During a phone interview with W Magazine, the legendary singer and Christmas icon relaxed in a bubble bath and got candid about what it’s really like to be a diva.
Mariah Carey is a legendary pop singer.
She’s known for her remarkable vocal range.
Carey was one of the most successful female performers throughout the 90s and remained popular as we got into the early 21st century.
Her amazing talents come from her mother.
The star’s mother was a vocal coach and former opera singer, and Carey began performing as a young child.
In 1987, she graduated from high school in Greenlawn, New York.
She moved to New York City to pursue her dream of singing.
Carey made a demo tape that led Tommy Mottola, the executive at Columbia Records, to sign her in 1988.
Not only that, but the 2 got married in 1993.
Her debut album dropped in 1990 titled Mariah Carey.
It featured an incredible vocal range and blended several musical genres into 1 album.
These musical genres included gospel, pop, and rhythm and blues.
Her debut album went on to become a major success.
The following year, Carey ended up earning herself a Grammy Award for ‘Best New Artist’ and ‘Best Female Pop Vocalist’.
The same year she won the Grammy, she released another song titled ‘Emotions’.
It became her fifth consecutive chart-topping single.
Since then, Carey has made numerous hit albums that went on to sell millions of copies.
Music Box, which came out in 1993 was 1 of her albums that became a major hit.
As did her 1995 album Daydream.
Despite such success, Carey grew tired of the sweet and wholesome image that her label had developed for her.
Her marriage with Mottola came to an end in 1998, when they finalized their divorce.
Announcing her separation, she released an album titled Butterflies, which dropped in 1997.
The song reflected her new independence as a single woman.
The album was heavily influenced by hip-hop and rap, and the related music videos revealed a more s*xual Carey.
In 1999, Carey’s dropped another album titled Heartbreaker, which featured Jay-Z.
The album topped the charts in 1999, making Carey the first artist to hit number 1 on the Billboard singles chart in each year of the decade.
The remarkable achievement made boosted her status, making her one of the best-selling vocalists in the world.
In 2001, Carey signed an $80 million contract with Virgin Records, which made her the highest-paid recording artist of the time.
However, her incredible career came to a halt after she suffered a breakdown and was hospitalized following erratic behavior.
In 2018, she revealed her breakdown and erratic behavior were due to her being diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
Just a year after she signed the contract with Virgin Records…
They terminated her contract.
She then went on to sign up with Island/Def Jam.
However, her first album working for the company was a disappointment.
But her follow-up was the complete opposite and was a huge success.
The Emancipation of Mimi went on as the top-selling album of the year in 2005, with around 6 million copies sold.
The album also earned her 3 Grammy Awards, including the ‘Best Contemporary R&B Album’.
But throughout her impressive career, Carey has been known for one thing…
Christmas.
One of the singer’s most popular hits, ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You’, has become a holiday classic.
The festive track has consistently dominated the holiday music charts since it made its joyous debut in 1994.
With so much success under her belt, it’s no surprise people might think she’s a bit of a diva…
“There are things people are not aware of because this whole quote-unquote ‘diva’ thing is always what people see first,” she explained.
“Yes, I play into it. And yes, part of that is real. I can’t help it,” she explained. “Like, what do you do if you grew up with an opera singer for a mother, who went to Juilliard and made her debut at Lincoln Center?”
“People think I had this princess-style life or whatever, a kind of fairy-tale existence where I just emerged, like, ‘Here I am!’ And that is not what it is.”
“But when you grow up with a messed-up life and then you’re able to have this transformation where you can make your life what you want it to be? That is joy for me,” she explained. “That’s why I want my kids to have everything they can have.”
It seems like Mariah is nothing but deserving of the diva lifestyle.
What do you think?