her. And being particularly proud of Rainbow, she was anxious to give Americans first shot at hearing the new songs live. Plus, for the first time in a long time, she did not feel the overwhelming urge to go back into the studio. The tour would consist of nine North American concerts, with stops in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Dallas, Chicago, Miami, Atlanta, Boston, Toronto, and New York.
The tour started in Europe. The first concert was on Februari 14, 2000, in Antwerp, Belgium. Other European cities that were lucky to see Mariah were Milan (Italy), Koln (Germany), Paris (France), London (England) and Madrid (Spain). The tour would continue in Asia - Osaka and Tokyo in Japan, and Singapore, before going to America. Mariah hinted that, since her live show would cover much of the material from Rainbow, it should not be too much of a surprise if some of the artists who helped out on the album happened to show up to be a part of her upcoming concert dates. On March 3, ten days before the American part of the tour was set to commence in Loas Angeles, singer and good buddy Da Brat signed on as Mariah's opening act.
These were heady times for Mariah as she went through the rehearsals for the upcoming tour. She was hearing much of the Rainbow material in its completed form for the first time outside the studio, and she was thrilled at the prospect of her new direction translating well in a concert setting. Going back to the selection of songs from older albums was like revisiting old friends. And while she felt duty-bound to present her greatest hits in the familiar way that her fans had come to know them, she was not above tweaking the arrangements or bringing her vocals down an octave or two in an attempt to give them fresh life and feeling. By the time the rehearsals were completed, Mariah felt confident that the show she would take on her march through the states would be a blockbuster.
The buzz among music-industry pundits was that a Mariah Carey concert tour of any duration was just the shot in the arm the whole performing industry needed. Overall, the last couple of years had been soft, with only a handful of superstar acts able to mount long, profitable tours. In fact, many acts, including the once powerhouse rockers Van Halen, had found themselves playing to half-empty houses. But a Mariah Carey tour was a whole different story. She got out of the studio so rarely that anytime she ventured on a stage was considered an event, and, as befitting most events, Mariah's shows sold out in a matter of days. Likewise, the media was all over this tour, probing for details and scrambling for even the slightest bit of information. Again, Mariah was vague, promising a wonderful show but not wanting to spoil any surprises she might have up her sleeve.
The opening night of her tour was a full-blown extravaganza. The stage was full of lights, costumes, fancy backdrops, and, most important, Mariah - her voice taking electrifying flight over a wide array of music that traced her career highlights throughout the nineties but with a generous sampling of the songs from Rainbow as well. Mariah took obvious delight in strutting her new sound before the audience, along with her new sultry, sexy persona. Between songs, she was sincere in thanking the audience for their response and acceptance. The reviews for that first show were mostly positive and near-raves, which announced that Mariah had arrived as a dynamic performer and as the consummate singer of songs. To Mariah, those reviews, after the audience's applause, were the sweetest music of all.
Mariah's tour moved fast, chalking up more sold-out shows and rave reviews in Las Vegas, Dallas, Chicago, and Miami. A plus in having Mariah on the road was that the buzz inherent to these rare live appearances helped the already massive sales of Rainbow jump to nearly four million copies. The follow-up single to "Heartbreaker" was a version of "Thank God I found you", recorded with Joe and the boy group 98 Degrees. It was rocketing up the charts. And her record company was happy to report that sales of her extensive back catalogue were increasing as well. The irony was that while she had never really gone away, now suddenly Mariah was "back".
That was why Mariah was in such a celebratory mood on the day of her Atlanta concert when she took a group of her tour mates out to dinner in an exquisite seafood restaurant. Mariah had one of her favorite dishes: oysters on the half shell. Hours later, Mariah suddenly fell ill. She was throwing up and suffering terrible stomach pains. A doctor rushed to her hotel room and he soon deduced that Mariah was in the throes of a bad case of food poisoning. There was immediate concern for her health and talk of cancelling that night's performance. But ever the trooper, Mariah did not want to disappoint her fans, and insisted that the show must go on. Everyone backstage was concerned. Her road manager and members of her entourage made last-minute attempts to talk her out of performing. But Mariah stood firm - if a little bit shaky - on her decision to do the show.
When she walked onstage in Atlanta, the spring was missing from her step, but Mariah was putting in a solid performance despite the illness. The consensus later was that nobody would have guessed she was sick, but the ever-truthful singer felt that the audience had the right to know why she was not able to give one hundred percent. And so, halfway through the show, she stepped up to the microphone and addressed the audience. "My manager didn't want me to tell you guys this. But I have food poisoning and am completely dehydrated, but we're going to have a good time, even if it kills me. So if I pass out, I hope somebody calls 911 for me." The announcement was greeted with momentary silence, followed by a thunderous barrage of whoops, hollers, and applause. Mariah's bravery and honesty had been rewarded. She finished the show, but her condition worsened on the flight to Boston and she was immediately rushed to Massachusetts General Hospital were she was treated for the food poisoning and dehydration over a period of several days. She recovered enough to perform in New York, but the shows in Boston and Toronto were canceled and rescheduled for late April.
CAN'T TAKE THAT AWAY On Sunday April 9, 2000, Mariah performed for the second time at the VH1 Divas Live concert. This time it was a tribute to Diana Ross. Back in 1998, it was a terrific idea to unite music's top female stars on one stage and let them combust - live in prime-time. Fueled by the threat of all that could go wrong (and right), Divas Live '98 and '99 brought VH1 its best ratings ever. Now the show returned for a third installment, for which the music network willingly ripped up its Divas playbook, tossing out the hugely popular live format and any notion of superstar parity.
Mariah, just out of the hospital after her food poisoning (she told the crowd, "I will be starring in the movie, 'The Attack of the Killer Oysters' "), was at her best during a playful mother-daughter-style romp with Diana Ross, belting out "Baby Love" and "Stop in the Name of Love". But overall, the show was a fiasco, everything that could go wrong went wrong, and the show was not released on video and CD because Diana Ross claimed that she was not giving a serious performance and therefore would not give the rights to VH1 and Epic Records to produce a commercial album or VHS.
A few days after Divas Live 2000, Mariah finished her Rainbow tour and was soon on a plane headed to the island of Capri, Italy where she began working in earnest on the songs for the soundtrack of her film "All That Glitters". With the film not set to start until July, Mariah worked at a leisurelu pace, enjoying the solitude and some quiet time with Luis, whose timetable was allowing him to steal away to the island of Capri for the occasional visit.
Those early days of the "All That Glitters" sessions were easygoing, and while on the survace it did not appear that a lot was getting done, in fact, the wide array of arrangements and vocal stylings that emerged from this time in the studio were astounding. Since "All That Glitters" was set in the eighties, Mariah found herself digging into her childhood to rediscover those funky rhythms and crisp retro licks.
Prior to coming to Italy, Mariah had consulted a pair of eighties' music icons, Prince and Rick James, on the fine points of recreating that not-too-long-ago sound. Mariah took much from those conversations that filled in the blanks in an era she had grown up in and was familiar with. Consequently, there were lots of laughs and "oh yeahs" as Mariah and her music-making partners would latch onto an old riff or a style of singing and launch it into the present. Unfortunately, the peace, tanquility, and good times would not last for long.
It was nearing the time when another single from her Rainbow album was to be released. Mariah insisted that the next single should be "Can't That Take Away (Mariah's Theme)". It was a song that had always had a close and personal feeling for Mariah, and she felt it would translate well on the radio. But the Sony executives were not happy with her choice. They felt that something a little more upbeat, a little more in keeping with current Top Forty radio formats was necessary.
The folks at Sony also realized that the success of the next single would be integral to keeping the momentum of the album going. And on this issue, Sony was not going to back down without a fight. But neither was Mariah. The ensuing arguments grew increasingly negative and angry. Mariah was taking it personally and complained bitterly to close friends that the Sony suits did not understand her or her music. But the bottom line was that Mariah was too big an artist to cross, and Sony knew that. They blinked and Mariah won. "Can't Take That Away (Mariah's Theme)" was finally released as a single, but, as Mariah would soon discover, with drastically reduced promotion and marketing. Her victory was bittersweet because the lack of promotion would almost ensure that her song would not get the all-important radio play that would guarantee her another number one hit.
Mariah was so upset at this lack of support and, she reasoned, the deteriorating relationship with Sony since her divorce from Tommy that she took what was for her a drastic step. In late May, she began posting messages on her official website in which she chatted directly to her fans, telling them that she was receiving less-than-full support from Sony on her latest single and that it was up to them to help her make "Can't Take That Away (Mariah's Theme)" a hit by calling in and requesting the song at their local radio station.
One of those messages said, "Basically, a lot of you know that the political situation in my professional career is not positive. It's been really, really hard. I don't even know if this message is going to get to you because I don't know if they want you to hear this. I'm getting a lot of negative feedback from certain corporate people. But I am not willing to give up."
Reactions to Mariah's clandestine messages were mixed. Her loyal fan base thought it was great and eagerly flooded their local radio stations with requests for the song. But industry observers were split on the issue. Some considered it a childish ploy that would ultimately do more harm than good. Others felt it was a bold, self-generated publicity move in an attempt to save the record she felt strongly about, but nobody doubted her sincerity.
MARIAH'S STRUGGLE WITH SONY Mariah began posting messages attacking Sony on an almost weekly basis on her website throughout the month of June and into July. What she did not know was that the people at Sony had quickly taken notice of Mariah's attacks and would immediately strip the website, which the record company sponsored, of her messages the moment they appeared. Mariah quickly got wind of Sony's deception and fought back with the only weapon she had. She brought it to the attention of Sony corporate officials that her upcoming soundtrack album to her film "All that glitters" was her last album on the contract she had signed with Sony back in 1990. Mariah soon began acknowledging that fact in public and began suggesting that in the wake of all the roadblocks being put in her creative path, she might not remain with Sony and was looking forward to exploring other offers. That certainly got Sony's attention, and they suddenly began showing more interest in promoting Mariah's latest single. Unfortunately, it was too little, too late. "Can't take that away", while doing respectable chart business, did not come close to matching her previous successes. Adding insult to injury was the knowledge that her movie "All that glitters" was coproduced by Columbia Pictures, the filmmaking arm of Sony Music. Mariah began to wonder how much information Columbia had on her ongoing conflicts with Sony and how their association with the record company would translate into support for her movie, which was now scheduled to begin filming in July 2000.
For Mariah, it was her latest straw. When she returned to the States after working on the "All that Glitter" soundtrack to begin preparation for filming, Mariah, according to reports, began meeting with representatives of Arista Records, Warner Bros Records, DreamWorks, and Elektra. The talks were merely exploratory, but Mariah's message to Sony was clear. Time was running out. Other intriguing but unsubstantiated rumors began circulating about Mariah's Sony contract. One of the most outrageous was that Mariah's contract with Sony counted for only certain studio albums, and that the ones like "MTV Unplugged EP" and "#1's", despite filling Sony's coffers with millions of dollars, did not count as part of the contract. The rumors were left floating out there. Nobody connected with Sony would ever comment on them, and that only succeeded in adding more fuel to the fire.
The eroding relationship between Sony and Mariah hit an all-time low midway throughout 2000 when the producers of the big Jim Carrey Christmas movie, "Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch stole Christmas", asked Mariah to compose and sing a song for the soundtrack. The problem was that the film's producer was Universal, one of Sony's arch rivals. Mariah cowrote the song "Where are you Christmas?" and was already blocking out a period of time to record it when an edict came down from Sony saying that Mariah's contract forbade her from recording for MCA, a rival record company. An angry Mariah shot back the argument that she already worked on other artist's albums, which made the clause in her contract invalid. Again, there were rumors that Tommy was behind this roadblock, and the stories once again began to circulate that Sony, feeling there was no chance of re-signing Mariah, was going to make her last days on the label a nightmare. But whatever the truth, legally, Mariah had no choice but to back out of the Universal soundtrack. Country singer Faith Hill was brought in to sing the Mariah composition. Hill was caught in the middle of the power struggle. She had heared all the stories about Mariah's unsuccessful attempt to sing her own song and was feeling a little guilty. But she was also greatful for the opportunity to sing a song that would almost certainly be a breakout hit. For her part, Mariah was gracious, and although she was angry that she could not sing her own song, she was appreciative that at least somebody with considerable talent would do it right.
Meanwhile, the Sony power struggle over "Rainbow" continued. The official response to the cover song "Against all odds (take a look at me now)" had been positive, and in September 2000 it was released as a single in the UK and some other countries. The solo version was already a couple of months earlier in a few countries, but this time Mariah had a more progressive idea. She was a fan of the up-and-coming Irish pop group Westlife and felt redoing the tune with them would give the song a real commercial edge. The group was thrilled with the opportunity, and a rehearsal session was set up in a studio in Ireland. On the surface, the session went quite smoothly and everybody was happy with the song and the resultant video. With the help of an engineer, Mariah produced the session herself. The members of Westlife recalled that they had a huge case of nerves on the day they arrived to record the song, so much so that the band decided to have a drink to settle themselves before the session, and they adjourned to the hotel bar. On the day in question, the members of Westlife were sitting in the bar downing drinks when who should walk in but Mariah herself. The singer promptly joined the group, and according to Westlife Bryan McFadden, "We had a few drinks and everybody relaxed. Mariah even got a bit tipsy."
But the good-time nature of the session changed according to a Mariah Carey interview with MTV Asia not long after the session was completed. "The whole thing wasn't a drama or anything, but even though they're just starting out, they can get a little egotistical." Westlife shot back with charges that "Against all odds" video shoot was the worst experience the band had ever had. The resulting video had to be reedited when it was discovered that band member Bryan McFadden was paying a bit too much attention to Mariah's cleavage. Mariah was disappointed at the back-biting in the aftermath of the session but insisted that the resulting song was great and would most certainly be a hit. And Mariah was right, "Against all odds" entered the UK chart at number 1.
Simon Cowell remembers when the tape was sent to him. "I played it and I was absolutely horrifed. It was terrible. I phoned her record company in London to tell them that I wasn't putting the record out. They fought, but I held my ground. Finally, they asked whether I would tell Mariah myself, and I said that I would be happy to. That's why I had to fly to Canada to meet her and, in the midst of her 'yes' brigade, tell her that I thought the production was horrendous and needed to be changed before the record could be released. When I said as much, there was a deadly silence; it was as if I had spit on the Queen in court. But I couldn't care less. I just wanted a hit. In the end, we did change the record, and it went to number one."
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