The sorry state of Mariah Carey
Does anybody really feel sorry for Mariah Carey? Could anybody feel sorry for Mariah Carey? Here is somebody who would seem to have everything. Good looks, talent, fame, wealth. Her success is based on using her attributes to sell millions of records. She is bankable, exploitable. Unhappy.
Sometimes, we do feel some sympathy for the person who discovers that fame isn't as glamorous as it was thought to be. As a rule, we at least are fascinated by this discovery. So few of us achieve fame on any level that it is reassuring to be reminded yet again that material success can't buy happiness. And Mariah Carey, who has trampled on the people who have served her and revealed a superficial personality beneath a superficial image, is not a very sympathetic character anyway.
Last August, she made headlines by having a very public emotional breakdown. She was all but speaking in tongues when doctors ordered her to take a nap. The poor dear had been working too hard on an album and promoting her movie, Glitter, for which the album would be the soundtrack. If everything unfolded ideally, Virgin Records, which had recently signed her for $100 million US, would have a multi-million-selling star who owned the world.
But nothing ever unfolds the way it should. Instead of selling millions, Glitter sold 500,000 copies and the movie, mortally wounded by crippling reviews, Carey being the prime target, disappeared so quickly you'd think it was named Osama Bin Laden. It would be easier to find the terrorist in a cave in Afghanistan than it is to find the terror known as Glitter at the cinema. On top of that, Mariah reputedly was jealous of, and intimidated by, the attention given to Jennifer Lopez. She wasn't the fairest of them all. Somebody nicknamed J.Lo was.
The ignomy never ends. Virgin, evidently thinking it might have made an eentsy mistake and Carey's most commercial days were behind her, came calling to buy her out of her contract. They gave her $28 million. As Virgin already had given her $21 million as an advance for Glitter, Carey was the recipient of $49 million for what is considered a flop album. In Canada, 500,000 albums is a mighty seller. Any Canadian recording act would love to sell 500,000 albums. It could afford to take a taxi rather than the bus.
Carey, somewhat consoled by her $49 million, wasn't without a recording contract for very long. Two weeks ago, Island/Def Jam Records announced that it was signing her to a three-to-four album deal that would give her her own label. By her standards, the advance money was modest - only $5 million or so per album - but with her own label she can have all the breakdowns she wants and J.Lo can kiss her goldplated butt.
On the same day as Island/Def Jam's announcement, a survey revealed that 31 per cent of 8,000 people polled would wipe Carey's music off the face of the Earth. If this shook up either Island, which started off modestly as a company that wanted to bring reggae records to the U.K., or Def Jam, which has modestly campaigned to spring hip hop out of the ghetto, nobody knows. What is alarming is that 69 per cent wouldn't wipe Carey's music off the face of the Earth. Maybe this 69 per cent is what's keeping Carey in business and the millions, without hits, keep coming.
Maybe, if her next record stiffs, Carey could buy herself off the label. She could take another advance from Island/Def Jam and pay herself not to make a record. Then we'd all be happy and isn't happiness what we all want for our Mariah? (The Province) Many thanks to Mariah Buzz.
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