BIOGRAPHY

MARIAH'S YOUTH

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 STRUGGLE

You gotta have friends, so the saying goes - and Mariah found two of the best in the shape of Ben Margulies, seven year her senior, and R&B singer Brenda K. Starr. Margulies was an aspiring session musican who became her regular writing partner, while Starr offered her a place as a backing singer in her band. Both these characters would play their part in a Cinderella story that would leave Mariah on the verge of stardom.

The meeting with Margulies had come in Manhattan when, for her sixteenth birthday, Mariah was treated by her brother to a session in a 24-track studio. "We needed someone to play the keyboards for a song I had written with a guy called Gavin Christopher," she later recalled. "We called someone and he couldn't come, so by accident we stumbled upon Ben. Ben came to the session and he can't really play keyboards very well - he's really more of a drummer - but after that day we kept in touch, and we just sort of clicked as writers."

Next stop was Bedworks, the carpentry factory Ben's father owned in the Big Apple suburb of Chelsea. The musician had used some of the spare space to set up a simple studio where he could record his songs - and Mariah, who was still at high school, soon found homework taking second place to recording. Much to the duo's delight, their very first session yielded a song - and though the title, "Here We Go Round Again", hardly reflected a new start, both thought it an auspicious beginning to their new creative partnership. "It was this real Motown thing," Ben later remembered. "She wrote all the verses out. We were very excited because she sounded incredible. That was the beginning of the collaborating."

Like Mariah, Margulies was pinning all his future hopes on his music. "It kept us going," he admitted. "I didn't have much equipment, but we had a way of making demos sound incredible."

Not long after she turned 16, Mariah took her future into her own hands by moving out of home into a Manhattan bedsit where, she recalls, "there was one woman who used to walk round with a rat on her shoulder. And she'd always be in the kitchen when you wanted something to eat..." It was, she claimed, something she dreamed of since the age of ten when her mother drove "up out of the Midtown Tunnel and me in the back seat saying to myself, I'm going to live in this city."

"Through the day," she continued, "I did all kinds of waitressing jobs, hostess, coat-check. I didn't tell anyone there what I wanted to do, though, because every waitress in Manhattan is like, 'Really, I'm an actress, really I'm a singer.' I didn't want to be that. It (music) was too sacred."

Money was hard to come by, which if nothing else ensured Mariah kept her svelte figure. "It was a year of days on one slice of Munster cheese with a bagel or some pasta because that's all I could afford. But it was fun. It was also a year of learning, collaborating. Well, it was also a year of crying yourself to sleep at night because you want to do something so badly. It sounds exaggerated, but a year is a long time, especially in a young person's life."

Romance didn't figure in the picture much, either, despite her stunning looks. "I've had boyfriends," she later admitted, "but I've always been focused to doing music. I've always had this attitude, 'Ha ha, I'm leaving. I'm going to sing.' So I guess they were a little more serious about it than I was. I wasn't going to get out of High School and get married, know what I mean?"

It was around this time that Mariah first hooked up with Brenda K. Starr (known for her Top 10 hit "I Still Believe", later recorded by Mariah herself) when a singer's group mentioned there was a vacancy for a backing vocalist. It wasn't something that grabbed her at first: "I really didn't want to do it, but I said it's gotta be better than what I'm doing now." Rather than regarding the newcomer as a thread, Brenda palled up with the waif-like Mariah and boosted her confidence. The pair also socialised together, and when Brenda received an invitation to a Friday night party, one day in November 1988, attended by a number of record company executives she insisted her friend came too.

Stardom depends on being in the right place at the right time. For Mariah Carey, this was where all the stars came into conjuction in one heck of a horoscope. She'd brought along her latest demo tape in case she should meet someone with the power and influence to help her on her way to fame and fortune - but partying was hardly a number one priority. Aside from the late nights, the smoke would be sure to affect her voice.

Present at the party was Tommy Mottola, Columbia (CBS) Records president and a man with a track record in music as long as your arm. Now in his early forties, he'd spent many years in artist management before crossing over into the record business, so this was no accountant but a man with the ears of a talent scout. Exactly who handed him the tape - Brenda K Starr, Mariah or some intermediary - was, for some while, one of the unexplained mysteries of music folklore. Some claimed that Mariah had offered it to Jerry Greenberg, another Columbia executive, only for Mottola to intercept it, a nice picture to paint in view of subsequent events.

Mariah herself has explained the evening like this. "Brenda says: 'Listen, she writes her own songs and sings incredible,' and Tommy takes the tape. He grabbed it - I was standing right there! I figured he would throw it out of the window of his limo..."

At that moment, the bearded, be-suited Mottola put the tape in his pocket and partied on. Only when his chauffeur-driven stretch limo pulled up at the door did his thoughts return to the package - and, with nothing better to do on the drive home, he idly slipped the cassette out of his case and into the car's tape player. He was aware on an intoxication he couldn't put down solely to the wine he'd been drinking, pleasant though it was. A second track sent his head spinning even more, and his reaction was understandable. "Stop the car!" he commanded... but the next move was not to wind down the window and compose himself, but to return to the party to locate the source of this heady musical brew.

Sadly, he arrived to find that Mariah and Brenda had opted for an early night, leaving him in possession of the modern equivalent of Cinderella's glass slipper. With no contact number on the tape, Mottola spent the weekend trying to track her down, but Brenda K Starr's managers had no address and he had to wait until Monday to make his interest known. "I got this message that he had called," a breathless Mariah remembers, "and they wanted me to come to CBS Records. I was so excited!"

And who wouldn't have been? After years of struggle on the breadline, it seemed the door had finally opened to allow Mariah Carey a glimpse of the promised land.

Though Tommy Mottola needed no telling, he'd found the real thing, he was taking no chances, and the tape she'd handed him was subjected to much critical comment from people he respected. One was producer Rhett Lawrence, a man with an enviable track record producing such CBS successes as Earth Wind and Fire and Johnny Kemp. He was asked to fly to New York to hear "a girl who was 18 with the most incredible voice you've ever heard." Ever the professional, he was prepared to take this glowing report with a pinch of salt... until he, too, fell under Mariah's spell. "I literally got goosebumps on my arms when I heard her sing," he now recalls. "I couldn't believe the power and maturity in her voice."

She signed with Randy Hoffman, a long-time associate of Tommy Mottola who once managed white-soul duo Hall and Oates and now managed John Cougar Mellencamp. "He doesn't have any acts that are purely celebrity," she explained. "There's no star-slash-singer-slash-dancers. We're all singer-songwriters."

THE FIRST ALBUM

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!

BREAKING RECORDS

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

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.

MTV UNPLUGGED

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.

MARRIAGE

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.

THE FIRST TOUR

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.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

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.

CHARITY

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."

FANTASY

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!

DAYDREAM

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.

THE CRITICS

"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.

DAYDREAM REVIEW

"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.

CRAVE RECORDS

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.

DAYDREAM TOUR

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.

SOURCE: MCARCHIVES.COM