Raiff Celebrates Mariah's 20 Years In Music: 2001

Posted by Raiff on Wednesday, 26-May-2010, 12:01PM EDT

With the filming of Glitter and the production of its soundtrack well underway, things were far from slow for Mariah Carey in 2001. A hectic schedule was nothing new for the self-proclaimed workaholic. In fact, it was typical for her to be thinking of her next project before she was even done with her current one. This year would be no different, but no one—not even Mariah herself—was expecting it to be such a life-changing one for her.

Although things were going smoothly on the Glitter set, the same couldn't be said for other matters. Mariah's conflict with Columbia Records came to a blow.

In April, she severed ties with the label and signed a multimillion-dollar, multiple-album deal with Virgin Records. "I am elated about my new partnership with Virgin Records," Mariah said in a statement. "And I look forward to being a part of their uniquely creative musical environment." It was a move that Mariah had thought through carefully, having been very involved in negotiations and having even sought the advice of Lenny Kravitz and Prince. "I personally met weith everybody. I grew up with some of the smartest and most shrewd businessmen," she told Elle. "I learned a lot. It's not like somebody can lie to me and say, 'We're gonna do this and this,' and have me not go, 'Wait, who's your distributor in Taiwan?'" Details of the deal were not made available, but Virgin Records said in a press release that the contract was "unprecedented."

The first release under her new contract would be the soundtrack to the motion picture Glitter, which was scheduled for release on Labor Day weekend. Mariah was hard at work on the record, which would include covers of 80's classics, a new song penned with Rick James, and a duet with Eric Benet, who also played a role in the movie.

As if filming her first starring role in a movie and recording its soundtrack weren't keeping her busy enough, Mariah was already working on her next project: the Lions Gate mob thriller WiseGirls. Shooting began in May for the film, in which Mariah played Raychel, a sharp-shooting, foul-mouthed waitress who worked in a restaurant owned by mobsters, along with Mira Sorvino and Melora Walters. Although she had enjoyed being such a large role in the production of Glitter, Mariah embraced the chance to stand back and focus on her acting. "I was one of the producers on Glitter, and I did the music, and it was a story that I thought up," she told Movieline. "In this one I'm just a hired hand. I'm going to concentrate on my part, and I'm not going to have to make sure that every little thing is going smoothly." While some argued that Glitter's Billie Frank was not a far cry from the real Mariah Carey, WiseGirls' Raychel was completely left-field. When asked in an interview about being typecast as a singer, Mariah said, "That's why I'm doing an independent movie that's completely the opposite of me. My character, who talks like this [in a thick Brooklyn accent] and is like, 'You know what, I don't even wanna take your crap right now, you know what I'm saying?' We're talking about a complete character, OK?"

Soon after production was complete on WiseGirls, it was time for Mariah to focus her attention back on Glitter. With the soundtrack due out in August, the first single hit the airwaves: "Loverboy," which would also be Billie's first single in the movie. The basis of the song was a sample of Cameo's 1987 hit "Candy," and Cameo also appeared on the record. "Larry Black [Cameo's lead singer] was brilliant about reworking the original," Mariah told Blues & Soul. "He came into the studio and started doing that whole 'strawberry, raspberry' thing and me and my friend were in awe. We're old Cameo fans you know!"

"Loverboy" started out well at radio, but quickly declined in airplay, peaking at only #50 on Billboard's airplay chart. The song fared worse on the Hot 100, where airplay-only songs were now eligible to chart. This changed with the release of the commercial single, which included remixes by MJ Cole and David Morales. In its first week on shelves, "Loverboy" sold 180,000 copies, but it peaked only at #2 on the Hot 100 due to low airplay.

The "Loverboy" video, directed by David LaChapelle, was filmed at Los Angeles County Raceway and features Mariah as, in her words, "a hubcap salesgirl." Two videos were produced from the shoot; one for the album version featuring Cameo and a second for the remix featuring rappers Da Brat, Ludacris, Shawna and Twenty II. The basis of the videos are the same, with the only major changes being the presence of Cameo versus the rappers driving around on the track. "It's sort of just a big party," Mariah told MTV. "The thing about David [LaChapelle] is, I totally trust him and he's the best, and I would never do this concept with anyone else in the world."

With the "Loverboy" single flying off shelves and the video now on MTV's rotation, anticipation was building for rest of the Glitter soundtrack album. The record would be different from anything Mariah had released before. As Billboard put it:

"Glitter shows La Carey bravely striving to merge three incongruous styles. First, there's the '80s-hued material reflective of her imminent film debut (after which the set is titled). Then, there are the ballads that are an essential element of her every album. Finally, she indulges in her fascination with hip-hop culture - a move that should continue to confound fans who pledge allegiance to the diva during her early pure-pop phase."

With Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, Mariah had covered Cherelle's 1984 hit "I Didn't Mean To Turn You On," which Billie would be seen performing at various points in the movie. "I grew up on the Cherelle record," Mariah told Blues N Soul. "Jimmy and Terry are musical heroes of mine and they suggested we re-sing the background and they gave me the original master to work with."

For only the second time in her career, Mariah recorded an original song that someone else had written for her: the Rick James-penned "All My Life." "He's like wow! I know he's notorious and all that stuff but he's made some of the greatest music in history," Mariah said. "And I love the way he works with female artists - just look what he did with Teena Marie and the Mary Jane Girls."

Another Jam and Lewis production on Glitter was the ballad "Never Too Far," which Billie would sing at Madison Square Garden in the final scene of the movie. The other big ballad on the record was "Lead The Way," which credits Walter Afanassief as co-writer and co-producer. For this reason, this song is thought to be one of the first songs written for the movie, before the two stopped working together. The only song that was not specifically written for the film, but was able to be incorporated, was "Twister," which is said to be about the suicide of Mariah's makeup artist, Tonjua Twist. "One of the songs is in honor of someone else," Mariah told MTV News. "[It] ended up being in the film and really working. That's a personal situation. But all of the other songs were written in the character's voice or as an observer of what's going on in the movie at that moment."

In true Mariah fashion, Glitter was not without its guest vocalists. Busta Rhymes and Fabulous jammed with Mariah on a cover of the '80s hit "Last Night A DJ Saved My Life." Mystikal rapped over a loop of Tom Browne's "Funkin 4 Jamaica" on "Don't Stop." Mariah and Ja Rule created a nice call-and-response on "If We." While all of these folks were prominently featured on the CD, they were not to be found in the movie. "Basically on the album you have 2001 versions of '80s classics," Mariah told Blues N Soul. "On the album you've got Busta and Mystikal doing their stuff but in the 80s-based movie, you have a faithful original reading because it would have sounded anachronistic to have Busta and Mystikal doing their thing in the '80s."

With the Glitter film and soundtrack in the finishing stages, Mariah was ready to promote the project she had conceived several years ago and worked on proficiently for the past year. A "Making The Video" special for "Loverboy" was produced for MTV, and she stopped by BET's "106 & Park" to premiere the video and talk about her new project. On July 20, Mariah appeared at the FYE store at Roosevelt Field Mall in Long Island to sign copies of "Loverboy." The day before, she made an impromptu appearance on MTV's "Total Request Live" to announce the signing. Taking the audience—and host Carson Daly—by surprise, she entered the studio wearing an oversized "Loverboy" t-shirt and pushing an ice-cream cart, from which she handed out treats to the crowd. "Every now and then, somebody needs a little therapy," Mariah announced. "And today is that moment for me." And from that moment, things came to a screeching halt.

On July 25, Mariah left two unusual voice messages on her website, in which she was addressing both her fans and her management company. She explained that she needed to take time off and that "I really don't feel like I should be doing music right now." The next day, it was confirmed that Mariah had checked herself into a hospital for exhaustion. Her publicist Cindy Berger said in a statement that Mariah was "mentally and physically exhausted after completing two movies: Glitter and WiseGirls, while simultaneously writing, recording, and producing the soundtrack to Glitter." Planned promotion of the album (including a headlining performance at MTV's 20th Anniversary Celebration) was cancelled, and the releases of both the movie and the soundtrack were pushed back by three weeks.

While Mariah took time off, Virgin worked the Glitter soundtrack as much as they could. Mariah was originally set to film a video for "Never Too Far" in New York City, but after that was cancelled, the live performance clip from the movie was issued as the music video instead, and the song was sent to radio. Mariah made her first public appearance after her hospitalization on September 21, when she performed "Hero" at America: A Tribute To Heroes, a benefit concert for those affected by the September 11 terrorist attacks on New York City.

With the Glitter soundtrack now on shelves and the movie now in theatres, Mariah slowly began to work the promotion circuit again. She appeared on the Radio Music Awards, where she won for Most Requested Artist, and premiered a new song: a medley of "Never Too Far" and "Hero." She performed on the VH1/Vogue Fashion Awards and at another benefit concert called United We Stand. She also went to New Orleans to shoot a music video with Mystikal for "Don't Stop (Funkin' 4 Jamaica)," the next release off of Glitter.

The Glitter soundtrack debuted and peaked at #7 on the Billboard 200, making it her lowest-peaking release at this point. Overseas, the album performed respectably; most notably in Japan, where it became her fourth #1 album on the Japanese charts.

At the beginning of December, Mariah flew to Kosovo, where she entertained U.S. troops stationed at Camp Bondsteel, as part of the United Service Organizations. During her stay, she donned camouflage, signed autographed, and passed out hugs before giving a festive concert, where she performed "All I Want For Christmas Is You" and "Hero," among several other songs. "I felt like a part of a long USO tradition of entertainers. I would go back. It was an amazing feeling," Mariah told People. "I felt like it was important to try and bring a little bit of glamour."

Upon her return to the U.S., Mariah stopped by The Late Show With David Letterman and The View to talk about her latest projects and to set the record straight on exactly what had happened that summer:

"So many things were so overly sensationalized, over and over again. But basically I've been a workaholic my whole life. My schedule this past summer was like, beyond ridiculous. You know, one day in one country, the next day back here promoting all over the place," she told Letterman. "I was totally sleep-deprived and I was exhausted and at a certain point, I just got a wake-up call and it was like 'this has to stop' and I had to take a moment and just draw a line and get a wake-up call and say, 'Hey, take care of yourself like a human being, not like a machine.'

Mariah headlined an annual television special called A Home For The Holidays, which raises awareness for adoption services. On the show, she performed "Reflections (Care Enough)" for the first time.

Also in December, two new Mariah releases hit shelves. The first was a CD single to benefit the Heroes Fund, which benefitted the families of relief workers lost while trying to save lives during the World Trade Center disaster. "I started [performing] at different charity events where I did a combination of 'Never Too Far' and 'Hero,'" she told MTV News. "We made it into a medley and kinda put them both in the same key and just made it work, and people responded really well to it. It's been interesting for me, since the events of September 11, the way people have been playing 'Hero' and talking to me about 'Never Too Far,' 'cause that song is also about loss."

The single was only released commercially in the United States and it included "There For Me," the Diane Warren/David Foster collaboration from 1999. In an unexpected move, "There For Me" actually overtook "Never Too Far/Hero" in airplay, after gaining considerable airplay in several major markets across the country.

The other December release was Greatest Hits, a two-disc set issued by Columbia Records. The record included all of Mariah's singles up to that point, with the Jermaine Dupri remix of "All I Want For Christmas Is You" as a bonus track. Internationally, "Against All Odds" with Westlife was included, and in Japan, "Never Too Far/Hero" was an additional bonus. Although #1's had come out just three years prior, this was the first comprehensive collection of Mariah's best work. "I think people are going to like this Greatest Hits because there are songs on it that were not necessarily singles," Mariah told MTV News. "There's a song called 'Underneath the Stars' that I always kind of fought for... There's a lot of songs that I'm happy are gonna see the light of day."

MARIAH QUOTES

"I'm the queen of 'let's all have a good time forever.' Life should be fun. I might have 20 zillion things to do, but I'm going to try and laugh as much as I can in-between." Cosmopolitan

"There are always stories brewing, like in the tabloids and stuff, but I know what I do. I know that I'm not promiscuous. I know that when I wear a pair of hot shorts in a video, I'm playing dress up. I'm the same 6-year-old girl playing dress up who thought it was cute and wanted to be like Jeannie and Marilyn Monroe. But when I started, I was pretty conservative with my clothes. It wasn't what I do now. At this point, I'm like, Whatever. I've recently come to the conclusion that I can't change certain things, this is my reality, and I might as well make the best of it." Cosmo Girl

"I don't smoke now, but I smoked from 12 to 18. It really messed up my voice. What happened was I would get a cold and then keep a cold, but it would be even worse because I was smoking cigarettes. So I made a promise that if I got my voice back, I would never smoke again. I realized smoking is not an important thing in my life - it does nothing for me, and if I don't stop, it's going to hurt me. So I quit. It was like, Hello! I'm on the verge of all my dreams, but I think I'll smoke something that absolutely nothing for me but make my hair stink!" Cosmo Girl

"I decided to sign with Virgin mostly because of Lenny Kravitz, who is an old friend. He's really happy there, and even re-signed after ten years, so I figured that was pretty good. They [Sony] still have a big stake in this album, and they're very proud of that. I'm not, but whatever. After all the years I've put up with certain things, I think I should be released now. It shouldn't be about finding the new way to mess with me. Like, OK, you've surely done your share of damage. Couldn't we stop now? Couldn't we call it a day?" Allure

"When we first started shooting Glitter, I was convinced that the director of photography was shooting me on my 'bad' side on purpose. When I talked to him, he thought I was out of my mind. I guess nobody sees this 'bad' side but me. So you know what? I've given it up. People will have to accept me with both my 'good' side and my 'bad' side." Movieline

"Let me give you a little warning. I'm tired. And I want you to say when I should be concise, because the fact that I'm exhausted doesn't help in my ramblings." Elle

"They made this whole big deal about 'Total Request Live' ... Now first of all, I had on shorts and a tank top. It was the summertime. And then a huge t-shirt down to here... And I took the t-shirt off with the clothes underneath it. I kept the clothes on, obviously. So when they were writing about, I don't think half the writers knew even knew what 'Total Request Live' was, I mean it's not like we were on 'Nightline with Ted Koppel'... We're talking MTV and it was a joke." Late Show

Mystikal: "Man, when I found out that she wanted me to be on her song, for the soundtrack to a movie, it was really exciting to me. That's the kind of stuff that I want to be doing right now. It was exciting because I had missed the chance to perform with Mariah on one of her previous albums because I was- they couldn't catch up with me for whatever reason and I was like "Ugh!" Now they came running to me like, 'Man, Mariah wants you to be on a song!' When I heard that I was like, 'My chance! I ain't gonna miss it this time. I ain't gonna miss it for nothing!" MTV News

RuPaul: "'Glitter' or 'Critter' or 'Litter,' whichever you prefer. I saw it twice in its opening weekend. I'll be first in line for the DVD."

Will Demps, NFL: "You guys wonder why I have this DVD? It's Glitter. Mariah, I don't care what your critics say, I love you!"

TV APPEARANCES