Tuesday 1 August 2006

No Moon Man for me

Mariah Carey has filmed over thirty original music videos, many of these videos became classic in pop culture. Many of these videos have been creative and innovative, without mentioning the high amount of money invested in these works. However, Mariah Carey has not received a single MTV Video Music Award, also known as "Moon Man", in her long and impressive career. It's not that all of the Mariah Carey's videos deserved an award, but it results strange that other artists have obtained more MTV trophies when they certainly cannot match Carey's impressive video collection, as well as chart success.

It's hard to believe that an artist as Mariah Carey has been "ignored" by the MTV Video Music Awards despite her numerous efforts. One of Carey's most memorable and popular videos is "Honey", in which Mariah Carey "reinvents" herself as she presents attractive scenes and an interesting concept. Who doesn't remember the scene in which Mariah jumps into a swimming pool to escape from her captors? A few years later, Carey reinvented her self once again when she presented the video for her #1 song "Heartbreaker". The video was directed by Hollywood director Brett Ratner and became one of the three most expensive videos in music history. The scene where Mariah and her alter ego Bianca have a catfight was even imitated by some female artists.

In 1998, Carey presented the video for the ballad "My All", which is also considered a master piece by music insiders. The music video presents sequences inspired by Sandro Botticelli's painting The Birth of Venus which portrays the Greek goddess Venus as she emerges from the sea. The images in this video were carefully filmed by the highly-recognized photographer Herb Ritts before he passed away. During this time, fans of Mariah were also captivated by the appealing scenes from the music video for the song "Breakdown" or the unforgettable "rainy night" shown in "The Roof". In these videos Carey proves she also has the ability to direct her own videos.

Even though, Mariah Carey had no creative control over her first videos, she managed to shoot some of the most memorable videos of the 90s: "Emotions", "Fantasy" and "Dreamlover". As part of the videos from her multi-platinum album The Emancipation of Mimi, Carey continued to struggle to create overwhelming music videos for her fan base. The party where Carey celebrates her emancipation is already unforgettable, as well as her sexy tribute to Marylyn Monroe, "Don't Forget About Us". "We Belong Together" also managed to reach the top of many music channels around the globe. Now, it is the turn of "Shake It Off" which was especially created to please Mariah's fans. All of these videos were some of the top videos of the past year according to music experts and fans.

Now, many people already expect that the nomination of "Shake It Off" as best R&B video will follow the same unsuccessful destiny that Carey's previous nominations had. In 1996, Mariah's "One Sweet Day" video was nominated for the R&B Video but lost to The Fugees' "Killing Me Softly", ignoring the videos for "Fantasy" and "Always Be My Baby". In 1998, "Honey" was nominated for Best Female Video but lost to Madonna's "Ray of Light", as the music video for "My All" didn't even deserve a nomination.

Later, Carey's videos for "Heartbreaker" would be left behind once again. There's not much to say concerning "Through the Rain" and "Loverboy", which perhaps were not even considered for a nomination. In 2003, "I Know What You Want" earns a nomination but loses to Missy Elliot's "Work It". Despite the success of "It's Like That", the video is disregarded as it doesn't receive a single nomination for the MTV Video Music Awards 2005. "We Belong Together" does receive two nominations but again is displaced by other videos that ironically were not as successful as Mariah's video.

This year, Carey receives a nomination, but "Don't Forget About Us" is ignored despite the high quality presented and the enormous success it obtained. Many already expect that the "Shake it Off" video will lose again. Mariah doesn't seem affected by the channel's multiple unfortunate decisions, she hasn't even shown interest in these awards as she sometimes doesn't even show up at the ceremony. Mariah once expressed that she thought "Honey" deserved an award. "It deserved an MTV Award, but once again I got shut out, as would be the standard." At the same time, Mariah feels confident and pleased because at the end of the day, her videos always accomplish their main goal: create a successful and unforgettable single.

(Mariah Hero)



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