Monday 1 October 2001

Mariah Carey faces more pressure

Just a few short months ago, Mariah Carey appeared to be reaching new heights in her already spectacular career: She signed a new record contract worth a reported $100 million and was looking forward to the release of her new album and first starring role in a film. But after her recent breakdown, a mixed response to her new album and poor advance word on her new movie, her career appears to be at a crossroads.

"The buzz is not good, and I think that's one of the reasons why she's feeling a lot of pressure," John Bitzer, editor-producer of the music Web site CDNOW, said of her projects. The first-week sales of her album - the soundtrack to her movie Glitter - totalled 116,339, compared to 323,000 in the first-week sales of her last album, 1999's Rainbow, according to Soundscan, which tracks record sales.

But Glitter the movie seems unlikely to receive a critical boost: At a media screening, there were howls of laughter throughout the film, a drama in which Carey plays a singer who skyrockets to stardom during the 1980s. (Associated Press film reviewer Christy Lemire called Carey's film "a preposterous, poorly written love letter to herself.") "It's her first real movie, so she's got a lot to prove," said Emil Wilbekin, editor of Vibe magazine. "(But) it's hard to be a winner when there are all these reports about nervous breakdowns."

The 31-year-old singer was hospitalised in July for what her publicist labelled as "emotional and physical exhaustion." At the time, Carey was making a big promotional push for Glitter, her first album for Virgin Records under a contract that reportedly nets her $20 million per album. However, the first single from the disc, Loverboy, received lukewarm response on the radio and only leapt up the charts after it was released at a discounted price of 49 cents. The strain on Carey became evident after she made a few disoriented public appearances and statements; soon after that, she was under psychiatric care.

News of Carey's breakdown didn't come as a complete surprise to producer Jimmy Jam, who worked on Carey's soundtrack. Jam said that not only did Carey write or co-write much of the album's material, she oversaw the music in the film and was involved in the editing, while working on another movie (Wisegirls with Mira Sorvino) and promoting Glitter.

"It wasn't a shock at all," said Jam. "I think Mariah is a person that burns the whole candle. In our short time working together... she not only works really, really hard but works on many, many things at the same time." Jam talked to Carey shortly before she was hospitalised in July, and recalled that the singer sounded "scattered". "We had a 10-minute phone call and talked about 20 different things," he said.

(Ninemsn)



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