Mariah Carey announces 14th album
Mariah Carey has unveiled the title, cover, release date and tracklist for her 14th album, "Me. I Am Mariah... The Elusive Chanteuse", which arrives at digital and physical retail on May 27. Carey, who appears on the cover of this week's magazine, told Billboard that the album took its title from a "personal possession of mine that's part of an entity that I've had almost all my life".
And as she explains in a YouTube clip announcing the project, it's based on her "first and only self-portrait", which is featured on the album's back cover and drawn when she was a child. "Please don't judge me for such a simplistic title. Come on, I was only three and a half," Carey says with a chuckle in the clip. As for the second half of the album's title, "The Elusive Chanteuse", Carey says that's a nickname she's adopted recently, following other personas and nicknames like "Mimi" and "MC".
As Billboard confirmed this week, the album features production from Rodney Jerkins, Jermaine Dupri, Hit-Boy and Mike Will Made It as well as guest appearances from Nas, Wale and Miguel. Additional features, confirmed by the album's official tracklisting, include Fabolous, Carey's twins Moroccan and Monroe (who turned 3 on April 30, the night of the album's announcement). The deluxe edition also features a pair of duets, with R. Kelly and Mary J. Blige, on what appear to be outtakes from a planned 2010 remix album for her last album, "Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel", as both songs ("Betcha Gon' Know" with Kelly, "It's A Wrap" with Blige) originally appeared on "Memoirs".
The album will finally arrive after several shifts in strategy and missed release dates, most recently May 6. Her current single, "You're Mine (Eternal)", spent one week on the Hot 100 in February and has sold 56,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan. It also becomes her 17th No. 1 on Billboard's Dance Club chart this week. (Billboard)
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