The infamous "Glitter" was not gold - but exactly 15 years later, Mariah Carey remains untarnished at her brassy best. In memory of Mimi's box office bomb and the public breakdown that followed it, we salute the glass-shattering chanteuse: She's still the tough, funny Long Island b---h she always was.
Don't get us wrong - Mariah is an international superstar. She's got five Grammys, a record 18 No. 1 singles and a Caesars Palace residency to her name. Her lifelong gay-friendliness nabbed her a GLAAD Media Award earlier this year. We care enough about her impending wedding to casino mogul James Packer, we'll plop down to watch her plan it on a new E! docu-series.
Silver-screen poison as it was, "Glitter" gave us the breathy, unintelligible "Loverboy". The tinkly 13-note opener to "All I Want for Christmas Is You" ushers in the holidays better than any Starbucks red cup or first December snow. "Heartbreaker" featuring Jay Z is so timeless, it's currently the sole video embedded on Mariah's homepage 17 years after its debut.
But the single greatest thing about Mariah Carey is that deep down, she's still that cheesy kid from Huntington. Madonna got a fake English accent. Faith Hill dropped any semblance of her country vibe. Having attained that same level of money and access, Mariah stayed the same. She never got too cool for her fame - she cloaked herself in it like a chintzy feather boa she couldn't wait to flaunt.
Mariah lounges in the bath wearing nothing but diamonds. "Is this a normal outfit for people to wear?" she asks innocently of her sparkly black corset in a new promo for her E! show. "I don't know. But I'm at home, and this is what I wear." Even when she deigns to dabble in Normal Person Activities like pizza-making, she's decked out in slinky lingerie and stilettos. Her 35-carat rock from Packer is bigger than your house.
Her self-love is so strong, she and her soon-to-be ex-husband Nick Cannon would have sex to her music. And you'd better believe the first sound their twin son and daughter heard upon bursting forth from her womb was her live Madison Square Garden performance of "Fantasy", a gossip gem Cannon once gabbed to Gayle King.
She's also delightfully blunt, your catty, s--t-talking best friend. Take the latest chapter in the "I don't know her" saga: Years after uttering those fateful four words about Jennifer Lopez, she clarified in a May interview that - drumroll - she still didn't really know her.
"What am I supposed to say?" she said without a trace of apology. "I'm not going to put on a thing like we're all Hollywood and let's pretend we're best friends."
Yet despite the bravado, she is still vulnerable, still One of Us. "I just want one day off when I can go swimming and look at rainbows and like, eat ice cream. And maybe learn how to ride a bicycle," she said during an unsettling, pre-"Glitter" breakdown "TRL" appearance.
You know, just like you and me - except for Mariah, that pool might be filled with diamonds, and the bicycle made of gold with a leopard-print seat.
(New York Daily News)
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