Saturday 26 July 2003

Mariah Carey dismisses criticism

Mariah Carey says people jump to conclusions about her when they don't even know her: "They're going to have judgments about how you look in a video, or maybe some women might feel offended: 'Why is she dressing like this?' "

An MTV2 poll just named Mariah Carey's voice the best in pop music history. But ever since Carey debuted as an overnight star in 1990, her parallel career has rocketed, too, as a media punching bag. If her placement on the Web site, AmIAnnoying.com, is any indication, naysayers sum up Carey as a poor dresser (according to fashion cop Mr. Blackwell) and a bad actress (winning a worst actress Golden Raspberry Award for her role in "Glitter") who "calls her fans lambs (like they are a bunch of sheep)".

If that's not negative enough, she was ridiculed by Howard Stern and a host of other pop-culture carrion crows for having an emotional breakdown a few years ago. But even AmIAnnoying.com recognizes that Carey does more charity work than most celebrities, and she has criticized other musicians for using computer-enhanced images on their album covers.

Carey, 32, considers these outside views of herself while sitting her tall, fair-haired, iconic body in the steam room of her New York home, while drinking lots of water and letting a portable humidifier strengthen her throat. She'll need to be hydrated this well on Saturday, when she begins her first U.S. tour in three years at Celine Dion's Colosseum at Caesars Palace.

"This is going to sound bizarre - it's a steam room in which you can sleep. Luther Vandross taught me about this. Humidity is key for singers. That's why in some ways Vegas is not great for me, because of the dryness," Carey says.

Carey answers a small barrage of questions about her reputation while in a seemingly pleasant mood, and in a deep vocal tone unlocked from the bottom of her five-octave diaphragm. Carey thinks journalists gain respect for the singer once they get better access to her and know her better.

"Then, I think they have a totally different take on me than they do just watching the antics on TV... watching the rumor mill and stuff like that," Carey says. "We all like to feel respected. But the media is what it is. It's all about sensationalism, and selling papers, and TV time, and ratings. So once you come to terms with that, you don't hate the media. I don't hate the media. I get it."

Carey dismisses the notion that plenty of American women are jealous of her. But she says she understands that some women look down on her because of the skimpy clothes she wears: "It's hard when people don't really know you, because, of course, they're going to have judgments about how you look in a video, or maybe some women might feel offended: 'Why is she dressing like this?' You know. Stuff like that."

She is asked if she feels like an optimist in a cynical world. "I am. Somebody told me I was the most tortured optimist that they've ever met. Like, I get tortured, and I'm still an optimist," she says. She is also not a pushover, she says. When she is told that Vegas concerts are known to be stacked up front with VIPs holding free tickets, she sends out a shot: "We may have to change it up a little bit," Carey says. "I don't want it to become a corporate thing where we give away too many tickets to corporate people and stuff like that. This is for the fans."

Carey says the tour is kicking off in Vegas mostly because it was just a convenient spot on the West Coast to start from. "The decision for that was made when they were figuring out the whole schedule. But I think it's going to be a good place to play. I think people love a show in Vegas, don't they?"

Carey's tour was initially supposed to go into bigger venues than the theaters and amphitheaters it has ended up in. Carey says she scaled down the tour because a single fan expressed interest in seeing her play in a smaller spot. Carey says she'd rather sing in smaller venues. "I wanted to do clubs, actually. But that wasn't realistic with the way I wanted to put the show on, in terms of musically. I still want to do maybe a surprise date in a club. It's gotta be in a city where they can't smoke in the club, because of my voice," she says.

Carey did a club date early in her career. It was captured for MTV Unplugged. But that was before Carey felt comfortable in front of crowds and cameras. "It was really the first time I'd really ever performed. So people enjoyed it because it was intimate. But for me, it wasn't quite so intimate, because there were cameras in my face. Plus, I was so young and just starting out that I wasn't really that confident yet. So now I also have a personality we can showcase, and I can relate to my fans, as opposed to being 55 feet away from row No. 1."

Carey says she's not consumed by having hit songs. The singer (and often co-writer of her hits) of "Vision of Love", "Dreamlover", "Hero" and "Emotions" returned to the sales and radio charts this year with "I Know What You Want", a duet with Busta Rhymes.

"You know what? I just feel blessed to be able to do what I do for a living. I Know What You Want," she says, "was just a fluke that we did it. And it was at the 11th hour, as always with stuff with me."

The surprise hit convinced Carey to rerelease last year's "Charmbracelet" album, with the hit tracked on, along with other new songs. She's also heading a new music label, Monarch, and when asked about it, she immediately launches into executive mode, which goes like this: "There's another artist called Sadie, and she is my friend's daughter. She's personality-plus. She's only 7 years old, right. She is very the African-American Shirley Temple for 2003. She raps. She sings. And both her parents are choreographers. She is just adorable, and she has a song called..."

It's an ambitious pitch, especially for a star. Why does she do it? Because she wants to keep enterprising, to run a label, sing and act in more movies. She sees no limits. "Yeah, I want to do the whole thing. I'm an entertainer, but I'm also a very creative person," she says. "I've got a lot of outside projects."

(Review Journal)



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