Friday 26 November 1999

The artist after insecurity

Because of "Rainbow", Mariah Carey talked with DN about the bad they did with her in the past and about the future about as a movie star. An island outside Naples, Capri; a singer recording there her new album defines herself as "a child that is trying to reach somewhere", Mariah. The possible portrait of the American that is worth millions.

Maria José: How would you devine your new album "Rainbow"?

Mariah: It’s an album filled with uptempus, but also with ballads written by me. We have 14 great songs with beautiful orchestrations. And there is also a remake of a song that I love: Against All Odds, originally sung by Phil Collins.

Maria José: Why did you choose Capri to record the album?

Mariah: I chose Capri cause I was doing a show with Pavarotti and someone told me about this island. I though that it would be the perfect place!

Maria José: Which are the best songs, yours or the ones written by others?

Mariah: I think I’m better singing what I write. Cause I have my one style...

Maria José: "Heartbreaker" is also a young song, which seems to have been written to captivate the younger audience. Is that the objective of the song?

Mariah: I’ve always had a young audience, even with the ballads, that are usually used at prom night parties... (Laughter)

Maria José: But your new album seems to have a more pop attitude...

Mariah: It’s a pop album, no doubt, but it also is influenced by everything that I love. I grew up listening to Olivia Newton-John on the radio, Sheena Easton, Barbara Streisand, Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder - but also Pat Benattar and rap artists. That’s what happens when you grow up in New York!

Maria José: Is it difficult to live with the image you've created yourself, a kind of fatal and seductive woman?

Mariah: It’s funny that your asking me this, cause walking from one place to another here in Capri, naturally and without make up, doing what I want, with people asking me to take pictures with them, made me come to the conclusion that I’m much more at ease with myself and with my image. I can be myself. And for a long time I didn’t feel like this, I was very insecure - and certain people knew how to use my insecurity to make me believe I needed them!

Maria José: And how do you cope with fame?

Mariah: I don’t think of myself as a "famous person", but when I was a teenager I used to imagine if the "stars" had a private club and all though in a weird way... When my first album came out and Eddie Murphy recognized me at some party, I though that was awesome! Maybe that’s why I work so hard, I still think of myself as a child that is trying to reach something.

Maria José: And don't you ever think about the millions of albums that you already sold?

Mariah: I’ve been trough a lot of weird situations, in which a person gives half of their money to whom you don’t owe anything, in which you give a lot of profit to a manager, in which you are literally screwed... Although I grew up poor, I don’t feel extremely rich. I’m still nervous and worried about my future. I don’t even have a steady house. I’m going to live in a hotel when I get back to New York. Maybe that’s the reason, the fact that I’m everywhere, why I don’t think about the millions of album I sold. I only feel as myself. It’s bizarre.

Maria José: What's your favourite album?

Mariah: I think that Butterfly will always be very special, very personal: a turning point in my life. I had survived to difficulties and struggles, I was coming out of a relationship and doing the album, there was a feeling of a wild freedom - but at the same time of fear. This new album happens in a very good period of my life!

Maria José: Since you were a child, you always wanted to be a star. Why?

Mariah: Because my mother always made me believe in it! She named me Mariah Carey, without a middle name, cause she thought it would be a good artistic name. My mother believed in it from the beginning. When she first heard me sing and when I told her I wanted to be a singer, she told me "don’t say that you want to be a singer, say that you are going to be a singer. Don’t say if I make it, say when I make it!". My mother was not very conventional, I had to grow on my own and there was a lot of crazy things in my childhood - but it was her, in a lot of ways, that made me the person that I am.

Maria José: How do you handle the pressure to make hit records?

Mariah: I think that, in Europe, they tend to put labels on everything, they like the Best of compilations. I don’t like that. But to tell you the truth the majority of people that started at 8 years ago, like me, only made 2 or 3 albums. A lot of the artists that have the double of my career didn’t even edit as many albums as I did! I would never have done an album with only hit songs if it were the other way around. It was dedicated to my fans!

Maria José: Who was the person that influenced your career the most?

Mariah: I would have to say it was Tommy (Mottola, president of Columbia records and her ex-husband), in a lot of ways and for obvious reasons - but I think that I owe a lot to myself too, to the fact that I maintained loyal to my convictions and from wanting to achieve the point that I’m now!

Maria José: Which was the weirdest rumour you've heard about yourself?

Mariah: There are so many. There are the sad ones, the ridiculous... I think that the Internet is great for a lot of reasons, but it can be sick, cause there’s a lot of people with negative energy, that want to spread it trough the world a can do it with that way! And that’s not good. Maybe with the new millennium there can be some sort of rules on the Net - there cannot be so much negativity "floating" everywhere.

Maria José: Did you ever search the Internet for sites about you?

Mariah: No.

Maria José: Do you bet a lot on your producer side?

Mariah: I co-produced everything on Butterfly and also on this album. There are a lot of artists that don’t like that. They get in, sing the song 8 times and it’s done! I would love to be like that, it would make my life much easier and I could swim all day, but I can’t do it.

Maria José: How was it, fighting with yourself in the "Heartbreaker" video?

Mariah: I had a lot of fun, but I also hurt myself! I was bruised everywhere - after all, I was the stunt double. First, the dance scene hurt my legs, I am not a dancer, I don’t do that all everyday. Then, all the double routines, the elevation on the door, the karate scenes, the fact that I was pushed to the floor. It hurts! We also had a double that thought me a lot, how to make the right movement backwards when I get punched, anticipating the strike. But even so I got hit a couple of times, I really hurt myself doing that video! Seeing the end result seems very easy, but try throwing your head to the back a million times. Now I’m an official stuntwoman, I have a certificate! And they told me I had done more stunt scenes than half of the Hollywood professionals.

Maria José: And when will you debut as an actress?

Mariah: My first project will be a movie that is being done for me, from Columbia Pictures, and that will probably start filming in the spring. They have just approved the story, and there’s a director that I really would like to direct the movie - but I won’t say who that is. The movie is called All That Glitters, and it’s a musical, but not the ones that in the middle of a conversation they start singing, like everyday life were like that. It’s a story that in the early 80’s, about a girl that struggles to be a singer. She’s in a group and gets involved with a DJ that recognizes her talent - something that does not happen in the group, in which she is just a supporting voice. The main struggle is the fact she was separated from her mom, cause she wasn’t able to take care of her child and was hooked on drugs and was raised in foster homes. The character thinks that if she has success she will be able to find her mom.

Maria José: And what about other movies?

Mariah: The Bachelor is a movie in which I appear during 2 seconds, it’s a cameo, It’s nothing. All That Glitters is my project. The story is from Kate Lineir, who wrote What’s Love Got To Do With It. It was actually like this that the new album was "born": I wrote Heartbreaker for the movie, but it was always being pushed back and I ended up recording it with Jay-Z in it. And we though it had to come out now. This is probably the fastest album I ever written. And this is the first day that I’m not locked up in the studio. I’ve been sleeping there, in a room without any glamour. I go up and sleep, I come down and sing. And when the technicians have work to do I go to the boat, relax, sleep, take a dive, come back and sing. That’s always till 5, 6 in the morning.

Maria José: Do you expect to be as big in the movies as in music?

Mariah: I wouldn’t say it like this, what captivates me in the movies is the class of acting. It’s not about being as big in the movies as I am in music, it’s about being really good. Since I was little I would go to workshops, acting classes in which my mom spent all her money in. Singing was always my first love, but I always wanted to act. That was something that wasn’t encouraged by my past relations, I wasn’t even allowed to continue studying. Since I finished High School I’ve only done albums, but I really wanted to act, but in that situation wasn’t possible. Two years ago I started to studying with an acting coach, called Sheila Grey, she does great combinations of different things, she has a really interesting method. She has already worked with great actors, she’s a very spiritual and good, and helped me a lot in terms of creativity and maintaining myself in contact with my feelings. Until two years ago I only sang and did interviews, but I bloqued my emotions, I wasn’t happy and didn’t wanted to admit it, cause it was really scary to think that it would ever be able to get out of that situation.

Maria José: Can you identify yourself with Salsa and the new invasion of Latin music?

Mariah: I really like Spanish melodies. I think that songs like I Don’t Wanna Cry have a really strong Hispanic side. I have another song in this album, called After Tonight, written with Dianne Warren, which is a type of Spanish ballad. I think that it’s great that Latin music is being embraced by the world.

Maria José: Do you know Portugal?

Mariah: My assistant is Brazilian, speaks Portuguese and is always telling me different things.

Maria José: And are you thinking about a concert in Portugal?

Mariah: If I’ll make a tour, I will go there. I want to go everywhere, but I don’t have the time!

(Diário de Notícias)



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