Twitter welcomed me into the new year with a timeline jam-packed with tweets about Mariah Carey. If this were 1999 or so, this would’ve worked for me fine, but for many years I’ve seen Mariah slip into this world of madness. It’s just not a world that makes any sense to me.
Mariah rose to fame thanks to her 6 scale vocal range, soulish pop songs and a constant slew of number one hits. This was the era in which I was a huge fan. Then she had a slight break down. This was actually quite understandable. On many occasions, she had been debuting at the highest level in the entertainment business. And with that, I mean her first full live set as a headlining artist was MTV Unplugged. Most just start in a bar with a 30 people audience. A lot of her firsts were massive and I could understand those came with a lot of pressure.
I could also understand Sony forcing an image on her and a particular sound. Her breaking free from that was actually great to see. Her r&b song and hip hop collaborations were great, but once she went all r&b, that’s where I felt she got stuck in one sound and I lost interest.
Along the way, more and more people started to criticize. Clever YouTube video edits would show her not being able to hit the high notes that made her famous or shown that she was lip syncing altogether. On very few occasions, she was able to strike back and lay down an incredible live performance. But by then, everybody starting weighing in on the demise of one the best female singers the world had ever seen. Even fellow collaborators, like Boyz II Men, started speaking out on social media after seeing her fails. And on her own social media channels, her lavish lifestyle would distract us all.
I actually don’t know what the intention was with her New Year’s Eve performance. Was she supposed to lip sync and did she just refuse singing when she discovered there was no vocal track? Was she supposed to sing live and was she upset that they started a vocal track on the other two songs?
I read an interview with Mariah, a few years ago, in which she explained how it felt living under the constant control of others. Not being free. In her mind, it justified her letting go now. No one was going to tell her what to do, what to wear and whether or not she could do whatever with her money. But her not caring about anything else and just going her own way is now looking like her downfall, ‘cos the only thing I saw in this performance is a woman who stopped caring altogether. She seems to have lost her artistry, her professionalism, her fire.
Up onto the point of seeing this performance I had been wondering if any of her arrogance was an act for followers and TV ratings. We all know reality shows aren’t reality, but get a little scripting on the side. And we all know that social media doesn’t show real life either. And we all are lost to know what is or isn’t believable when it comes to celebrities.
But seeing this has made my mind up, like the mind of many others. That cool Mariah who worked all day, then went to the studio at night for the love of music, seems to be gone. I hope she finds her passion again very soon.
