Diddy Loves "Up Out My Face" Remix
Posted by Lynn on Thursday, 29-Jul-2010, 2:32PM EDT

Sean "Diddy" Combs was asked to list his favorite remixes for VIBE Online: "Diddy loves him a good remix. Listen to his top ten favorites of the past 365 days." Mariah's "Up Out My Face" remix featuring Nicki Minaj made Diddy's top 10. Check it out here.

Source: VIBE | MariahCarey.com

Memoirs Digital Sales
Posted by Lynn on Friday, 25-Jun-2010, 10:34AM EDT

Listed below are the digital sales for each track of Memoirs of An Imperfect Angel from the June 26, 2010 issue of Billboard magazine.

Memoirs of An Imperfect Angel Digital Sales
Title	TW	LW	%Chg	RTD
Obsessed	2,390	2,561	-7%	1,531,916
Up Out My Face	1,198	1,242	-4%	93,064
I Want To Know What Love Is	913	737	+24%	175,413
Angels Cry	492	556	-12%	45,123
H.A.T.E.U.	363	315	+15%	55,973
Candy Bling	55	55	0%	9,497
It's A Wrap	54	63	-14%	7,774
Ribbon	50	56	-11%	7,668
Standing O	48	68	-29%	5,593
Inseparable	47	48	-2%	8,301
Betcha Gon' Know (The Prologue)	40	41	-2%	52,765
The Impossible	28	25	+12%	5,149
More Than Just Friends	24	29	-17%	7,130
Languishing (The Interlude)	14	8	+75%	1,628
Angel (The Prelude)	11	10	+10%	1,424
Up Out My Face (The Reprise)	11	15	-27%	1,990
The Impossible (The Reprise)	7	8	-31%	1,250
Total	5,745	5,837	-2%	2,011,658

Source: Ritcher | MariahDailyJournal

Memoirs Digital Sales
Posted by Lynn on Monday, 10-May-2010, 11:47AM EDT

Listed below are the digital sales for all tracks on Memoirs of An Imperfect Angel from Billboard magazine issue dated May 15, 2010.

Memoirs of An Imperfect Angel Digital Sales
Title	TW	LW	%Chg	RTD
Obsessed	2,881	3,060	-6%	1,516,067
Up Out My Face	2,098	2,263	-7%	84,564
I Want To Know What Love Is	872	890	-2%	170,594
Angels Cry	766	983	-22%	41,435
H.A.T.E.U.	452	481	-6%	53,832
It's A Wrap	95	93	+2%	7,353
Inseparable	65	73	-11%	7,965
Ribbon	53	60	-12%	7,327
Standing O	50	38	+32%	5,230
Candy Bling	48	76	-37%	9,145
More Than Just Friends	43	46	-7%	6,913
The Impossible	42	44	-5%	4,937
Betcha Gon' Know (The Prologue)	41	49	-16%	52,485
Up Out My Face (The Reprise)	25	39	-36%	1,888
The Impossible (The Reprise)	9	13	-31%	1,200
Angel (The Prelude)	8	14	-43%	1,357
Languishing (The Interlude)	4	9	-56%	1,569
Total	7,552	8,231	-8%	1,973,861

Source: Ritcher | MariahDailyJournal

Mariah Rises to #2 in Brazil
Posted by Lynn on Monday, 10-May-2010, 9:52AM EDT

Mariah's cover of Foreigner's 1984 hit, "I Want To Know What Love Is," climbs a spot to #2 this week on the Brazilian Airplay chart! The song dropped to #3 last week after topping the airplay chart for 27 weeks.

Source: Crowley Broadcast Analysis | Ju Miguel

Mariah Drops 1-3 in Brazil
Posted by Lynn on Monday, 03-May-2010, 11:51AM EDT

Mariah's record-breaking 27-week run atop the Brazilian Airplay chart ends as "I Want To Know What Love Is" drops to #3 this week. Local artists Zeze Di Camargo & Luciano ("Tapa Na Cara") and Eduardo Costa ("Amores Imortais") took the #1 and #2 spots, respectively.

Source: Crowley Broadcast Analysis

"Obsessed" Wins at ASCAP Pop Music Awards
Posted by Lynn on Thursday, 22-Apr-2010, 10:26AM EDT

The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) hosted its 27th annual Pop Music Awards last night at the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel in Los Angeles, California. The star-studded event, which was attended by over 700 leading songwriters, recording artists and music industry leaders, honored the songwriters and publishers behind some of today's most popular music.

"Obsessed," Mariah's 2009 hit from her album Memoirs of An Imperfect Angel, was among the 50 songs awarded the "Most Performed Song."


C. "Tricky" Stewart was on hand to collect the award for "Obsessed." He also received the same award for the songs "Blame It" (Jamie Foxx) and "Single Ladies" (Beyonce).

Source: ASCAP | Variety

Mariah, 26 Weeks at #1 in Brazil
Posted by Lynn on Monday, 19-Apr-2010, 8:56AM EDT

Mariah's cover of Foreigner's 1984 hit "I Want To Know What Love Is" continues to rule the Brazilian Airplay chart - now in its 26th consecutive week at #1!

Source: Crowley Broadcast Analysis | Ju Miguel

Ask Billboard: Send Me An 'Angel' Response
Posted by Lynn on Saturday, 10-Apr-2010, 12:06AM EDT

Hi Gary,
I was wondering why Mariah Carey's latest album, "Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel," wasn't able to gain traction in the U.S. Several good singles have been released, including some great remixes, but only one barely cracked the top 10 on Adult Contemporary. What happened?
--Johnathon P. Atwood, San Jose, California

Ask Billboard's Gary Trust replies:
While her latest album may pale in comparison to some of her earlier sets that yielded multiple No. 1s on the Hot 100, Carey is still going strong two weeks after turning 40.

"Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel," which has sold 470,000 copies to date, has actually produced a pair of top 10s. "Obsessed" peaked at No. 1 on Dance/Club Play Songs, Hot Dance Airplay and Hot Videoclips, No. 7 on the Hot 100 and No. 8 on Pop Songs. Her remake of Foreigner's "I Want to Know What Love Is" reached No. 2 on Dance/Club Play Songs and No. 10 on Adult Contemporary.

And, "H.A.T.E.U.," "Angels Cry" and "Up Out My Face" followed those cuts onto R&B/Hip-Hop Songs.

I agree that the album's single releases have been strong, especially the Seamus Haji and Paul Emanuel remix of "Obsessed" and the Donnie Hotwheel uptempo mix of "I Want to Know What Love Is."

(My favorite song on the album hasn't been released as a single, and is subtitled an "interlude," for that matter: the melodic "Languishing").

While radio hasn't been as open to Carey's recent singles as they were throughout the '90s, when she notched the first 14 of her 18 Hot 100 No. 1s, her 14-week No. 1 "We Belong Together" in 2005 proves that a monster radio comeback is always possible. On Pop Songs, that track began a run of five top 10s for Carey in the last five years after posting one between 1998 and 2004.

Remember, too, that current-driven radio formats, such as top 40 and R&B/hip-hop, often tend to favor younger artists, such as Lady Gaga, Rihanna and Ke$ha.

Thus, it's always a notable achievement when veteran performers continue to reach the top 10 at those formats. In addition to Carey, Monica, 15 years after her first chart appearance, sits atop R&B/Hip-Hop Songs this week with "Everything to Me" and Mary J. Blige ranks at No. 9 on the list with "I Am," her 22nd top 10 dating to her first 18 years ago.

Source: Billboard

Billboard Update: Memoirs Climbs 55 Spots to #90
Posted by Lynn on Thursday, 08-Apr-2010, 8:39AM EDT

Below, find Mariah's chart positions in Billboard magazine issue dated April 17, 2010.

Source: Billboard | MariahDailyJournal | Ritcher

Mariah Still #1 in Brazil
Posted by Lynn on Monday, 29-Mar-2010, 2:34PM EDT

Mariah's "I Want To Know What Love Is" continues to rule the Brazilian Airplay Chart, now in its 23rd consecutive week at #1!

Source: Crowley Broadcast Analysis | Joao

Mariah Remains At #1 in Brazil
Posted by Jonny on Monday, 22-Mar-2010, 1:36PM EDT

Mariah's cover of Foreigner's 1984 hit, "I Want To Know What Love Is," continues to top the Brazilian Airplay Chart, achieving its 22nd consecutive week at #1! Many thanks to the fans in Brazil for their support!

Source: Crowley Broadcast Analysis | Joao

Mariah Scores 21 Weeks at #1 in Brazil
Posted by Lynn on Monday, 15-Mar-2010, 5:05PM EDT

Mariah's cover of Foreigner's 1984 hit, "I Want To Know What Love Is," continues to dominate the Brazilian Airplay Chart - posting its 21st consecutive week at #1!

Source: Crowley Broadcast Analysis | Joao

Mariah Scores Five Months At #1!
Posted by Jonny on Monday, 08-Mar-2010, 6:02PM EST

Congratulations to Mariah for topping the Brazilian Airplay Chart for 20 consecutive weeks with "I Want To Know What Love Is!" Mariah's cover of the Foreigner classic has been at #1 since October 2009 and it is the biggest hit of 2010 so far in Brazil. "I Want To Know What Love Is" also has the distinction of being the longest chart-topper in the history of the Crowley Broadcast Analysis.

Many thanks to the Brazilian fans who have supported Mariah! Great job!!

Source: Joao | Crowley Broadcast Analysis

Mariah Dominates Brazilian Airwaves
Posted by Lynn on Thursday, 04-Mar-2010, 3:54PM EST

Mariah's "I Want To Know What Love Is" continues to reign on the Brazilian Airplay Chart, recording a consecutive 19th week at #1!

If the song stays at the top next week, it will become the biggest hit ever in Brazilian airplay history.

Source: Crowley Broadcast Analysis | Joao

Memoirs Certified Gold
Posted by Lynn on Tuesday, 12-Jan-2010, 12:05AM EST

Mariah's latest album, Memoirs of An Imperfect Angel has been certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on Dec. 14, 2009.

The distinction marks more than 500,000 in units shipped; and is Mariah's 15th Gold album.

Source: RIAA

Mariah on Verissimo, Italy
Posted by Lynn on Wednesday, 16-Dec-2009, 1:11PM EST

Mariah's pre-recorded interview with the Italian talk show Verissimo aired last Saturday, Dec. 15 on Canale 5. In the interview with host Alvin, she talked about "Obsessed" being her 12th single to go Platinum, her marriage, her cooking, among other things.


Mariah Interview on Verissimo - Canale 5, Italy, Dec. 12, 2009
[ Download here ]

Source: Thomas | MariahDailyJournal

Video: Mariah on A Current Affair, Australia
Posted by Lynn on Monday, 14-Dec-2009, 12:21PM EST

Australia's A Current Affair interviewed Mariah while she was in London in November. Click on the Play button to the right to stream the interview with correspondent Nick Etchells that aired on Channel 9 earlier tonight.

Asked if she had plans for an album tour in Australia, Mariah said, "Can I go to Australia in the summer please? Anyone listening. Summer for Australia. Yeah."

Source: Nine MSN | Tim

Memoirs is AP's 4th Best Album of 2009
Posted by Lynn on Thursday, 10-Dec-2009, 12:06PM EST

If you listen to some of the biggest hits of 2009, they'll seem familiar. That's because they came from albums released in 2008. That Beyonce smash? From "I Am... Sasha Fierce," released last year. "Poker Face"? It was on Lady Gaga's 2008 debut. It's the same with the Kings of Leon and Taylor Swift.

Though last year's releases dominated, great music was still put out in 2009 that helped define the year sonically. The best of the best, starting at the top:

Source: Associated Press

"H.A.T.E.U." Music Video
Posted by Lynn on Wednesday, 09-Dec-2009, 12:08AM EST

The music video for Mariah's third single, "H.A.T.E.U." premiered with the launch of VEVO, the world's premiere destination for premium music video and entertainment, on Tuesday, December 8, 2009.

Source: VEVO

"H.A.T.E.U." Video to Premiere Tomorrow!
Posted by Lynn on Monday, 07-Dec-2009, 10:20PM EST

Source: MariahCarey.com

"H.A.T.E.U." Music Video Out This Week
Posted by Lynn on Monday, 07-Dec-2009, 7:18PM EST

The much-awaited music video for Mariah's new single "H.A.T.E.U." is finally finished and getting its world premiere sometime this week, as announced by director Brett Ratner, and Mariah's manager Chris Lighty on their respective Twitter pages.

Source: --

"Obsessed" Certified Gold and Platinum by RIAA
Posted by Lynn on Saturday, 05-Dec-2009, 5:31PM EST

Mariah's hit single "Obsessed" from the new album Memoirs of An Imperfect Angel has been certified Gold and Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on December 1, 2009.

Below is a list of Mariah's singles whose sales, as of December 1, 2009, have received gold, platinum or multi-platinum certifications from the RIAA. The list is based upon current standards: 500,000 copies for a Gold single, 1 million copies for a Platinum single. With the newly-certified "Obsessed," Mariah now has a total of 25 Gold, 11 Platinum and 2 Multi-Platinum singles.

Source: RIAA | Chris | MariahDailyJournal

Mariah on song for The Bahamas
Posted by Lynn on Thursday, 03-Dec-2009, 4:16AM EST

International singing sensation Mariah Carey has helped The Bahamas reach thousands of prospective visitors, as tourism bosses reveal the success of an innovative marketing campaign.

The Ministry of Tourism and Aviation launched a competition to win a trip to the islands with adverts which were carried in Elle Magazine and as an insert in Mariah's latest album Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel, which itself teamed up with the magazine.

The contest ran for just over a month, September 29th to October 27, and in that time the ministry received 10,723 entrants, 3,500 of who opted to join the 'mybahamas' database, which now has more than 500,000 people registered with it receiving regular information about the islands.

Of those entrants 66 per cent came through Mariah's album insert, said Nalini Bethel, senior director of communications with the Ministry of Tourism and Aviation. The campaign also sparked a series of referral through the social networking site Facebook.

Bethel said she believed it had been a good return on the $40,000 investment, saying: "That's the kind of price you pay to take out a normal advert in any major magazine and there you don't get this kind of data capture and interactivity. I think it has been a very good response and a worthwhile exercise. Mariah Carey is an A-list celebrity who owns a house on Eleuthera which she feels is one of her favorite places, that's the kind of endorsement we try to capitalize on."

Source: The Nassau Guardian

Video: Mariah at NRJ Radio, France
Posted by Lynn on Wednesday, 18-Nov-2009, 10:26AM EST

Mariah visited the NRJ Radio studios in Paris, France and interviewed with the morning show Le 6/9. During the interview with hosts Nikos, Mustapha et Flo, she talked about her new album Memoirs of An Imperfect Angel, Twitter and internet, Michael Jackson, the NRJ Music Awards 2010, among other things.

Below is a clip from the NRJ interview in which Mariah talks about her new album Memoirs of An Imperfect Angel. You can view more interview clips at Le 6/9's YouTube channel or the NRJ site.


Below are photos from inside the NRJ studio, taken by Oualid.

Source: Fabien from NRJ | Oualid | Wallen Soutien

Request "H.A.T.E.U."
Posted by Lynn on Monday, 16-Nov-2009, 9:45AM EST

MEDIABASE UPDATE
As of week ending 11/15/2009:
Audience impressions: 4.911 Million (+1.366M)
Total Spins: 1,039 (+334)
Spins by Format: Urban 512 (+173), Rhythmic 344 (+96), Pop 176 (+63), Urban AC 7 (+2)


Please take a few moments to request Mariah's new single, "H.A.T.E.U." at radio! Below are phone numbers and online links to some of the biggest radio stations across the country.


You may also click on our banner on top or this link if your radio stations are not listed above.

Source: MariahDailyJournal | Mario

Mariah in Italy: Press Roundtable Interviews
Posted by Lynn on Friday, 13-Nov-2009, 1:19AM EST

Mariah met with major Italian Web & Press representatives during the roundtable interviews for Memoirs of An Imperfect Angel held at the Four Seasons Hotel in Milan, Italy on Tuesday, November 10, 2009.

Listen to the full audio of the press roundtable interviews below. File courtesy of RNB Junk.


[ Download an Audio file here ]


And video interview clips from Rockol (the largest Italian music portal), Yahoo! Music Italia and Outune.

ROCKOL

[ Download a Video file here ]


YAHOO! MUSIC ITALIA

[ Download a Video file here ]


OUTUNE

Talking About Precious
"The movie is based on a novel by Sapphire called 'Push' and it's something that I had read a long time ago and then a fabulous director who's a very good friend of mine, Lee Daniels, got the rights to make the film. I never thought anybody could handle such intense material 'cause it's a very, very intense subject matter. The subject matter is very deep. But he did an amazing job and I think everybody needs to see this movie because it opens up a side of the world that most people will never see but maybe they'll see something of themselves there, somehow. It's very deep. It's an amazing, amazing film. It's dramatic but he's managed to give us moments of fun and laughter and levity. It will stay with you for the rest of your life. I read the book first a long time ago and it stayed with me. And when I heard that Lee was making the film I said, 'I can't believe someone's gonna be able to make this into a film' 'cause it's so intense. But he's made it so you leave the theater with hope. And I think everybody needs to see it."

More reports from the press conference at:
• Elle Italy
• Ginger Generation

Source: Text: MariahDailyJournal | Thomas

Sneak Preview of "I Want To Know What Love Is" Video
Posted by Lynn on Thursday, 12-Nov-2009, 11:33PM EST

Be sure to log on to the official Mariah Carey site tomorrow (Nov. 13) for an exclusive first look at Mariah's video for her smash single "I Want To Know What Love Is."

The video was directed by Hype Williams and was shot in New York and features Mariah's fans and the True Worship Church Choir.

Source: MariahCarey.com

Win a Chance to Meet Mariah at Westfield London!
Posted by Lynn on Thursday, 12-Nov-2009, 2:41PM EST

Westfield London has 100 wristbands available and these will allow you to not only meet Mariah Carey but also get a record sleeve of her new CD Memoirs of An Imperfect Angel (out on November 23) signed by her.

For your chance to meet the fabulous Mariah Carey, enter your details here! You will also get a prime VIP vantage point to watch Mariah turn on their Christmas lights.

Westfield London will be drawing their 100 lucky winners at 5pm on Monday, November 16, with winners being notified by e-mail on Tuesday, November 17. Good luck!

(Please note: These wristbands will only allow you access to the CD signing and not the perfume signing. For that, you will need to purchase Mariah's new fragrance, Forever, from Boots to be eligible for a chance to meet her.)

Source: Westfield London

Mariah's European Promotional Schedule
Posted by Lynn on Wednesday, 11-Nov-2009, 3:15PM EST

As promised, below, please find the full details of Mariah's European Promotional Schedule, as it currently stands, for her new album Memoirs of An Imperfect Angel. This schedule may change without prior notice.

ITALY
Tuesday, November 10
10:40am - Arrive at Heathrow Airport, London
11:50am - Depart London for Milan
02:55pm - Land at Linate Airport, Milan
04:00pm - Arrive at Four Seasons Hotel, Via Gesu 6, 20121 Milano
06:00pm-08:00pm - 2 hours promo at the hotel


Wednesday, November 11
04:15pm - Depart Hotel for RAI TV Studio 2000, Via Mecenate 76, Milano
04:45pm - Rehearsals of "I Want To Know What Love Is"
05:45pm - Filmed Meet & Greet with contestants right after rehearsals to be broadcast during the live show right after Mariah's performance
09:00pm-12:15am - X Factor live on air on RAI TV
09:05pm - X Factor performance of "I Want To Know What Love Is." After the performance TV host Francesco will join Mariah on stage for a quick chat. They will show a short edit of the M&G with the contestants
01:30am - Depart Milan for Luton Airport, London

UNITED KINGDOM
Thursday, November 12
11:50am - Arrive at Dorchester Hotel, 53 Park Lane, London

International Press Day
01:00pm-08:00pm - Interviews 20 minutes each - ZDF Leute Heute (Germany), Channel 9 (Australia), TV4 News (Sweden), TV2 (Norway), Sasha Perera for MCM & XYZ Networks (Australia), Se & Hør (Denmark), BILD AM SONNTAG (Germany), Bunte (Germany), VG (Norway), TBC Daily (Sweden), Ciné Télé Revue (Belgium)

Friday, November 13
Timings of this day still being worked on.

Radio Promo
Time TBC - Radio 2 Interview - Graham Norton for Steve Wright (TBC)
Time TBC - Interviews: Various - Global Radio Interviews Jamie Theakston, Toby Anstis, etc (TBC)

Press
Daily Mail with David Wigg (30 mins)
News of the World (20 mins) - Journalist Dan Wootton

Mobile/Digital Promo
Orange Monkey - 20 mins filmed interview. Mariah takes over the site: Mariah to talk about 15-track playlist, exclusive interview.
MySpace - 30 mins - shot on camera recording to promote in the newly launched MySpace Music

Heart Radio Meet & Greet with competition winners at Hotel

Saturday, November 14
Vocal rest

Sunday, November 15
Press Request - 1 hour at hotel before X Factor: 3am, Playlist with Kim Dawson, weekly magazines, etc.

X Factor Pre-Tape
04:30pm - Arrive at X Factor, Fountain Studios, 128 Wembley Park Dr, Wembley
04:45pm-08:00pm - Mariah's performance pre-taped for Sunday, Nov. 22

Monday, November 16
12:00pm - Depart for GMTV/This Morning, London Studios Upper Ground, SE1
12:15pm-12:45pm - GMTV pre-tape performance (Air date: Nov. 23)
01:00pm-01:30pm - This Morning pre-tape, interview and performance (Air date: Nov. 27)
01:30pm - Leave for airport

FRANCE
Monday, November 16
06:30pm - Arrive in Paris. Hotel: Four Seasons Hotel George V, 31 Avenue George V, Paris
8:00pm-08:30pm - Call time at Skyrock studios
9:00pm - Skyrock live on air interview with D Fool

Tuesday, November 17
Time TBC - NRJ interview with Nicolas Aliagas (ex-Star Academy) at the studio with 25 competition winners in the studio audience
Time TBC - Cherie FM - #1 song on their playlist is "I Want To Know What Love Is"
07:00pm-08:30pm - Le Grand Journal - Live TV. Mariah's interview will be at the top of the show. Studio is located at 2, Rue des Cévennes, Paris
To schedule - TF1 News interview (TBC)

UNITED KINGDOM
Wednesday, November 18
London - Alan Carr TV Show. Pre recorded performance and chat, live studio audience. Air date: Thursday, Nov. 19/Sunday, Nov. 22

05:30pm - Depart Dorchester Hotel
06:00pm - Arrive at London Studios, Upper Ground, SE1
07:00pm - Pre record interview & performance of "I Want To Know What Love Is"
08:00pm - Depart studio

Thursday, November 19
Westfield London Event - signing at the new Westfield's in Shepherds Bush - this is a massive and new shopping centre, the biggest in London; the floor area of this shopping centre is equivalent to 30 football pitches!

Retail signing in conjunction with HMV. Mariah will sign Album O Band (cardboard cover sleeve) as the album is not yet released.

04:00pm-04:15pm - Attend press event for "Forever"
04:15pm-05:00pm - Travel to Westfield London
05:00pm-06:15pm - Boots Photo session for "Forever"
06:15pm-08:15pm - Retail Signing (250 fans) and Lighting of the Christmas Lights

Source: MariahDailyJournal

Mariah Lights Up Westfield London
Posted by Lynn on Wednesday, 11-Nov-2009, 8:53AM EST

Westfield London has finally got the news we've all been waiting for! Mariah Carey will be switching on the Christmas lights on Thursday, November 19 at 6pm, followed by a special signing of her new album Memoirs Of An Imperfect Angel.

Westfield is giving away exclusive wristbands to attend Mariah's CD signing. Details will be posted this week on both their Twitter and Facebook pages, be sure to keep checking!

Westfield London is located in Centre Management Suite, Unit 4006, Ariel Way. Click here for directions.

Source: Westfield London | Kerry

Mariah Arrives in Italy Tomorrow!
Posted by Lynn on Monday, 09-Nov-2009, 4:54PM EST

Mariah is confirmed to arrive at the Linate Airport in Milan, Italy on Tuesday, November 10th at 2:55pm and will stay at the Four Seasons Hotel Milano (Via Gesù, 6/8, 20121) during her promotional visit to the country. She is scheduled to meet with major Italian media and press in a conference meeting for her new album Memoirs of An Imperfect Angel later in the evening.

The following day, November 11, as previously reported, Mariah will appear on X Factor Italy to perform her single "I Want To Know What Love Is." She will depart Italy right after her appearance on the show. X Factor will air live from its Milano studios on Wednesday, Nov. 11 from 9:00pm-12:00am on channel RAI2.

MariahDailyJournal will have Mariah's confirmed European schedule tomorrow morning. Stay tuned!

Source: MariahDailyJournal

Mariah on UK's Alan Carr
Posted by Lynn on Monday, 09-Nov-2009, 9:37AM EST

In its Season 2 premiere, host Alan Carr will be joined on the sofa by Mariah Carey who will also perform her single, "I Want to Know What Love Is." Alan Carr: Chatty Man with Mariah as special guest will air on Thursday, November 19 at 10pm on Channel 4 in the UK.

Other UK TV Appearances by Mariah:
• T4 Special Mariah Carey- Saturday, Nov. 14 10am Ch. 4
• Strictly Come Dancing - Saturday, Nov. 14 6:45pm BBC One

Source: Channel 4 | Garett | Louise

Photos: Mariah Takes "H.A.T.E.U." Video Shoot to NYC
Posted by Lynn on Friday, 06-Nov-2009, 9:10PM EST

Mariah Carey was spotted arriving to continue shooting her latest music video for "H.A.T.E.U." in New York City on Friday afternoon, November 6, 2009. The day's video shoot comes after a sexy Malibu beach filming session earlier in the week.

Source: Gossip Girls

Billboard Update
Posted by Lynn on Thursday, 05-Nov-2009, 9:59AM EST

Below, find Mariah's chart positions in Billboard magazine issue dated November 14, 2009.

Source: Billboard | MariahDailyJournal

"H.A.T.E.U." Video Shoot in L.A. Done in One Day!
Posted by Lynn on Thursday, 05-Nov-2009, 1:08AM EST

Source: Brett Ratner

Brett Ratner to Direct "H.A.T.E.U." Video
Posted by Lynn on Wednesday, 04-Nov-2009, 12:03AM EST

Mariah is scheduled to film the music video for "H.A.T.E.U." her third single off Memoirs of An Imperfect Angel this week in an undisclosed, private location in Los Angeles, California.

Brett Ratner will be directing the "H.A.T.E.U." music video and it will be his and Mariah's 8th time to work together. As we all know, Brett recently directed the Platinum hit "Obsessed" earlier this year. Other Mariah music videos he has helmed include "I Still Believe" (1998), "Heartbreaker" (1999), "Thank God I Found You" (2000), "It's Like That" (2005), "We Belong Together" (2005) and "Touch My Body" (2008) music videos.

Dustin Robertson, better known in Music Videoland as AVIDDIVA, has once again been tasked to cut the new music video. He previously worked on the original and remix versions of "Obsessed;" and "It's Like That" and "We Belong Together" in 2005. All of next week, Dustin will be working hard on editing "H.A.T.E.U." and will be posting daily updates on his progress and any new information about the video on his theAVIDDIVA Twitter page.

Source: Dustin | MariahDailyJournal

More UK Appearances
Posted by Lynn on Monday, 02-Nov-2009, 1:23PM EST

Mariah Carey is preparing to pull on her Santa suit a month early - she is set to switch on London's glittering Christmas lights. The singer will flick the switch at the U.K. capital's Westfield Shopping Centre later this month.

Also, Mariah has been confirmed to make an appearance on Alan Carr: Chatty Man on Thursday, Nov. 19 on Channel 4.

*Previously announced UK TV appearances: Mariah Carey: T4 Special (Nov. 14), and Strictly Come Dancing (TBA).

Source: ContactMusic | Alan Carr | Kerry

"I Want To Know What Love Is" Video Coming Soon
Posted by Lynn on Sunday, 01-Nov-2009, 1:28PM EST

Mariah's manager Chris Lighty on his Twitter minutes ago:


He also revealed that the "H.A.T.E.U." video is being filmed end of this week.

Source: Chris Lighty

Audio: Mariah Interviews with 97.9 KISS FM, Jacksonville
Posted by Lynn on Saturday, 31-Oct-2009, 12:04AM EDT

Mariah called in to 97.9 KISS FM in Jacksonville, Florida on Friday, October 30th and talked to DJ Jordan about her new album, Precious, AT&T commercial, new Forever perfume, marriage, JJ & Cha Cha being pregnant, her and Nick's Halloween costumes, and "Obsessed" going platinum. Listen to the interview below!


[ Download an MP3 file here ]

Source: Jordan Radio Show - 97.9 KISS FM | Ryan | MariahDailyJournal

Update: Mariah in Italy
Posted by Lynn on Wednesday, 28-Oct-2009, 2:36PM EDT

Mariah will be arriving in Italy, her first visit in 6 years, on Tuesday afternoon, November 10th and will be meeting with major Italian media and press in a conference meeting for her new album Memoirs of An Imperfect Angel later in the evening.

The following day, November 11th, as previously reported, Mariah will appear live on X Factor Italy to perform her single "I Want To Know What Love Is." She will depart Italy right after her appearance on the show.

X Factor will air live from its Milano studios on Wednesday, Nov. 11 from 9:00pm-12:00am on channel RAI2.

Source: Universal Italy | Ila & Dan

Mariah on Germany's Wetten, dass...? Dec. 5
Posted by Lynn on Wednesday, 28-Oct-2009, 12:30PM EDT

Mariah is scheduled to perform on the most-watched German TV show "Wetten, dass...?" on Saturday, December 5, 2009. The show will broadcast live from the AWD Dome in Bremen on ZDF at 8:15pm CET.

According to Universal Germany, Mariah will not visit Germany during her European promo in November.

Source: Universal Germany | Honey & Kate

Mariah on French Radio NRJ Nov. 17
Posted by Lynn on Wednesday, 28-Oct-2009, 8:57AM EDT

Mariah is scheduled to visit the French radio NRJ to promote her new album Memoirs of An Imperfect Angel on the station's Le 6-9 show Tuesday, November 17.

NRJ can be streamed live here.

Source: Oualid | MariahDailyJournal

Memoirs Collector's Edition Box Set
Posted by Lynn on Saturday, 24-Oct-2009, 2:23AM EDT

Below are photos of the sold-out autographed Memoirs of An Imperfect Angel Collector's Edition Box Set that was offered at the official Mariah Carey store in limited quantity. You can, however, purchase this Memoirs limited edition, without the signature, at either the official store for $40.95 or at Amazon.com for $40.49.

The Memoirs of An Imperfect Angel Collector's Edition Box Set includes 2-CD album with Elle booklet, 2 LPs in white vinyl, 6 exclusive lithographs - all bundled together with a brilliant signature butterfly band and housed in a beautiful box.

Source: Danielle

India's NDTV Interviews Mariah in Korea
Posted by Lynn on Friday, 23-Oct-2009, 11:49AM EDT

Mariah talks about love, marriage and her new album Memoirs of An Imperfect Angel in an exclusive interview with NDTV in Korea on October 14, 2009 that aired this morning during its news program.

[ Download this video here ]
Now we all know that she has a voice like an angel but is she as perfect as one? Well, we have the lady herself, Mariah Carey, who's also to tell us about her latest album Memoirs of An Imperfect Angel. This is one of the most honest albums we've really seen from you. Since you're in a confession mood, tell us what's the most angelic thing Mariah Carey's ever done and the most devilish thing Mariah Carey's ever done.
"People don't really know this, everytime somebody meets me usually they're like, 'I have no idea. You should have a comedy show. Why aren't you making a comedy?' I have fun, that's what I do. That's how I've always gotten through the bad times of my life – singing and laughing."

That's a good combination, I might say. We should always like that I think
"Exactly. And being in love has definitely changed my life and changed a lot of things."

What's the best part about married life at the moment?
"I don't think I can say that on the TV [laughs].

That's a Mariah Carey answer, if there ever was one. Why have we not seen Mariah Carey perform in India? What's been the reason? Do you not love us in India?
"I love you in India! I just need somebody to tell me, 'We're going on tour and here is the touring route and we're gonna be going to India."

Indian music is on such international level at the moment. Any Indian musician you'd like to collaborate with?
"Who do you suggest because I'm not fully familiar."

A. R. Rahman, Slumdog Millionaire, you must have heard the soundtrack?
"Oh my goodness! Yes, yes, yes. That would be hot. I would love that.

And Mariah if I asked you I Want To Know What Love Is, would you tell me what is love to Mariah Carey?
"Wow. What is love? It depends on where you're using it. It could be love for the world, it could be love for an individual."

And can you sing us a little bit of 'I Want To Know What Love Is'? Would that be possible?
"I got to take a little time... alright.


Previously posted interviews with the Asian press
• Sina (China)
• KBS (Korea)
• Nine Entertain (Thailand)
• Philippine Star (Philippines)

Read a recap of the Press Conference for Memoirs of An Imperfect Angel held at the Grand InterContinental Hotel in Seoul, Korea on Tuesday, October 13, 2009 by Faridul Anwar Farinordin of Malaysia's New Straits Times.

Source: NDTV | Varun | MariahDailyJournal | Farhad

Video: Mariah Interviews with Sina, China
Posted by Lynn on Thursday, 22-Oct-2009, 7:55AM EDT

Mariah interviewed with the Chinese Sina during the media interview sessions for Memoirs of An Imperfect Angel held in Korea on Wednesday, October 14, 2009.


[ Download this video here ]

Source: Sina | Ritcher | Danielle | Text: MariahDailyJournal

Videos: Mariah in Japan
Posted by Lynn on Wednesday, 21-Oct-2009, 9:22AM EDT

Mariah went on a short promotional trip to Japan for her new album Memoirs of An Imperfect Angel from October 15-17, 2009. During her visit, she attended a fan meeting organized by Mezamashi TV; and appeared live on Music Station for an interview and to perform "I Want To Know What Love Is." Click on the links below to download Mariah's TV appearances in Japan. Thanks to Maple for getting all these videos for us!


Mariah Arriving in Japan, Preview of Fan Meeting - Mezamashi TV
[ Download here ]

Mariah Meets with Japanese Fans - Mezamashi TV
[ Download here ]

Music Station This Week Mariah Mention - Music Station CM
[ Download here ]

Mariah Arrives at Music Station Studio - Mini Music Station
[ Download here ]

Mariah Interview - Music Station
[ Download here ]

Mariah Performs "I Want To Know What Love Is" - Music Station
[ Download here ]

Source: maple | MariahDailyJournal

Korea's iRiver Releases New Mariah N20 MP3 player
Posted by Lynn on Monday, 19-Oct-2009, 12:01AM EDT

Mariah and iRiver CEO Kuno Kim

Mariah has come together with iRiver to release the new N20 Mariah Carey Special Edition MP3 player. Five (5) lucky fans received the new Mariah MP3 player during the CD signing at Evan Records. During the October 13th press conference and right beside the press room, the iRiver room was set up and Mariah took time to take pictures with iRiver's President and CEO Kuno Kim and sign iRiver's staff the new item.

N20 is a two gigabyte MP3 player which comes pre-loaded with 17 tracks from Memoirs of An Imperfect Angel. Mariah's new album cover can be seen on the box of N20. It is a fashionable and stylish new MP3 player which provides outstanding sound quality. As Mariah is THE vocalist who can transcend all ranges and is at the same time a style icon, iRiver found Mariah to be the best artist to collaborate with on its new cutting-edge product.

iRiver is currently holding an event where users write congratulatory messages for the new N20 release. Twenty (20) lucky users will be selected and presented with the new N20 Mariah Carey Special Edition.

Below are pictures of the new product, and the Mariah-autographed N20s given to staff members.

Source: June | iRiver | MariahDailyJournal

Two More Media Interviews with Mariah in Korea
Posted by Lynn on Sunday, 18-Oct-2009, 4:11PM EDT

Here are two more interviews with Mariah during the TV/media interview rounds for Memoirs of An Imperfect Angel held on Wednesday, October 14, 2009 in Korea. Each media representative was allotted ten minutes to conduct their interview.

KOREA
Mariah's interview with The Ent Relay Broadcast News aired on KBS Saturday, October 17, 2009. The KBS report shows footage of her arrival at the airport; and clips from her appearance on Yoo Hee-yeol's Sketchbook. The "huge fan" in the funny clip we posted earlier is famous Korean comedian Park Ji-sun.


[ Download this video here ]

THAILAND
Mariah's interview with Thailand's Nine Entertain in Korea aired earlier today on Channel 9.


Mariah Interview with Thailand's Nine Entertain - Korea, Oct. 14
[ Download here ]

Source: Kim | Songruby | June | MariahDailyJournal

Audio: Mariah & Nick Host "Mariah On Fire Countdown"
Posted by Lynn on Saturday, 17-Oct-2009, 6:59PM EDT

Mariah and hubby Nick Cannon hosted the Mariah On Fire Countdown where they played back Mariah's classics as well as new selections from her latest CD, Memoirs Of An Imperfect Angel, on Sirius XM's R&B Channel 50 "The Heat" on Saturday, October 17, 2009. Listen below!

Mariah On Fire Top 10 Countdown 10. Fantasy Remix 9. Vision of Love 8. My All/Stay Awhile Remix 7. Honey 6. Up Out My Face 5. Heartbreaker Remix 4. H.A.T.E.U. / H.A.T.E.U. Remix 3. Candy Bling 2. Shake It Off Bonus: More Than Just Friends 1. Obsessed Remix

[ Download an MP3 file here ]

Source: Sirius XM | MariahDailyJournal

Philippine Star Interviews Mariah in Korea
Posted by Lynn on Saturday, 17-Oct-2009, 2:55PM EDT

Portrait of an Imperfect Angel
By Ricky Lo, Philippine Star

She's really very nice. Consistently so. Like an angel.

I interviewed Mariah Carey for the first time more than a decade ago in Hong Kong where she promoted her album Butterfly. I was with five other Asian journalists who interviewed Mariah in bed. She was tired after a round of TV interviews so she requested us to sit around a bed inside a suite at a five-star hotel while she rested her weary body. It was fun!

My second encounter with her was in June last year in Tokyo where she promoted another album, E=MC2. Again spent-up after a hard day, she reclined on a couch during the interview, cooing, "You don't mind, do you?" Who would!

Then, last Wednesday, I was face-to-face with Mariah for the third time, in this beautiful Korean city where she was promoting her 12th album titled Memoirs Of An Imperfect Angel (released locally by MCA Music, Inc.). She sat on a sofa, fresh as a daisy so to speak. As I did in Tokyo, I gave her a copy of The STAR which carried my previous interview and – surprise, surprise! – she was calling me by my nickname. (She was looking at the logo of my column, maybe?)

While the TV guys were checking my lapel mike, Mariah said, "How are you, Ricky?

I said, "I'm okay."

"Do you want anything?"

"No, none. Just being in front of you is good enough for me."

She smiled. "How are people back home?

I said, looking genuinely sad, "Not okay. Our country has just been ravaged by two giant typhoons."

She replied with an equally sad look in her eyes, "Oh, is that so? I'm sad to know that. I will pray for them. They should keep on praying."

"You were in the Philippines not so long ago, remember?" I reminded her.

"Oh yes. I stayed in this beautiful place but I forgot what its name was."

"It's Amanpulo. It's in Palawan."

Her eyes twinkled. "It was beautiful!"

I asked her about her album which has 21 tracks, one of them I Want To Know What Love Is which Mariah would sing that same night during a meet-and-greet with fans at the MTV Seoul studio.

"Each song is like an intimate conversation or entry in a private diary. A lot of the songs reflect specific, different times in my life. Others were inspired by movies, actual events that happened to me, or the stories of my friends who told me about experiences that they've gone through."

Obviously, Mariah Carey has made it through the rain – very beautifully!

In the eyes of your fans, you are definitely an angel. Why "imperfect angel" in the title of your album?
"Well, nobody is perfect, right? Even an angel can't be perfect. I got that from a book that I read sometime ago. 'Imperfect angel.' It sounds nice, doesn't it?"

If ever you'll write an autobiography, your "memoirs," will it be a tell-all?
"No, I don't think so. If I do a tell-all book, some people are bound to say 'Ouch!' I don't want to step on anybody's toes, you know. I will have to leave some things untouched, unexposed."

I wonder, do you keep a diary?
"Oh yes, I do. It's a pretty little book. I write down my thoughts every day and then I lock it. Nobody can read what's in it and I mean nobody. Only I have access to it. Remember, I hold the key."

It must hold a lot of secrets.
"You bet. Hahahahaha!"

How do you divide your time between marriage (to singer-actor Nick Cannon) and career?
"It's difficult because my husband and I are both working. He's always going somewhere and I'm always somewhere else myself. But we do get together and spend really good times together."

How soon do you plan to raise a family?
"As soon as we have enough time together." (Laughs)

Let's talk about some songs on your album. First, Obsessed (which is accompanied by a video directed by Brett Ratner of the Rush Hour trilogy, starring Jackie Chan).
"In that song, I play both a glamorous star and her stalker."

I've listened to the song and its lyrics combine devastating put-downs (such as "Last man on Earth still couldn't get this...") with humor (such as "See right through you like you're bathin' in Windex..."). Have you ever had a stalker? How did you deal with him/her?
"Oh yes, I have. Everybody has, I guess. I consider a stalker someone who talks against you, who tells lies about you, who is out to destroy you. If you go back in time, you might remember a boy who pushed another kid and called him names, and did stuff like that...yes, he could be considered a stalker."

Next, Up Out My Face. It tells about dismissing a former lover with a good-riddance line, "When I break, I break, boy."
"That's right. When I break, I really break. Once broken, nothing can ever fix it and bring it back. Which brings me to the title of another song on the album – It's A Wrap. The end." (Laughs again)

Oh, when it's over, it's over! Meaning, there's no turning back, no second time around?
"You said it right!"

One song is titled H.A.T.E.U. Does it mean what it seems to say?
"Oh, it actually means Having A Typical Emotional Upset."

So it doesn't really mean "hate" as in H-A-T-E?
"Well, what it is is I can't wait to hate you and make you feel what I do. I'm looking at it from a female's point of view. The song is about someone who is sad and lonely; she's a character in the song. I'm not in that world right now. I'm not feeling that way. It's a distant memory; it's a past."

And how do you cope with what you called "emotional upset"?
"Well, I cry and cry. Then, I'm okay again. Crying has a healing effect."

You have a new movie coming up, titled Precious. Tell us about it.
"I'm glad that the movie is getting good reviews. I enjoyed doing it. The director told me, 'I want you to look as homely as possible. I want you to look ugly; I don't want anybody to recognize you at all.' I don't think I will recognize myself at all when I watch the movie." (Laughs)

How do you manage to look gorgeous?
"I keep telling myself that I am 12 years old because a lot of good things happened in my life when I was 12. You know, if you keep repeating something to yourself, it becomes true. So when people ask me how I manage to look the way I do, I tell them, 'I'm forever 12'." (Laughs again)

Do you have any beauty secrets? Oops! They won't be secrets if you will tell now.
(Seriously now) "I have no beauty secret that's really good, and it really works. If you have a face that's really red...like I have because my father is Black and my mother is Irish, it comes from my Irish side...you take ice cubes and milk, and put a cotton bud in there and then you dab your eyes and your face with the cotton ball."

Do you do that at bedtime or upon waking up?
"All the time!" (Laughs)

You are beautiful from head to foot, every inch of you is beautiful. What do you like most about yourself?
"I don't know. It's hard to say."

And what, if any, don't you like about yourself?
"Oh now, I won't tell!" (Laughs and laughs) "I don't want people to know. Otherwise, they would be looking for that thing that I'd say I didn't like about myself."

I heard that you have your own perfume. Does it help you feel even better, more beautiful?
"Oh yes, it does...I think. It's called Forever. It's my own brand. It comes in a golden bottle, very pretty." (Adds deadpan) "I think it comes in a limited edition. There are only about 50 bottles around the world, so I'm afraid you won't find any available in the store." (Laughs again)

By the way, after all the awards and the hit records and the accolades, what else do you want to achieve or to do?
"Well, to continue what I love doing – singing. Fill the world with song. Can you imagine a world with no music? It would be drab. Boring! Like crying, music heals. Let's heal the world with music."

Source: Philippine Star

HDD Prediction: Memoirs 30-35K Copies This Week
Posted by Lynn on Friday, 16-Oct-2009, 5:03PM EDT

WEAKEND CHART PREVIEW: Based on midweek sales and a lot of speculation, here's how the upper reaches of the chart might look next week:

Michael Buble (Reprise) 175-200k
Twilight Saga: New Moon (Chop Shop/Atlantic) 125-150k
Barbra Streisand (Columbia) 55-60k
Jay-Z (Roc Nation/Atlantic) 55-60k
Black Eyed Peas (Interscope) 35-40k
Miley Cyrus (Hollywood) 35-40k
Mariah Carey (Island/IDJ) 30-35k
Toby Keith (Showdog) 30-35k
Taylor Swift (Big Machine) 30-35k
KISS (KISS) 25-30k
Mario (J/RMG) 25-30k

Source: RuPaul

RuPaul: L.O.V.E.U. Memoirs
Posted by Lynn on Friday, 16-Oct-2009, 3:31PM EDT

RuPaul, world-famous drag queen and host of the reality show Drag Race on the Logo network, talks about how he loves Mariah's new album Memoirs of An Imperfect Angel on his latest blog.

Source: RuPaul | Kymo

Mariah on UK's Strictly Come Dancing
Posted by Lynn on Thursday, 15-Oct-2009, 1:49PM EDT

Strictly Come Dancing and The X Factor – which upset fans by going head-to-head in the TV schedules – appear to be stepping up their ratings war by booking bigger and better guests.

Last week Strictly tried to trump The X Factor's Robbie Williams comeback on Sunday by bagging junkie singer Amy Winehouse and her god-daughter Dionne Bromfield on Saturday.

However, The X Factor is set to triumph over the dance show this weekend. While Strictly is getting golden oldies Spandau Ballet to sing their 1980s hit Gold, Simon Cowell and Co have booked superstar Whitney Houston to sing on Sunday. X Factor is also trying to firm up a booking with queen of pop Madonna – but Strictly already has diva Mariah Carey in the bag.

Note: Mariah is scheduled to be in the UK in mid-November for Memoirs promotional visit. Aside from Strictly Come Dancing, Mariah is also booked for an appearance on T4 Presents. Firm schedule will be posted as soon as available.

Source: The Sun UK | Carlos

Video: Mariah Interviews with Close Up, New Zealand
Posted by Lynn on Thursday, 15-Oct-2009, 6:40AM EDT

New Zealand current affairs host Mark Sainsbury's interview with Mariah in Los Angeles aired earlier tonight on TV One's Close Up. They talked about the new album, tour, Google, her marriage, Glitter, and new film Precious.


Mariah Interview on Close Up - TV One, New Zealand, Oct.15
[ Download here ]

Source: Rose | MariahDailyJournal

Videos/Photos: Mariah in Korea, Oct. 13 & 14
Posted by Lynn on Thursday, 15-Oct-2009, 2:21AM EDT

Click on the links below to download video files of Mariah during her promotional trip to Korea: at the Press Conference for her new album Memoirs of An Imperfect Angel, Yoo Hee-yeol's Sketchbook taping, and CD signing at Evan Records. More videos and pictures still to come, stay tuned! Thanks to our Korean correspondents Craig and June for all their hard work!


Mariah Arrives for Press Conference, Grand InterContinental, Oct. 13
[ Download here ]

Mariah Leaves Press Conference, Grand InterContinental, Oct. 13
[ Download here ]

Mariah Arrives at KBS for Sketchbook Taping, Oct. 13
[ Download here ]

Mariah Performs "I Want To Know What Love Is" on Sketchbook, Oct. 13
[ Download here ]

Mariah Performs "H.A.T.E.U." on Sketchbook, Oct. 13
[ Download here ]

Mariah & Yoo Take Pictures Together on Sketchbook, Oct. 13
[ Download here ]

Mariah Leaves Evan Records After CD Signing, Oct. 14
[ Download here ]
And here are photos from the Memoirs CD signing at Evan Records on Wednesday, October 14, 2009. The last two are from the Oct. 13th Yoo Hee-yeol's Sketchbook Taping.

Source: Craig | June | MariahDailyJournal | Soyeon

Memoirs Out in UK Nov. 16
Posted by Lynn on Wednesday, 14-Oct-2009, 9:34AM EDT

Mariah Carey's new album will be released in the UK next month, her label has confirmed.

Memoirs Of An Imperfect Angel, which debuted at number three on the US albums chart last week, will be released on Mercury Records on November 16.

It will be preceded by Carey's new single – a cover of Foreigner's "I Want To Know What Love Is" – on October 26.

The UK version of Memoirs Of An Imperfect Angel will comprise two discs – one featuring 17 new tracks, the other containing remixes of her recent US hit 'Obsessed'.

With the exception of "I Want To Know What Love Is," Carey has written and produced the entire album with production duo The-Dream and Tricky Stewart.

Source: Digital Spy

Mariah in Korea: Yoo Hee-yeol's Sketchbook Taping
Posted by Lynn on Tuesday, 13-Oct-2009, 3:16PM EDT

After the press conference at the Grand InterContinental Hotel, Mariah proceeded to the KBS studios to tape her appearance on Yoo Hee-yeol's Sketchbook.

She opened the show by singing "I Want To Know What Love Is," followed by "H.A.T.E.U.;" and received amazing response from the audience!

After her performance, Yoo and Mariah had a long interview and talk which included: listening to singing from the audience (literally hysterically funny ones, purposely so humorous), Yoo doing a speed quiz asking Mariah questions like what her hobby is, what relaxes her, what was her most memorable dating place until now and many other questions. She looked like she really enjoyed her appearance at Yoo's show.

Yoo Hee-yeol's Sketchbook with Mariah Carey as special guest will air on Friday, October 23 at 12:15am.

Be sure to stay tuned for pictures and video footage from the press conference and Sketchbook taping!

Source: June | MariahDailyJournal

Mariah in Korea: Memoirs Press Conference
Posted by Lynn on Tuesday, 13-Oct-2009, 3:13PM EDT

Click on the link below to download video clips from the Press Conference for Memoirs of An Imperfect Angel held at the Grand InterContinental Hotel in Seoul, Korea on Tuesday, October 13, 2009.

One of our Korean correspondents June was there: "I just arrived from the hotel and a long day with MC! As you know the press conference was held at around noonish and few lucky fans were there. I did get in in the middle of the conference. Mariah was answering a reporter's question on her new fragrance, brought up the past scents so since I had M by Mariah the gold edition with me, handed it to her in case it could have advertisement effects! She was so kind not to forget to give it back to me after the press conference was over. You can find me and Mariah hugging in one of the clips, that's right after the conference ended; and Mariah while giving back my perfume also gave me a big hug."


Download: Mariah at Memoirs Press Conference in Korea

Source: June | MariahDailyJournal

"H.A.T.E.U." Impacts Radio Nov. 2
Posted by Lynn on Tuesday, 13-Oct-2009, 4:25AM EDT

Friday Morning Quarterback (FMQB) lists "H.A.T.E.U." the third single from Mariah's new album Memoirs of An Imperfect Angel as available for airplay on Monday, November 2 at Rhythm Crossover; and Tuesday, November 3 at CHR/Top 40.

The song also goes for adds at Urban on November 2, according to Radio & Records.

Source: FMQB | Lance | Ritcher

Photos/Videos: Mariah Arriving in Korea
Posted by Lynn on Tuesday, 13-Oct-2009, 3:57AM EDT

Mariah arrived in South Korea on Monday, October 12th for a promotional visit for her new album Memoirs of An Imperfect Angel. Below are pictures as well as videos of her arriving at the Incheon International Airport and the Grand InterContinental Hotel. Many thanks to Craig, June and Gorani for getting all these together for us!

PICTURES




VIDEOS

[ At Incheon Int'l Airport ]

[ At InterContinental Hotel ]

Download: Mariah at Incheon Airport, Korea - No Cut TV

Download: Mariah at Incheon Airport, Korea - SSTV

Source: Craig | June | Gorani | MariahDailyJournal

Request "I Want To Know What Love Is"
Posted by Lynn on Monday, 12-Oct-2009, 9:28AM EDT

Please take a few moments to request Mariah's new single, "I Want To Know What Love Is" at radio! Below are phone numbers and online links to some of the biggest radio stations across the country.


You may also use our Radio request page if your radio stations are not listed above.

Source: MariahDailyJournal

Update: Mariah's Memoirs Asian Promo Tour
Posted by Lynn on Sunday, 11-Oct-2009, 6:32AM EDT

Here's a more detailed update from what we previously reported. Below you will find Mariah's current schedule for her Asian promotional tour, as it stands.

KOREA
10/12 Arrival

10/13
  1:00pm Official Press Conference
  2:00-4:00pm Regional Radios and Press Round Table Interview
As Mariah will perform the day after, everything is expected to close before 4:00 pm so she can have a good vocal rest.

10/14
1:00pm TV Media Interview, 10 minutes per group
2:00pm-2.30pm Performance and Interview on KBS TV Show Yoo Hee-yeol's Sketchbook
7:00pm TV Show taping and interview for MTV (live online)
9:00pm Autograph Session, media, UMG employees and 140 lucky fans have been invited. It will be a closed door session to be held at Evan Records store at COEX Mall in Seoul.

Due to the complexity of Mariah's schedule, if some sessions left from TV media interview, they will resume after the autograph session

10/15 Departure for Japan

JAPAN
10/15 Arrival
10/16 Performance on "Music Station"

Source: MariahDailyJournal

The Mariah Morning Show on Sirius XM
Posted by Lynn on Saturday, 10-Oct-2009, 10:28AM EDT

Mariah hosted her own radio show, The Mariah Morning Show, on Sirius XM Dance channel 36 BPM on Friday, October 9. She played remixes of her songs "We Belong Together," "Obsessed," "Don't Forget About Us," "It's Like That," and "Honey."


[ Download an MP3 file here ]

Source: Danielle | MariahDailyJournal

Updated: Mariah on Billboard Charts
Posted by Lynn on Friday, 09-Oct-2009, 3:20PM EDT

Below, find Mariah's chart positions in Billboard magazine issue dated October 17, 2009.


Memoirs Sales by Retailer
1. Target - 40,497
2. Best Buy - 35,260
3. Walmart - 27,563
4. Hastings - 1,164
5. Borders - 1,127

The sales numbers listed above do not include Apple's whose numbers are yet to be officially available. It shall be at least around 25,000 copies and placed at #4.

Memoirs Sales by City
1. New York, NY - 16,811
2. Los Angeles, CA - 16,578
3. Chicago, IL - 4,987
4. Philadelphia, PA - 4,806
5. San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose, CA - 5,993
9. Washington, DC - 6,501
12. Atlanta, GA - 5,045

Cities are listed according to their population. The above are the 7 cities where Memoirs sold the most.

Source: Billboard | SoundScan | MariahDailyJournal

HDD Prediction: Memoirs 55-60K Copies This Week
Posted by Lynn on Friday, 09-Oct-2009, 1:40PM EDT

YOUR WEAKEND TOP 10(ISH) CHART PREVIEW: Here's the prospective leader board for next Tuesday–minus the X-factor, Michael Buble, whose new LP comes out today in conjunction with his Oprah appearance. Next week's double-dippers appear at this point to be Hollywood and Jive/JLG; otherwise, things are spread out pretty evenly.

Kiss (Kiss) 150-160k
Toby Keith (Showdog) 80-90k
Barbra Streisand (Columbia) 65-70k
Jay-Z (Roc Nation/Atlantic) 55-60k
Mariah Carey (Island/IDJ) 55-60k
Luke Bryan (Capitol Nashville) 40-45k
Paramore (Fueled by Ramen) 40-45k
Miley Cyrus (Hollywood) 40-45k
Backstreet Boys (Jive/JLG) 40-45k
Breaking Benjamin (Hollywood) 40-45k
Relient K (Jive/JLG) 40-45k
Pearl Jam (Monkeywrench) 35-40k
Alice in Chains (Virgin) 35-40k

Though Island/IDJ's Mariah Carey bowed at #3 last week, many were surprised the album didn't generate a far bigger number given its two successful radio tracks and Carey's TV blitzkrieg, leaving the pundits to ponder where the disconnect is. But will these hit singles and heavy spins enable the album to build momentum as the holidays approach? That question leads to another: which of the releases will have the legs to carry them through the next three months?

Source: Hits Daily Double | Jasp

Memoirs Contest Winners Announced
Posted by Lynn on Friday, 09-Oct-2009, 12:30PM EDT

Thanks to everyone who participated in our MEMOIRS Campaign Contest. Forty-two (42) lucky fans were picked at random out of hundreds of entries received during the week of September 29 - October 4. The following will each receive a signed item by Mariah!

Allan Wong (New York) Andrew Garcia (California) Art Arias (Arizona) Brad Troyan (Pennsylvania) Brendan Swift (Florida) Can Cihan (Turkey) Chih-Wei Chang (Taiwan) Cindy Bisak (Australia) Dario Herrera (Arizona) Diana Stella (Delaware) Eddie Hiram (Oregon) Eric Way (Kentucky) Erica Manglaviti (New York) Frank Jeffery (Illinois) Gabriel Alfassy (New York) Hansel Tookes (Florida) Herschell Harris (Virginia) Indra Diky Kurniawan (Indonesia) Jamonique Fletcher (California) Jason Symonds (New Jersey) Jeff Watson (Virginia)

Jeremy Bachelor (Illinois) Jimmy Tickey (Connecticut) Jorge Ruiz (Texas) Joseph Braxton (Maryland) Karla Di Majo (California) Katerina Dlouha (Czech Republic) Kevin Lo (New York) Lori Fredericks (Washington) Marc Wilson (Illinois) Martin martinmtz702 (Nevada) Ricardo Davis (Texas) Ronald Wade (Georgia) Rudy Palma (New Jersey) Ryan McMillan (Texas) Silvia Gonzalez (Michigan) Stacey Damude (Ohio) Vagner Coser (Brazil) Vivian Jackson (California) Yuan Man (China) EmeteriaS (Twitter) GottaShakeItOff (Twitter)

Congratulations, winners! Please contact us by e-mail and let us know of your mailing address.

Memoirs of An Imperfect Angel is out in stores. Please keep supporting Mariah! Thanks to IDJ for providing the amazing prizes! Be sure to keep checking back to MariahDailyJournal for future contests.

Source: MariahDailyJournal

Mariah to Host Morning Show on Sirius Tomorrow
Posted by Lynn on Thursday, 08-Oct-2009, 3:52PM EDT

Mariah will host her own radio show, The Mariah Morning Show, for one full hour on Sirius Channel 36 on Friday, October 9 at 8am ET. If you're not currently a subscriber, you can register for a free 7-day trial, no credit card required and no commitment, to be able to listen to Mariah's show.

Source: Sirius | Danielle

Streisand Surprises With #1 On Billboard 200
Posted by Lynn on Thursday, 08-Oct-2009, 9:44AM EDT

While many were focused on a battle between Paramore's "Brand New Eyes" and Mariah Carey's "Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel" for the top slot on the Billboard 200 this week, Barbra Streisand trumps them both. "Love Is the Answer" earns Streisand her ninth No. 1 on the chart, opening with 180,000 copies according to Nielsen SoundScan.

"Answer" beats the arrivals of Paramore's "Brand New Eyes," which enters at No. 2 with 175,000, and Mariah Carey's "Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel," arriving at No. 3 with 168,000. First-week sales projections had estimated that Paramore would finish ahead of the two divas. As it turns out, Streisand surprised many with how well her album sold in non-traditional ways -- such as through Starbucks, QVC and via her Web site -- and that likely threw a wrench into forecasting sales.

Carey's "Memoirs" begins its Billboard 200 life with 168,000 -- off quite a bit from the opening of her last set, 2008's "E=MC2." The latter effort bowed at No. 1 with 463,000, her biggest first-week sum ever.

Source: Billboard

Video: Behind The Scenes at NY Intimate Show
Posted by Lynn on Thursday, 08-Oct-2009, 1:06AM EDT

Check out the behind-the-scenes video footage from Mariah's October 5th Intimate Show at the P.C. Richard & Son Theater in Tribeca, New York below!


[ Download this video ]
Related News:
• Mariah Carey Angelic at New York Show (Clear Channel)
• "H.A.T.E.U." is 3rd Single from Memoirs

Source: Z100 | Danielle | Bobby

Two More Radio Interviews with Mariah
Posted by Lynn on Thursday, 08-Oct-2009, 12:55AM EDT

Monday, October 5, Power 105.1 at P.C. Richard & Son Theater
DJ Clue talks to Mariah about her new album Memoirs of An Imperfect Angel, her favorite songs from the album, performing at a small venue and what some of her first experiences were. Listen to the interview below!


[ Download an MP3 file here ]

Friday, October 2 - The Morning Mash Up, Sirius XM
Mariah and husband Nick Cannon stopped by The Morning Mash Up. They talked about the keys to a successful marriage, having kids, Mariah's new album Memoirs of An Imperfect Angel, America's Got Talent, and other shows Mariah watches. Listen to the interview below!


[ Download an MP3 file here ]

Source: MariahDailyJournal | Power 105.1 | The Morning Mash Up | Vanessa

More Details of Mariah's Visit to Korea
Posted by Lynn on Wednesday, 07-Oct-2009, 11:03AM EDT

Pop diva Mariah Carey will arrive in South Korea on October 12 to promote her new album, according to Universal Music Korea on Wednesday.

The multi-award winning singer will hold a press conference on the second day of her four-day trip and hold an autograph session at Evan Records as well as a live fan meeting on MTV the following day, an official at Universal said.

The fan meeting, to be hosted by Alex of Korean band Clazziquai, will invite 130 fans to Seoul MTV Studio and air live at 6 p.m. on MTV Korea's official website.

The 39-year-old singer will be visiting Korea for the first time in six years to promote her 12th studio album "Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel" which was released September 28.

Below are photos of the Mariah Carey Memoirs of An Imperfect Angel bus that's scheduled to make its tour today from 9am to 6pm in Seoul, South Korea. Thanks to B.Y.!

Source: AsiaE | B.Y.

Mariah Carey Talks Memoirs, Responds to Haters
Posted by Lynn on Wednesday, 07-Oct-2009, 10:01AM EDT

Mariah Carey doesn't go around proclaiming herself the Queen of Pop, but she would have good argument to do so. With 18 No. 1 songs on Billboard's Hot 100 to her credit, she is a lock to surpass the Beatles' record of 20 No. 1 to claim the title -- in fact Carey's the lone artist within striking distance. The only question is will the Fab Four's record tumble during the run of 'Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel,' Mimi's just released CD.

Given Carey's aggressively happy marital union to 'America's Got Talent' host Nick Cannon, no one would be surprised if 'Memoirs' floated along on the puffy clouds of connubial bliss, one joyous paean to the glory of love after another. But they would be wrong. As much as 'Memoirs' celebrates the unexpected rapture she's found with Cannon, the collection mourns heartbreak in all its wrenching disguises.

Carey, who co-produced 'Memoirs' with Tricky Stewart and The-Dream, took time out on the 'Memoirs' release day to talk to PopEater about her surprising bedside reading material, cross dressing and her emotional message to those who feel the five-octave superstar needs to change her tune.

You've compared this album to taking pages from your private diary. How hard was it to revisit what were clearly some painful times?
You know what? It was easier to revisit the painful times because they're over and I wanted to let out how I was feeling. And in a way, letting it out when there's also humor attached to it is more therapeutic.

You can be very funny, but it's not a side you usually show on your records until now on songs like 'Obsessed' and 'Up Out of My Face.'
It's interesting because my friends know that my sense of humor is like 70% of who I am. It's had to be that way since I was a little kid. But my work didn't always tend to reflect that and I think that collaborating is fun and so, therefore, whatever you're feeling, you can bounce it off of somebody, where if you're just by yourself, maybe you wouldn't have the guts to say, "okay, maybe I'm just going to say this one line."

You told Elle that your favorite song is 'The Impossible' because you're in love for the first time. Did you fear love would never happen for you?
I don't think I feared it because I guess I almost didn't believe in it. I always had a connection spiritually and I felt that maybe that's where I was supposed to be and I made music and wanted to be creative. But, you know, I didn't really trust people. I didn't really trust [sighs] what it would be like to be in a relationship again because I'd been, you know ... so many times it had been disappointing. But the situation with Nick is totally different because we're very similar. We have a lot of the same likes and dislikes and we have so much fun together.

What would surprise us that you do for fun?
I go for walk in a semi-disguise. That's fun to me. I like to go to public places and do things that I would never get a chance to do. The other night, I went out wearing all Nick's clothes.

Did anyone recognize you?
Yeah, a couple of people. But the thing is if they recognize him, they're going to ... if he's holding someone's hand and walking with them, they're going to look and go, "Who is he with?"

And if he's holding someone's hand, he better be with you.
Exactly! You know that's right.

How did Nick influence this album?
I think being with Nick had a big influence on this album because we would just drive around and listen to it and there would be little things we would [suggest]. Just even little ad libs or things that I would do that would become our favorite little part. He's really into different groups from back in the day and so that's a really specific style and even if it's just a "yeah" (sings softly) like that, I did something that I knew he would think was cute. I might do it just to make him laugh and then that would be his favorite part. [laughs]

What do you want people to learn about you from 'Memoir' that they may not know about you yet?
I think there are a whole lot of different songs. They should hear the subtlety of 'H.A.T.E. U.,' but also the pain in that. And there's other songs like 'Angels Cry' [and] 'Languishing.'

Why?
Well, I feel like, "This is the way I feel sometimes" and I'm sure other people feel the same way. You don't have to be someone in the public eye to feel this way. It's kind of more about your personal relationships -- and I don't want to say which ones I'm referring to -- and how you feel about the people that are in your life and/or may be just observing your life. I just think that is like the antithesis of 'Obsessed.' I think that's why I made it the interlude to 'I Want to Know What Love Is' because it was, I don't know, like [quotes lyrics]: "Those ancient buried recollections/We transform them and select them/you have yours, I have mine/That's fine." There are a lot of people who rewrite history and change things and you're like, "I don't remember it happening that way."

You work very hard. Do you ever get to rest and breathe?
I do sometimes and it's better now because we have more places to live. Nick had a place out in L.A. and then we decided, OK, let's just do something together and really make it work for both of us and that's really been cool. We have a place in the Bahamas and so we can go to different places without having to rent them and do all that nonsense. So it's nice, it's relaxing and you can calm down and experience solitude.

In a recent USA Today piece, journalist Alan Light was quoted as saying that you've "affiliated [yourself] with urban musicians and that's a young person's game. It would be good for her..."
[Interrupts] I heard it. I don't agree. I heard the quote and he said he preferred that I stand there and sing.

Well, he said it would be good for you "to reestablish herself as a vocalist because that's her strength." How do you assess both parts of that comment?
OK, either he likes urban music but he doesn't like me singing urban music or he's someone who wants me to stand in the middle of stage and sing ballads. And that's cool, I'll do that, but honestly, my fans want to hear a variety of songs. Even back in the day, I was singing...People don't realize that 'Dreamlover' was based on a loop that a lot of rappers have used so that was way back when. I don't think people realize that it was a pop song [but] underneath it all it was produced by Dave "Jam" Hall, who would mainly work with Mary J. Blige and rappers. It's always been a love of mine to sing R&B music. But the thing is you can sing a song like 'The Impossible' or 'H.A.T.E. U' and you don't have to belt or sing out the whole time. I think 'I Want to Know What Love Is' does what he is referring to. Can I say one more thing? If they can't hear that I'm a vocalist from 'I Want to Know What Love Is' then I just don't know what they want me to do.

In August, Nick quoted the book of Genesis when he was tweeting a response to Eminem for taking you on in the song "The Warning." Then in Ell, when asked about where you wanted to be 10 years from now, you quoted Matthew 6:34. Were you always a student of the Bible or is that something that you two brought out in each other?
Actually, a friend of mine's mom gave me a student bible about 2004. You read it three times and then the last time you're reading every word, you're not skipping things, so I have been reading that bible pretty much every night for years and I learned a lot. Now I have to figure out, okay, what's my next bible? Is it going to be a devotional, because I really feel there's a lot we can learn. I'm not a religious fanatic. It's just something that I'm very spiritual and I do feel calmer when I read even just a little bit of the bible and go to sleep.

Source: PopEater

HITS' Final Album Sales Tally: Memoirs At #3
Posted by Lynn on Tuesday, 06-Oct-2009, 4:26PM EDT

In what was a very close race for top album sales, Mariah Carey's Memoirs of An Imperfect Angel ended up at #3 with 172,742 copies sold behind Paramore's Brand New Eyes (184,547) and Barbara Streisand's Love Is The Answer (176,663), #1 and #2, respectively, in Hits Daily Double's final Album Sales tally.

The official album sales figures will be determined by SoundScan whose data apply to the Billboard charts; and will be released later this week.

Source: Hits Daily Double | MariahDailyJournal

Mariah Carey Angelic at New York Show
Posted by Lynn on Tuesday, 06-Oct-2009, 1:27PM EDT

Mariah Carey performed 5 songs in Tribeca to 200 adoring fans Monday night.
By Tracy Bratten - Clear Channel Radio Digital

The stage was set with glittering gold embellished curtains, the microphone stand encrusted with rhinestones for none other than the imperfect angel herself. The P.C. Richard and Son Theater in lower Manhattan has hosted the likes of Alice in Chains, Green Day, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Kelly Clarkson, but never before has it been transformed into a venue fit for a diva. Radio contest winners turned out in droves Monday night to see Mariah Carey perform an intimate show in TriBeCa.

New York's Power 105.1 put on the event, introducing Mariah as the "biggest female selling artist of all time," and she kicked off the performance with her hit 'Obsessed,' asking the audience, "Why are you so obsessed with me?"

It's hard not to be obsessed. She's known for her powerful voice and, let's be honest, for being a diva. Wearing a zip up leather black minidress, a black patent leather cropped jacket and knee high black boots, the 39-year old songstress belted out the song in front of six backup singers, hitting notes some singers only dream of. For all the flack she's received in recent years, the girl can sing, and she did herself justice.

In between each song, Blair the stylist came up on stage to pull down her dress, powder her nose - Mariah exhibiting her great sense of humor, joking all the while - "I can't help it if things pop out!"

"We're gonna take you way back," she announced into her sparkling microphone - one guest guessed it was encrusted with Swarovski crystals - before singing the old favorite "Always Be My Baby." Halfway through the song, she ordered that the music be stopped because she couldn't hear the monitors. When the music stopped her stylist and make-up artist hurried onstage, fluffing her hair and powdering her nose as the sound issue was resolved. "Might as well be a diva moment while we're here," she joked, adding, "How often do you see me this clothed?" To the crowd's delight, instead of picking up where she left off, she sang the entire song again, delivering the hit from her Daydream album.

"I must be a true diva," she said after the song, as her make-up artist, Brigitte touched her up. "Brigitte makes me feel very very upscale when she does my makeup... Nobody ever had powder put on their face before during a concert!"

But the fans love her for it. One concert-goer even had 'Mariah' tattooed on the inside of her lip. "You did not tattoo your lip with Mariah on it!" She said to her adoring fan, adding, "But is your name Mariah too? Ashley?? Hi Ashley."

The third song she sang was "H.A.T.E. U," a new one from her latest album, Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel. "Actually it stands for having a typical emotional upset," Mariah explained. But what does she know about that?

Of course she had her diva moments. She's the quintessential diva, after all. "It would be awesome if all of the ladies in the audience had their hair done while I was singing," she laughed. "And that's why I love you because you put up with all my tomfoolery." But for all the naysayers out there, she looked gorgeous (all those hair fluffing moments were truly uneccessary), and she sounded great.

She then sang another song from the latest album, her remake of the 1984 Foreigner hit, "I Want To Know What Love Is," reminding the audience of the clever cover choices she's made throughout her career (remember her "Against All Odds" cover from the Rainbow album?) and comtinues to make.

She dedicated her fifth and final song to the audience, thanking them for "putting up with all the divadom" before singing "We Belong Together." At the end of the show, she told the packed house of two-hundred-something, "I love you, I appreciate you and I enjoy you!"

Mariah, the pleasure is ours.

Source: Clear Channel Radio

"H.A.T.E.U." is 3rd Single from Memoirs
Posted by Lynn on Tuesday, 06-Oct-2009, 12:13PM EDT

The invite-only exclusive performance by Mariah at the P.C. Richard & Son Theater in Tribeca, New York packed the venue to its capacity last night. Mariah looked stunning and performed "Obsessed," "Always Be My Baby," "H.A.T.E.U.," "I Want To Know What Love Is," and "We Belong Together." The show was recorded and will be put up on iheartradio.com at some point.

At the show, Mariah mentioned that although they will still be working on "I Want To Know What Love Is," her next single is "H.A.T.E.U." and that she absolutely loves the remixes for "H.A.T.E.U."

View pictures from the event below.

Source: P.C. Richards & Son | Jill | MariahDailyJournal

Audio: Mariah Interviews with Australia's 2day FM
Posted by Lynn on Tuesday, 06-Oct-2009, 12:11AM EDT

It was "Breakfast with the Stars" on 2day FM's The Kyle & Jackie O Show in Sydney, Australia with guest co-host Brian McFadden of Westlife and Mariah Carey on Tuesday, October 6. Mariah called in to promote her new album Memoirs of An Imperfect Angel and single "I Want To Know What Love Is." In the interview, topics discussed included: the Bulgarian Idol with "Can Li," High School Musical & young people emulating her, Ellen DeGeneres on American Idol, and Precious. Mariah also took call-ins from fans. Listen to the interview below!


[ Download an MP3 file here ]

Source: 2day FM | MariahDailyJournal

Inside Mariah's 'Memoirs'
Posted by Lynn on Monday, 05-Oct-2009, 3:17PM EDT

Sex, drama and lyrical rolls - the pop diva dishes on her latest album, upcoming film and her gay fans —Justin Ocean

Mariah Carey's latest album, "Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel," finds the R&B super-songstress back in the driver's seat of the heart with a collection of laid back slow-jams, power ballads (what else?) and booty-bouncing first single "Obsessed."

Catching up with the diva as she makes her busy publicity rounds in New York City, Carey is exceedingly candid about her motives, but keeps it classy when we press for parallels between the songs and her more public splits, spats and smooches.

"Yes, there are very many specific moments of my life in this album, especially the ones that are kind of cutting and filled with sarcasm," Carey demures. "At the end of the day, I'm a jokester. I don't take stuff that seriously. Some people are like, 'I'm gonna get you!' They're angry. I'm not like that. I'll give you a funny little lyric and then laugh. I feel like there are so many little jokes and comedic moments put in there."

For her gay fans, behind the playfulness lies a deeper, more serious message that she's trying to impart. She explains: "I had written a song called 'Imperfect.' It was mainly for those of us who get stuck on trying to compete with an unrealistic image. None of us are really angels, but some of us try." The song didn't make the cut, but the name and theme stuck.

Referring to her "Butterfly" album's gospel-flavored "Outside," Carey continues; "For me that was about being multi-racial, bi-racial, but a lot of gay people have told me it's an anthem of theirs because it's how they felt. So last night a guy, I don't want to say gay guy because he didn't tell me, 'Hi, I'm gay' - I don't really like to put people into boxes because that's been done to me my whole life - he showed me he had a lyric from the song tattooed on his arm. I see that and can only say, 'Wow.'

"I'm grateful I've been able to help people through those dark moments of not knowing whom you can relate to, whom you can be honest with. If you could just be yourself that would be great. That's the imperfect angel thing. There are still a lot of things that are painful to me that I wish I could change that I can't. But I can try."

Conceived as a tribute to love at all its stages - from the twittering days of first kisses to trauma-strewn dissolution and all the profundity and enveloping goodness in between - "Memoirs" sees Carey flexing both her writing and producing talents, in addition to her well-established vocal prowess. With the exception of a soaring gospel rendition of Foreigner's "I Want to Know What Love Is," a song chosen with the help of hubby Nick Cannon ("If you ask him it was his idea, but if you ask me, it was mine!" she laughs), every track was the product of a three-way collaboration with Terius "The-Dream" Nash and C. "Tricky" Stewart, the duo behind Rihanna's "Umbrella." Their unified mission: give each song a diary feel, like a conversation between friends - blunt, intimate and revealing, with a riding humor throughout.

That wit, catchier the more ridiculous it gets, can be traced to the easy sense of creative freedom she had working with Tricky and The-Dream, casting their shared vision for "Memoirs" as less an emotional rollercoaster and more a complete journey. Songs segue from one emotion to another with an easy grace and a few unexpected interludes and connecting twists, such as the drumline reprise to "Up Out My Face," adding sonic spice to already caustically clever rhymes of the saucy flippin'-the-bird main track.

Carey hesitates to classify her 12th studio album as her most personal, but she is quick to count it amongst her proudest, considering it her most cohesive body of work as producer. Already the top-selling female recording artist in history, the next weeks will see if fans agree and can push Carey to the top of the No. 1 heap. Her last album, "E=MC2," had her surpassing Elvis' record of No. 1 hits (as scored on Billboard's Hot 100); only two more and she'll tie with The Beatles' all-time high of 20.

"You know what, it's just weird," she says, contemplating her legendary status. "I'm so thankful. I have so much faith, and I'm so grateful to God for everything I have, but I'm just a regular person sitting here under a comforter talking to you on the phone, having a glass of wine, being like, OK, cool - ya know what I mean?"

Music industry accolades or not, Carey can rest assured knowing, despite 2001's "Glitter," she could actually have a second career as an actress. In her latest project "Precious," a soul-gutting and fortifying tearjerker of a film based on the novel "Push" by Sapphire, she plays a pivotal role as a social worker to an abused Harlem teen. The film's already getting major response. Backed by Tyler Perry and Queen Oprah herself, film festival buzz has Oscar contender written all over it. So can we see more IMDB entries in her future?

"I can't even tell you! It's another side of my creativity that I am so thankful for," she effuses. "I love singing. I love writing. I love producing. But I only am a creative person. That other side of the brain, like where you're scientific, doesn't exist for me. So out of the two sides of my creative self, I get to use this other side and it's amazing. It allows me to let out emotions I don't even know if I knew I ever had."

Source: Pride Source

Mariah on Australia's 2Day FM Tomorrow
Posted by Lynn on Monday, 05-Oct-2009, 8:21AM EDT

Mariah is scheduled to be on the Australian radio morning show, The Kyle & Jackie O Show on 2day FM 104.1 Tuesday, October 6 sometime between 7am and 9am.

2day FM can be streamed live here. Be sure to tune in!

Source: 2dayFM | Alissa

Request "I Want To Know What Love Is"
Posted by Lynn on Monday, 05-Oct-2009, 4:28AM EDT

Please take a few moments to request Mariah's new single, "I Want To Know What Love Is" at radio! Below are phone numbers and online links to some of the biggest radio stations across the country.


You may also use our Radio request page if your radio stations are not listed above.

Source: MariahDailyJournal

Memoirs is PEOPLE's Critic's Choice
Posted by Lynn on Sunday, 04-Oct-2009, 1:21AM EDT

Mariah Carey
Memoirs of An Imperfect Angel
Rating:

On "Standing O," a stand-out jam on her 12th studio effort, Mariah Carey sarcastically salutes "the man of the hour" for playing her. But it's MC who deserves to take a bow: Memoirs ranks with 1995's Daydream and 2005's The Emancipation of Mimi as one of the best start-to-finish albums of her career. Mostly co-written and co-produced with The-Dream and Tricky Stewart—the hitmaking duo behind Carey's last No. 1 single, "Touch My Body"—the disc has the kind of cohesion and chemistry that Janet Jackson used to have with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis back in the day. It's the perfect synthesis of old-school Mariah (the Minnie Riperton-inspired ballad "H.A.T.E.U.") and hip-hop Mariah (the bounce-with-attitude track "Up Out My Face"), minus the guest rappers. In full vocal flight, she doesn't need them.

Source: PEOPLE, Oct. 12, 2009 Issue | Text & Scan: MariahDailyJournal

Mariah Interviews with The Guardian, UK
Posted by Lynn on Friday, 02-Oct-2009, 7:39PM EDT

Mariah Carey: 'I try not to be a jerk. I really do'
Claims of crazy diva demands, her unhappy first marriage and that spat with Eminem - in a frank interview, the singer tells all –Emma Brockes

Mariah Carey makes a low-key entrance – as low-key as someone in four-inch heels, bouffant hair and lashes as lacquered as hockey sticks can do. It's 11pm and the restaurant in downtown Manhattan is almost empty. She has been filming an advert all day and has walked – walked! (an assistant points to this fact as to Jesus on water) – from her apartment around the corner. Carey seems giant, operatic in scale, diamonds at her wrist, a ring in the shape of a butterfly taking up half of one hand, which, she says, would constitute her style even if she was still a beautician in Long Island.

"It'll be cute," she says of the advert. "It's not a Shakespearean moment, but..."

Sarcasm isn't something one associates with Carey. She has sold more than 200m records, had the most number one singles of any solo artist in the US, co-produced and written most of her material and, at 39, has been at the top of her game for 20 years. She must be very shrewd, but for some reason – rumours of mad requirements in her dressing room, her marriage to Tommy Mottola, that unshiftingly winsome expression – she has never been credited with having much sense. It's mostly the tone of her output, of course: she has a voice that could bend steel, but her videos are full of puppies and kittens and snowflakes and glitter, all that hardcore sparkle that if you watch too much of in one sitting is like being gored by a unicorn. It comes as a surprise, then, on the evidence of the interview, that after a hard day's work she is as hoarse and sardonic as the next person.

There's some rigmarole before meeting her, not from Carey's demands but from standard secrecy around her new album. A few weeks earlier, journalists and minders gathered at the record company to sit on white sofas while her album was played to us. It was hard to find an appropriate facial expression. (Most went for eyes half-closed: "it's striking my soul".) Later, a person from Island Def Jam came to my apartment, disabled the internet so I couldn't perform any pirating tricks and played me the second half of the album while I avoided eye contact and made vague and embarrassing efforts to look as if I was, at some level, rocking out.

The new album, Memoirs Of An Imperfect Angel, is the first time, Carey says, she has publicly expressed her snarky side. It is full of snippy put-downs and laconic insults. "Not even a nail technician with a whole lot of gel and acrylic can fix this," she sings about a break-up, in the song Up Out My Face. "It was something I knew women could relate to because, you know" – heavy eye-roll – "nail technicians can pretty much fix anything." She sounds like Mae West with a hangover, and I mean that as a compliment.

The reason for the shift in attitude is her 18-month-old marriage to Nick Cannon, a singer and TV personality, which, she says, has given her the security to stop being so cautious, stop biting her tongue. She is engaged, at present, in a frank exchange of views with Eminem, whose sub-Wildean put-down of Carey ("b****/shut the **** up") she appears to have answered in a single of her own. It would smack of a joint PR initiative, except Carey seems genuinely irritated. "He wrote a song about me and my husband, and in a really derogatory and juvenile way. And it's not up to par with his other songs." Carey's single, Obsessed, the first release from the new album, is about a sad little man who throws hip-hop shapes in his bedroom and follows her around, peering out from beneath his hoodie. "I never said it was about him. If he sees himself in that song..." But in any case, she says, "I'm not a fan. There's no connection there. I knew him, kind of vaguely, eight years ago, on a purely platonic level, and then he wasn't my friend any more and I was like, OK, whatever. And this was eight years ago and he's just writing this song. For no reason. No reason."

She says her husband is still saying "he is going to slap him if he ever sees him. He boxes." She laughs. "See, the difference is, my song is on the radio and his, you have to search for it." Ouch.

If Carey's attitude has sharpened, her vocal style is as it always was, compulsively dancing around the note, springboarding with no warning to the "whistle register", which only bats can really hear. It must be hard, with that range at her disposal, to resist showing off. She looks wary. "Right...?"

Did she have to work hard on the new album to keep a lid on it?

"I don't know if I did keep a lid on it. Do you think I went over the top?"

No. Maybe. A little bit. There was one song where she did suddenly leap up about five octaves.

"I Want To Know What Love Is?" (The album closes with a great cover of the Foreigner classic).

No.

"Oh, it was Inseparable. Well, it's just a moment and it stops and goes into a higher register. It's just one little riff. I listen to it and go – did I go over the top? Maybe. I do a lot of background vocals in the upper register. I've always done that. Even back to Dream Lover." She sings a few bars. "Two octaves higher, but buried. You get people's attention." It's what the fans want to hear, she says, pyrotechnics. She'd be happy to tone it down.

The high register was something she discovered as a child when her mother woke her one morning and, for comic effect, she spoke to her as if she'd just inhaled helium. "And then there was a moment in the little kitchen – a tiny house, where we lived – when I started singing like that. It's a totally different place in your voice."

Her mother is a classically trained opera singer who studied at Juilliard and made her debut at Lincoln Center. She must have noticed her daughter's extraordinary talent. What did she say? Carey smiles. "She said, 'You're going to hurt yourself.'"

Tommy Mottola was the head of Sony who signed Carey to his label when she was still a teenager. In 1993, she married him. The way she tells it, the condition of fame itself sounds a lot like being married to Mottola: infantilising, restricting, full of luxury and horrible pressures.

They divorced in 1998 and have just about reached an understanding about the past, although there is a lot that still rankles. She is still annoyed, for example, that none of her friends or family talked her out of it. "No one said that this might not be right for me. I didn't really want to get married. But he was so, like, we have to get married. I ended up getting into it because of the wedding and the dress and the whole thing."

There was a 21-year age difference. Is it true she insisted on paying for half of their mansion on feminist principle?

"Oh yeah," she says drily. "Quite the silly little girl, I was."

Why does she say that?

"Because it was an insanely expensive house. I had no idea what money meant. Even if I'd been told, right, ultimately it's going to cost you this amount, I wouldn't have known what that meant. When you come from nothing and you suddenly make a million dollars six months into your career, just from writing songs... I was like, wow, OK, all right, if we're going to move into a house, then I want to pay for half of it because I never felt like I owned anything when I was growing up and I don't ever want to be kicked out."

And he indulged you?

"He said, OK, sure. Then I got a bill for so much. It was everything, down to the lighting bills. And I wanted that. But at the end it was bad. Aaargh. We sold it for a lot less than we put into it. I don't know who got what. I know what I got."

He got the better deal?

She smiles. "I never said that."

Carey's own parents divorced when she was little, and although her father materialised occasionally to take her on trips – hiking or to the races – she didn't get to know him properly until she was an adult. She is reminded of him every time she is in a restaurant and orders a second Coke, as she does now. "If we went to a restaurant, this wouldn't happen. It would be one drink. One soda. Slowly sipped, so that I wouldn't become full. That's how he was. He was tough. He'd been in the military. I do miss him. At the end of his life we spent a lot of time together. And I learned a lot about his side of the family."

Her mother grew up in the midwest. "She came from – er –?" Carey frowns. "Middle of America?" She brightens –"Illinois!" – and as such, she says wryly, "is among the whitest people I know". Her father was half-African American, half-Venezuelan. "I'm a black woman who is very light skinned." As a child, she was self-conscious of her mixed race, and it is still enough of an issue, in the US and elsewhere, that Carey is routinely accused of "trying too hard" in one racial direction or another.

"White people have a difficult time with [mixed race]. It's like, my mother's white – she's so Irish, she loves Ireland, she's like, yay, Ireland! Waving the flag and singing When Irish Eyes Are Smiling. And that's great. I appreciate that and respect it. But there's a whole other side of me that makes me who I am and makes people uncomfortable. My father identified as a black man. No one asked him because he was clearly black. But people always ask me. If we were together, people would look at us in a really strange way. It sucked. As a little girl I had blond hair and they'd look at me, look at him, and be disgusted."

She says she "needs to talk" to Obama about this. When he became president, she was overwhelmed and delighted, "but for years we never believed it would happen. There's a group who will never get it, never want to get it. Because you have to lose the purity of both races and there are certain people who really don't want that to happen. I think it starts with people teaching their children that it's not OK, because they don't want their kid to come home with someone of another race. I understand people want to hold on to their roots. But for me, I was a complete nonentity because of it. Maybe that was part of my drive to succeed. I'll become accepted."

And now? Oh, she says, sarcastically, "it's in vogue now. So I'm sitting here thinking, now it's cool, great."

Carey's father left her no money in his will: "He considered me independently wealthy, so it wasn't about his money, which he had quite a lot of, surprisingly." What he left her was his car. "His car was this big thing to him. It was a Porsche from 1937 or something. He used to drive it around Brooklyn Heights, where my parents met. When I was little, I remember him always working on the car. I got the car. I'm fixing it up. It looks beautiful."

After her parents' marriage ended, Carey and her mother moved 13 times before settling in a neighbourhood in Long Island, where her mother had several jobs. She was encouraged to sing; her mother said "not if but when" in regard to her daughter's ambitions, but didn't push her, says Carey, which was just as well, because "I really rebel against authority. Which is ironic, judging by some of the relationships I've had." Her father told her to concentrate on her maths homework and her teachers said her ambitions were "pipe dreams". As a teenager, Carey worked at a restaurant during the day and went to a studio at night, where she wrote songs and recorded until seven in the morning, "slept a couple of hours", and started again. Musician friends in their mid-20s looked on in amazement. "Why are you working so hard?" they asked. She looked at them, she says, loafing about in the middle of the day, and thought: "Because I don't want to be like you."

Her debut album, Mariah Carey, spawned four number one singles; when the title single from her second album, Emotions, went to number one, it was the only time an artist in the US had achieved five number ones, back to back, with their first five singles. But Carey didn't "feel famous", she says, because Mottola had her more or less "sequestered" at their house in the country. It got worse when they married. "Suddenly I was the Wife and I was supposed to be appropriate. But I was still too young to be appropriate." At weekends she wanted to go out with her friends in the city, "not go and look at foliage". She smiles. "I appreciate foliage now. But that wasn't what I wanted to do after doing a video or whatever. You want to go out a little bit."

Wasn't he just trying to protect her?

"I guess. When you see what happens to some people, I could've been a wild mess. And I think that's what [he] was avoiding." But she ended up feeling like a child. "It was like, come on, you're going here. Or here. And maybe you can have a friend come, one time. Every two months. That's just an overview. That's my little – what should we call it? – recollection of life back in the day."

After the marriage ended, she lived in hotels for a couple of years. She had built their marital home from scratch and didn't have the heart to start another one. The only things she took away from it were "my childhood photos and little things like that. I didn't bring any of the material things. So that right there was stupidity. Or naivety. I thought, let me just be free."

At the turn of the millennium, after a solid decade of success, she had her first professional catastrophe. The film Glitter, autobiographical and with a companion album of the same name, was one of the most mocked films ever released. She must have thought herself impervious to failure by that stage. "Er. Honestly? It was a failure, but..." Carey got undue flak, she thinks, because it came out on 11 September and also because dark forces (unrelated) considered her overdue for a comedown. "I've seen other artists put out movies that went straight to DVD and no one cared. Maybe their own fans bought the thing and that was fine. But there was so much – so much attention paid to me, and there were certain people who shall remain nameless who wanted so much negative press for me. Because I'd gotten away with it [until then] without being crushed by the media."

The backlash was vicious; her stage style, her preoccupation with shiny things and all the cute motifs. Carey huffs: "People are like, what is your whole obsession with butterflies? I'm like, I'm not obsessed. I like them. Can't anybody like something?" She dismisses the period as being similar to the time she got a grain of sand in her eye when she was four – "I'm over it" – and she pulled out of it with her 10th album, the critically successful The Emancipation Of MiMi.

Carey is now tentatively getting back into acting. In a film about to be released, she plays Miss Weiss, a Harlem social worker, a role so bedraggled and against type it looks like a bulwark against the memory of Glitter. Precious, adapted from the novel Push, by Sapphire, is about an obese, abused teenager who is saved by a literacy programme and the efforts of her beleaguered social worker. It won an audience prize at Toronto last month and has been championed by Oprah. The casting of Carey smacked of gimmickry, but after you recover from the shock of her with lank hair and no sequins, she is good; convincingly frustrated and keening with the misery of her caseload. She eschews the usual actressy spiel about substance over style and cries, "I looked so damn ugly! Those little bangs and then he [director Lee Daniels] put the dark circles under my eyes."

Was that her moustache or did they shade it in?

"No. He did that." She looks thoroughly traumatised. "He was very excited about that. I just kept away from mirrors. I had to do the inner work to be this character. There was a moment where I was trying to sneak on blusher, and he caught me and I said, 'But Precious has make-up on!' I've always been very insecure about my looks, anyway. Having led such a public life."

The mother in the film is played by Mo'Nique, and Precious by a brilliant unknown actor called Gabourey Sidibe. Carey's toughest scene was in a conference with both of them, as they screamed at each other and "I attempt to be stoic. In between takes we were hugging and crying. In my mind I thought, she can't cry in front of them, they'll have the upper hand and she won't be able to do her job." The director told her his first choice for Miss Weiss had been Helen Mirren, who it's hard to imagine in the part, but Carey says, "Don't you think she could probably do anything? Anyway, that was overwhelming."

At one stage, the racial politics of the film tack deliberately in Carey's direction: the director added a scene in which Precious quizzes her social worker over "what she is" exactly – Greek, Jew, Hispanic? "Yeah, I've had that a few times." The insecurity she traces to looking different as a child has stayed with her.

The more successful Carey has become, the harder, one imagines, it has been for her to get an honest opinion out of anyone. "Um. Yeah." She thinks about it. "Although I have friends in the industry who are like, well, I'm gonna be the one that tells her the truth." She smiles. "That becomes annoying."

So if she's being a jerk, someone will tell her?

She looks surprised. "I try not to be a jerk. I really do. I try to be nice and cordial. I've seen the real extreme diva behaviour and I don't think that's who I am. I think I have mannerisms and that whole thing, and I'm running around in these shoes. But even before I had any type of fame, I was like this." She laughs. "Seriously."

And so finally, then, to the question of dressing rooms and rumours that have been around for ever. Has she ever asked for kittens or puppies as accessories backstage? "No. In a video maybe." Bowls of blue M&Ms? "I don't even eat them." And the carpet thing? "Yeah. They said I wouldn't come into a hotel unless there were petals on the floor. I'm like, do you really think at 3am I give a s*** what I'm walking on?"

She hoists herself up, mighty in heels, and cleaves across the room. At another table is debris from a birthday party that, earlier in the evening, had stopped Carey mid-sentence. "That's so pretty," she said absent-mindedly, looking across the restaurant. "I love sparklers."

• Memoirs Of An Imperfect Angel is out on November 16; the film, Precious, is out in February 2010.

Source: The Guardian, UK

Last Day to Get Mariah's Album for $5.99
Posted by Lynn on Friday, 02-Oct-2009, 7:17PM EDT

Amazon.com's special deal of $5.99 for a digital download of Mariah's new album Memoirs of An Imperfect Angel ends TODAY, October 2nd at midnight PT. Don't snooze! Download it now!

Source: MariahDailyJournal | Anthony

Fans' Mission: Get Mariah the #1!
Posted by Lynn on Thursday, 01-Oct-2009, 6:36PM EDT

MariahDailyJournal is happy to announce that in addition to our current ongoing Memoirs Contest, we are also holding a special, supplemental contest and will name twenty (20) more fans to win flantastic prizes!

Get that #1 Album! All you need to do for this special contest is:
Purchase Mariah's new album Memoirs of An Imperfect Angel from October 1, 2009 thru October 4, 2009 in-store or at any digital outlet, send in a copy of your cash register/online purchase receipts (photo of store receipt, screen capture of online purchase, e-mail purchase confirmation) via e-mail to contest@mariahjournal.com.

Prizes to be given away will include the following:
--Autographed Memoirs CDs
--Autographed Memoirs Shirts
--Autographed Memoirs 8 x 10 Photos
--Autographed Memoirs Album Flats (Posters)
--Autographed E=MC² Huge Posters
--Autographed E=MC² De Luxe Edition CDs
--Autographed E=MC² 12" Vinyls

There is no limit to the number of entries that can be submitted; however no entrant will be eligible to win more than one prize. The competition is also open to international fans as long as proof of purchase from a U.S. retailer can be supplied. All entries must be received by 11:59pm ET on Sunday, October 4, 2009. The forty (40) winners and two (2) from our Twitter promo, will be announced on Thursday, October 7. Good luck to all!

PURCHASE ONLINE
CD Format
Best Buy $9.99
Amazon $9.99 (International fans can purchase here!)
Target $12.98
F.Y.E. $12.99
Walmart $14.88

Digital Download
Amazon $5.99
Zune $12.50
iTunes $12.99 (includes bonus video "The Making of Memoirs")

Source: MariahDailyJournal

Photos: Mariah at Memoirs Release Party
Posted by Lynn on Thursday, 01-Oct-2009, 2:29PM EDT

Mariah celebrated the release of her new album Memoirs of An Imperfect Angel with her Island Def Jam family and friends at Charles Restaurant in New York on Tuesday night, September 29, 2009.

Source: BET

Special CD with Timbaland & JD Songs to be Released
Posted by Lynn on Thursday, 01-Oct-2009, 11:59AM EDT

During an interview with MTV News, Mariah addressed the case of the album's missing songs. Mariah had worked with heavyweight producers Timbaland and Jermaine Dupri on a number of tracks, none of which made it onto Memoirs. The songstress assured fans, however, that they'll soon get a chance to give everything a listen.

"They're not on the album, but we have a special something planned that [record exec] L.A. Reid would be very angry with me if I discussed right now on MTV," she teased. "But for the fans, there will be more than one Timbaland track and at least one J.D. track."

Source: MTV News | Tom

Billboard Update
Posted by Lynn on Thursday, 01-Oct-2009, 9:28AM EDT

Below, find Mariah's chart positions in Billboard magazine issue dated October 10, 2009.


• Mariah Carey makes Pop Songs headlines jumping 12-8 with "Obsessed." The song is her record-extending 17th top 10 on the chart, widening her lead over runner-up Madonna (14).

• With its 14th week at the summit of Billboard's Hot 100 singles chart, the Black Eyed Peas' "I Gotta Feeling" matched Mariah Carey's 2005 hit "We Belong Together" for the longest No. 1 stay this decade.

The seven longest-ruling No. 1s in Hot 100 history are as follows.
16 weeks, "One Sweet Day," Mariah Carey & Boyz II Men, 1995-96
14 weeks, "I Gotta Feeling," the Black Eyed Peas, 2009
14 weeks, "We Belong Together," Mariah Carey, 2005
14 weeks, "Candle in the Wind 1997/Something About the Way You Look Tonight," Elton John, 1997-98
14 weeks, "Macarena (Bayside Boys Mix)," Los Del Rio, 1996
14 weeks, "I'll Make Love to You," Boyz II Men, 1994
14 weeks, "I Will Always Love You," Whitney Houston, 1992-93

Source: Billboard | MariahDailyJournal

HITS One-Day Sales: Paramore Leading Mariah
Posted by Lynn on Wednesday, 30-Sep-2009, 3:48PM EDT

Mariah in Hot Pursuit for #1 Album Sales. Can she Carey the week over Paramore?

Paramore, the Fueled by Ramen punk-rock group whose 360-deal with WMG through Atlantic Records has proven a successful new model, look headed for a #1 debut on next week's HITS Album sales chart, based on one-day sales reports from those retailers who still take our calls.

Brand New Eyes, the third studio album from the band, fronted by lead vocalist Hayley Williams, takes an early lead in the race with a one-day sales total that projects to 180-190k for the week. That gives them the edge over Island/IDJ diva Mariah Carey's Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel, which is now on target for 160-170k. With a question as to how front-loaded those sales for Paramore are, Carey could close the edge if she has a brisk weekend.

Those two are among the five top debuts next week, all registering in six-figures, including Columbia legend Barbra Streisand's Love is the Answer (150-160k), Hollywood rockers Breaking Benjamin (140-150k) and Virgin/EMI's retooled grunge gods Alice in Chains (130-140k).

Source: Hits Daily Double

Airplay & Sales Update
Posted by Lynn on Wednesday, 30-Sep-2009, 2:58PM EDT

OBSESSED
Digital Sales:
Hot Digital Songs: #14 (Last week: #12)
Downloads this week: 66,746 (+4%)
Total downloads: 876,110

Singles Sales:
Hot Singles Sales (Walmart): #3 (Last week: #2)
Sales this week: 1,135 (-27%)
Total sales: 25,910

Airplay:
Hot 100 Airplay: #6 (Last week: #6)
Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay: #15 (Last week: #12)
+0.1 million audience impressions

Streaming:
#4 (Last week #3)

Mediabase
As of week ending 9/29/2009: 86.627 million audience impressions with 15598 spins (Pop - 6919, Rhythmic - 6244, Urban - 2091, Urban A/C - 104, Hot A/C - 175, A/C - 33, Alternative - 1, MTV2 - 9, VH1 - 8, Fuse - 14).

All Access
CHR/Top 40: #7 (Last Week: #11)
+664 spins, 33.496 million impressions
#8 most increased spins with 158 stations playing

Rhythmic: #2 (Last Week: #3)
-321 spins, 34.570 million impressions

Urban: #11 (Last Week: #8)
-293 spins, 14.107 million impressions

Urban A/C: #44 (Last Week: #41)
-15 spins, 0.490 million impressions

I WANT TO KNOW WHAT LOVE IS
Digital Sales:
Hot Digital Songs: #95 (Last week: #54)
Downloads this week: 15,437 (-43%)
Total downloads: 42,683

Airplay:
Hot 100 Airplay: #89 (Last week: #120)
Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay: #40 (Last week: #47)
+4.0 million audience impressions

Mediabase
As of week ending 9/29/2009: 18.265 million audience impressions with 3313 spins (Rhythmic - 867, Pop - 661, Urban - 541, A/C - 458, Urban A/C - 451, Hot A/C - 335).

All Access
CHR/Top 40: #48 (Last Week: #49)
+68 spins, 2.359 million impressions

Rhythmic: #34 (Last Week: #42)
+257 spins, 4.814 million impressions
55 stations playing

Urban: #48 (Last Week: #50)
+131 spins, 2.319 million impressions

Urban A/C: #23 (Last Week: #24)
+69 spins, 4.446 million impressions
48 stations playing

Source: BDS | SoundScan | MariahDailyJournal | bks

Audio: Mariah's Radio Promo Blitz
Posted by Lynn on Wednesday, 30-Sep-2009, 9:40AM EDT

Wednesday, September 30 - B96 in Chicago, IL
Mariah promotes her new album Memoirs of An Imperfect Angel on B96's J Niice and Julian Show. In the interview, Mariah also talks about her and Nick's new house in L.A., her movie Precious, new fragrance "Forever," Halloween costume this year, her favorite Memoirs song being "H.A.T.E.U.," her thoughts on the whole Kanye West-Taylor Swift situation. Listen below!


[ Download an MP3 file here ]

Tuesday, September 29 - Radio Oprah on XM
Mariah talks to Gayle King about her latest album Memoirs of An Imperfect Angel and her role in the upcoming film Precious. Listen below!


[ Download an MP3 file here ]
Monday, September 28 - 107.5 WBLS
Mariah called in to 107.5 WBLS in New York and talked to DJ Egypt about her new album Memoirs of An Imperfect Angel. Topics discussed during the interview, aside from the new album, were "Obsessed" (Asked if it was about Eminem, Mariah said: "No, I don't write songs about people I don't know"), Precious and husband Nick Cannon. Listen below!


[ Download an MP3 file here ]

Source: MariahDailyJournal | Danielle | Vanessa

Memoirs Update
Posted by Lynn on Wednesday, 30-Sep-2009, 5:32AM EDT

• Mariah is scheduled to call in to Power 106's "Big Boy in the Neighborhood" in Los Angeles this morning (airs 5am-10am PT); and B96 in Chicago at 7am CT. Be sure to tune in! B96 is available for live streaming here.

• Nick Cannon was out at Best Buy in Los Angeles Tuesday, September 29 purchasing 10 copies of wife Mariah's new album Memoirs of An Imperfect Angel. Check out the video below.


Memoirs is currently on sale for $9.99 (regular price at $14.99) at all Best Buy stores. Go get your copy there!

• The digital download of Memoirs LP album from iTunes includes the "Making of Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel" video plus some footage from the "Forever" photo shoot. Check out screen shots below! Download the album on iTunes for $12.99 here and get this bonus video!







• Also on the iTunes Memoirs LP download, when you click "Play Album," it plays all of the songs with Mariah-themed screensavers. One of the themes is a journal where all of the track names are written fading in and out, and along with all of the tracks listed, the word "Skydiving" appears (see photo). It turns out "Skydiving" is the Timbaland-produced song which did not make the album cut. The song, however, will be included exclusively as track #2 on Tapemasters Inc.'s The Future Of R&B Vol. 29.

• Memoirs is currently #6 on Bestsellers overall, #1 on Bestsellers-R&B on the Amazon charts; and #6 on Top Albums, #1 on Top Pop Albums at iTunes.

• A full-page ad for Memoirs ran in the Calendar section of the Los Angeles Times on album release day, Sept. 29. Photo here. On the ad, it says: "Text MARIAH to 313131 for a Special Live Show!" We have yet to find out what this is about. Anyone wants to try?

• Reminder: Our Memoirs contest ends on Sunday, October 4. Purchase the album and send in your receipt to contest@mariahjournal.com for a chance to win exciting Mariah items!

Source: MariahDailyJournal | Nick Cannon | Julie | Rima | Dario | Theodore | MariahHoney

Mariah Says Comparing New LP to Butterfly is a Big Deal
Posted by Lynn on Tuesday, 29-Sep-2009, 2:51PM EDT

Mariah Carey's Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel, which has already spawned the much-debated hit "Obsessed," is Carey's latest mix of R&B, hip-hop and pop. And the singing superstar has been hearing that it's her best album since Butterfly.

"I love it. I really love it," she told MTV News while promoting her flick "Precious." "People were saying, I mean, just the songs they heard, it's like their favorite since Butterfly, which is a big deal."

She can't help but be excited about the comparison, since she holds the 1997 album close to her heart. "Butterfly is kind of like my signature album and, to me, my best work," she said. "It's not necessarily the biggest album, which would be Music Box, but it's a very important record in an artistic kind of [way]."

Carey knows a thing or two about taking a classic song and putting her spin on it – in the past she's covered everything from the Jackson 5's "I'll Be There" and Def Leppard's "Bringin' on the Heartbreak" to Journey's "Open Arms" and Badfinger's "Without You" – so it shouldn't come as a surprise that this time around, she tackled Foreigner's "I Want to Know What Love Is."

"You know, every now and then, I pull out a rock cover, and it does what it does," Carey said.

Source: MTV News

Rolling Stone, About Review Memoirs
Posted by Lynn on Tuesday, 29-Sep-2009, 1:03PM EDT

Rolling Stone
By Jody Rosen
Rating:

Mariah Carey, comedian? Jokes have never been Carey's forte, but on her 12th album, she gets in touch with her funny bone, adding a cheeky marching-band coda to the thumping club jam "Up Out My Face," threatening to out a cheating lover on national television in "Betcha Gon' Know" ("Oprah Winfrey whole segment, for real"); even poking fun at her own vocal signature, those stemware-shattering falsetto trills ("Love me down till I hit the top of my soprano," she coos in "More Than Just Friends"). The levity reflects the company Mariah is keeping: Every track on Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel was overseen by Carey and the ace duo of The-Dream and Tricky Stewart, who have been known to spice their dense, inventive R&B concoctions with yuks.

The result is Carey's most sonically and tonally coherent release, a mix of love ballads ("Inseparable") and sassy breakup anthems ("Standing O") that might have been her best album had it been several songs shorter. Memoirs sags in its second half, on songs such as the tepid "Impossible" and "Languishing (The Interlude)." By the time Carey's plodding cover of "I Want to Know What Love Is" rolls around, the joke's on her listeners.

About
By Bill Lamb
Rating:

Once upon a time it was the norm on major pop albums for an artist to work with one producer or team of producers throughout an entire album. However, in recent years it has become more common to create an album as a hodgepodge of sometimes mismatched tracks recorded with various producers. For Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel, Mariah Carey has collaborated primarily with the team of The-Dream and "Tricky" Stewart for songwriting and producing throughout the entire album. The result is a unique, cohesive musical glimpse of the inner life of Mariah Carey.

Flights of Vocal Fancy
For fans of Mariah Carey, the quality of her singing and direction of her vocal arrangements are one of the first things looked for in a new album. As has become common since The Emancipation of Mimi, she spends most of her time singing in a midrange that eliminates much of the vocal acrobatics of earlier in her career. However, Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel does insert enough moments of vocal fancy to keep most fans happy.

In the sad, painfully slow "H.A.T.E.U," Mariah Carey delivers one of the key refrains in a lower range narcotized vocal haze that serves to emphasize the song's message of the emotional torment of lovers being torn apart. "It's a Wrap" kicks off with classic ethereal Mariah Carey vocal runs followed by an impossibly high range note that has a sonic effect of a small comet zipping through the musical sky. Then there is the glorious vocal workout on "I Want To Know What Love Is" that closes the album. Mariah Carey fans will be standing and cheering.

It's Not So Much Fun Being Mariah Carey?
One of the key messages of Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel is that, emotionally at least, it's not always a lot of fun being Mariah Carey. "Obsessed" details anger and anxiety at being stalked. "H.A.T.E.U." explores the emotional pain of being trapped in a relationship where the writing is on the wall. "Up Out My Face" presents anger at an incompatible lover. The album reaches its most painful moments in the elegant "Languishing" about being in a relationship with someone you still don't feel you know after many years. Mariah Carey is left wondering, "Would you reach for me if you saw that I was languishing?" A musical up side of all of this emotional pain is that the gospel catharsis of "I Want To Know What Love Is" is gloriously effective.

Top Tracks on 'Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel'
• "H.A.T.E.U."
• "It's a Wrap"
• "Up Out My Face"
• "I Want To Know What Love Is"

Solid Musical Statement
Mariah Carey set out on this album to explore her inner self and lay it bare in song. Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel is a solid, cohesive musical statement that works as that very rare thing in today's pop music world, a genuine concept album. Mariah Carey has clearly suffered her share of emotional pain, but she remains standing, and, in the performance of "I Want To Know What Love Is," it sounds like she is positively resolute about heading fearlessly into the future. The recording standards here are of a very high quality, and the songs grow in interest with repeated listening. Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel is a worthy addition to the Mariah Carey catalog.

Source: Rolling Stone

Audio: Mariah on KIIS FM, Los Angeles
Posted by Lynn on Tuesday, 29-Sep-2009, 12:46PM EDT

Mariah called in from New York to the On Air with Ryan Seacrest show this morning, on the release date of her new album Memoirs of An Imperfect Angel, at 8:30am PT on KIIS FM in Los Angeles. Excerpts from the 10-minute interview are provided below.


[ Download an MP3 file here ]

Source: KIIS FM | MariahDailyJournal

Tricky Stewart Makes Memories with Mariah
Posted by Lynn on Tuesday, 29-Sep-2009, 7:21AM EDT

Mariah Carey's Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel makes its way into stores today. Tricky Stewart, the hitmaker extraordinaire who had a heavy hand in producing the album, spoke to Rap-Up.com about working with one of music's biggest voices.

Tricky, along with The-Dream, previously collaborated with Carey on her 18th No. 1 hit "Touch My Body," but the dynamic changed once the Grammy-winning duo was called in to produce the bulk of her latest project. "This time it was totally different because when you spend that much time with someone, you get a sense for who they are on their good days, on their bad days–the whole nine," he explains.

The pop diva knows exactly what she wants when she hits the studio. "She's definitely a perfectionist. You don't get 18 number ones without being a slave to perfection. She always wants to be on top of her game at everything from the writing to the production to the vocals. Everything is about her giving her absolute best."

The experience brought the two friends closer together. "There's not a lot of people that can say that they have actually cultivated a friendship with Mariah Carey," says Tricky. "I can definitely say we consider each other friends. I've been to her home several times at this point. It will always be one of my greatest memories making this album."

Relive the memories on Mariah Carey's 12th studio album Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel, available now.

Source: Rap-Up

Mariah on today's Today
Posted by Lynn on Tuesday, 29-Sep-2009, 6:31AM EDT

Catch Mariah as she stops by the Today show to chat about Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel today, September 29 at 8:30am ET on NBC. If you live in or around the NYC area be sure to come on down to the Today Show Plaza to see Mariah.

Mariah will be back on the Today show on Friday, October 2nd to perform four songs including her new hit single "I Want to Know What Love Is" live.

Source: MariahCarey.com | Laura

Memoirs of An Imperfect Angel out TODAY!
Posted by Lynn on Tuesday, 29-Sep-2009, 12:32AM EDT

The wait is finally over! TODAY, September 29 marks the release of Mariah's twelfth studio album and we encourage fans to stop by your favorite record store to pick up a copy (or copies) of Memoirs of An Imperfect Angel and make it achieve the biggest opening week sales ever!

To celebrate the release of Mariah's most anticipated album, MariahDailyJournal is holding a contest for all fans who ardently support her. We are giving away some signed and new Memoirs items to twenty (20) lucky winners!

From Tuesday, September 29 through Sunday, October 4, purchase Memoirs in-store or at any digital outlet. E-mail your proof of purchase (photo of store receipt, screen capture of online purchase, e-mail purchase confirmation) to contest@mariahjournal.com by 12:00am ET on Monday, Oct. 5. Your multiple purchases will count as multiple entries.

The competition is also open to international fans as long as proof of purchase from a U.S. retailer can be supplied.

PURCHASE ONLINE
CD Format
Best Buy $9.99
Amazon $9.99
Target $12.98
F.Y.E. $12.99
Walmart $14.88

Digital Download
Amazon $5.99
iTunes $12.99

SPREAD THE WORD ON TWITTER
Please log on to your Twitter account and retweet this message: RT @MariahDaily Mariah's new album MEMOIRS OF AN IMPERFECT ANGEL now in stores! Retweet this and win! #Mariah #MOAIA If we reach 2,000 retweets, two (2) winners will be randomly selected to win Mariah items.

Good luck everyone!

Source: MariahDailyJournal

Memoirs HQ Promo Photos
Posted by Lynn on Tuesday, 29-Sep-2009, 12:28AM EDT

View previously posted Memoirs promo photos here.

Source: MariahDailyJournal

Memoirs Album Reviews
Posted by Lynn on Tuesday, 29-Sep-2009, 12:01AM EDT

Washington Post
By Chris Richards

With Trill-a-Minute 'Imperfect,' the Very Title Says It All
Mariah Carey is facing 40, but her mesmerizing falsetto still rivals the chirp of basketball sneakers on parquet. It's as if her voice is somehow growing younger. It sounds higher. Lighter, too. And her fluttery brand of R&B seems to be following suit.

"I was, like, why are you so obsessed with me?" Carey asks before strutting into "Obsessed," a deliciously sly hit single that raises the question: "Like, why is a 39-year-old woman singing in the parlance of a high school sophomore?"

It's one of the stranger moments on her passable new album, "Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel," a mixed bag of club bangers and slow jams where the singer's youthful exuberance begins to feel puerile.

Playfulness has defined Carey's best work since 1997, when she morphed from prodigious ballad-belter to resurgent hip-pop princess. After a romantic break with mentor Tommy Mottola, the singer underwent one of the most mythic transformations in pop history, delivering a spate of bubbly albums with titles that most young girls would reserve for pet unicorns: "Butterfly," "Rainbow," "Charmbracelet."

But before Carey got around to "Sugar," "Spice" and "Everything Nice," she began releasing zestier tunes on discs with quirkier titles, including 2005's fantastic "The Emancipation of Mimi" and 2008's spotty "E=MC{+2}."

Eccentricity, however, does not equal maturity. And on "Memoirs," Carey sings like a teenager scorned. "Got you all fired up with your Napoleon complex/Seein' right through you like you're bathing in Windex," she tut-tuts on "Obsessed," her voice locked tight over the track's brawny thump. She's developed a fresh penchant for aggressive, speaker-bumping fare: a development foreshadowed by "Migrate," her shoulda-been-ginormous collaboration with T-Pain from last year.

"Up Out My Face" follows that trajectory into the club's gloomier corners with Carey bemoaning an irreparable romance. "When I break, I break," she grouses, before darting off into a ranting finale. "If we were two Lego blocks, even the entire Harvard graduating class of two-thousand-and-ten couldn't put us back together again!"

Spite sure sounds fun when it comes trilling from Carey's million-dollar pipes, but the rest of "Memoirs" feels darker -- and duller. Despite the beaming trifecta of Mariahs adorning the CD cover, this is a breakup disc overrun with plodding kiss-offs and treacly tear-jerkers. Even Carey's finest Minnie Riperton imitation can't redeem the one-two slog of "Angel (The Prelude)" and "Angels Cry."

The album boasts one particularly transgressive throwaway: a cover of Foreigner's "I Want to Know What Love Is." The original version billowed to the top of the charts in 1984, and Carey is surely hoping this bloated remake will rise up to become her 19th No. 1 single on Billboard's Hot 100. The feat would put her just one chart-topping tune away from tying the record held by four shaggy video-game characters from Liverpool.

The Beatles' generation-defining songbook often feels eons away from Carey's effete R&B -- but it shouldn't.

Through thick, through thin and through "Glitter," we've been able to rely on Carey for her vivacity -- that magical musical chromosome she shares with the Fab Four. Despite her inconsistencies, she's shown a marathoner's endurance, delivering bubble-gum revelations that never seem to lose their flavor.

"Obsessed" and "Up Out My Face" probably won't eclipse the Beatles' benchmark, but they still argue for Carey's imminent spot in the record books. As snarky and silly as it is, consider "Memoirs" a text message from a pop star who refuses to grow up: all u need is <3.

DOWNLOAD THESE: "Obsessed," "Up Out My Face"

New York Post
By Dan Aquilante
Rating: 3.5 / 4 stars

A dozen albums into her career, Mariah Carey is finally comfortable enough in her sexy skin to deliver a record that leans on songs rather than vocal acrobatics (and high notes that only dogs can hear).

"Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel" is a very different offering for Carey. The hip-hop elements were shelved for this project, and instead she delves into the music with old-fashioned emphasis on R&B grooves, dance rhythms and accessible vocals with which normal humans can sing along. This disc is so different from her past few records that even devoted fans should be careful to listen – and then listen again – before judging the sweet molasses jams.

Without question the powerful and percolating slow burn of "Obsessed" – in which she lets Eminem know he's "delusional" about their rumored affair – is the best on the record. Carey is also excellent on her cover of Foreigner's "I Want To Know What Love Is."

Toronto Star
By Ashante Infantry
Rating: 2.5 / 4 stars

The title of Mariah Carey's 12th album portends an unrealized complexity. With no high-profile guests, little vocal gymnastics and use of the same producers – Christopher "Tricky" Stewart and Terius "The Dream" Nash – throughout, this is as fuss-free an album the native New Yorker has made in her 19-year recording career.

It's not completely without cheese: there's an unnecessary gospel choir on the Foreigner cover "I Want to Know What Love Is" and equally unnecessary dashes of Auto-Tune here and there.

The weightiness shows up in the romantic drama that's explored throughout; worthy enough for Barbara Walters, Oprah Winfrey, Maury Povich and the "Harvard University graduating class of 2010," all of whom Carey namechecks.

The lyrics she co-writes are a mixed bag: impressive on "Angels Cry" the disc's most mature and fulfilling tune – "We treated love like a sport/The final blow hit so hard/I'm still on the ground" – but, mostly of the inane – "It's not chipped/We're not cracked/Oh, we're shattered" ("Up Out My Face") – variety.

Vocally, she's doing a lot of the breathless, cooing Janet Jackson thing. She dedicates the wordlesss minute-long "Angel (The Prelude)" to her whistle-like highest octave, as if to show that she can still hit it, but chooses not to.

With fewer danceworthy beats than recent discs and the monotonous song-to-song similarity, this winds up being a tepid, R&B lite effort that falls short of Carey's claim that "I'm the same Mimi/Butterfly flow like Muhammad Ali" ("Candy Bling").

Top Track: "The Impossible" is a midtempo romp with a fun-filled "My Favourites Things" comparison of what she loves as much as her mate: bubble baths on the jet, Duncan Hines yellow cake, free money, etc.

Boston Globe
By James Reed

There's always a moment on a Mariah Carey album when her voice sounds like a helium balloon suddenly released to drift into the stratosphere. She trills, she wails, she coos, and then somehow she crash-lands back into the melody right on cue with her diva tresses perfectly in place.

Her voice, with its many peaks and valleys, has always been her calling card. But "Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel," her 12th album released today on Island Records, presents her as more of an emotive vocalist and not just a singer with an impressive range. Make that Mariah Carey, song stylist.

That's not to overstate the album's importance in her catalog, though. Obviously a vanity record that builds on past glories, "Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel" is a throwback to the simmering R&B of her earlier work, particularly 1997's "Butterfly." Always fond of the big ballads, Carey elevates the sensual slow jam to an art form here.

It's vintage Mariah, as if no one ever told her about Rihanna topping the pop charts with "Umbrella," Katy Perry locking lips with a lady, and Leona Lewis shamelessly copping her style circa "Vision of Love." The album reminds you that those budding superstars can't beat Carey at her own game. "Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel" might sound like it was made 10 years ago, but there's no mistaking the artist behind it.

Carey aggressively pursued hip-hop collaborations in the late '90s, but here she's essentially solo and in the capable hands of writers-producers The-Dream and Tricky Stewart, who, coincidentally, have worked their magic with Rihanna. (That might explain the transparent echoes of Rihanna on the chorus of "Standing O.") To their credit, The-Dream and Stewart keep the songs mostly uncluttered, and many of them trail off into languid fade-outs, suggesting Carey is certainly not in a hurry.

Starting with "Betcha Gon' Know (the Prologue)" - "Welcome to a day of my life," she begins - Carey introduces the album as a song cycle about love's pitfalls. But eventually that cycle spins into circles; halfway in, "Memoirs" starts to sag under its own weight, and the sweetness that initially was so irresistible starts to get a little too sticky.

When she breaks from the album's relentless mid-tempos, Carey steps out of the goo, especially on the first single, "Obsessed" (as in, "Why you so obsessed with me?"). She cops some welcome attitude on "Up Out My Face," issuing a sassy kiss-off: "I thought we had something special/ That we had something good/ But I should've had another mechanic under my hood."

Those tracks are left turns on a record that's otherwise in love with the richness of Carey's voice. She's downright delectable on "The Impossible" and "Candy Bling," both couched in lush harmonies with Carey breathlessly gliding over the notes. (On "The Impossible," there's a flash of humor, perhaps unintended, when Carey explains her idea of a romantic night: "laying in the bed, pumping Jodeci.")

No stranger to putting her pipes to work on power ballads (Journey's "Open Arms," Harry Nilsson's bombastic-fantastic "Without You"), Carey closes with Foreigner's "I Want to Know What Love Is." At first understated, by the one-minute mark it's like an opened can of Pepsi left in the fridge for a month: flat and in need of some fizz.

Like most of this album, the cover finds Carey well within her comfort zone, eventually ramping up with a gospel choir and a clear message: This one's coming soon to a wedding reception near you.

New York Daily News
By Jim Farber
Rating: 1 / 5 stars

Mariah Carey's 'Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel' obscures any chance at vocal perfection
Carey couldn't have picked a more ironic title for her latest CD. While the singer dubbed it "Confessions of an Imperfect Angel," much of the disc strives for a perfectionism you'd expect of someone caught in the dark grip of O.C.D.

From the treatment of the vocals, to the strategy of the songwriting, to the use of instrumentation, "Angel" reeks of idealization and self-consciousness.

That's most obvious in the way the producers dealt with Carey's signature feature - her voice. Rarely do we hear it clearly. Nearly every syllable sounds like it's been tricked up by a war room full of compressors, echo-chambers, filters, audio-tuners, and God knows what other contraptions too much time and money can buy.

At the start of the opening cut "Betcha Gon Know," Carey's voice gets flattened into an affectless monotone that makes her sound like Hal from "2001." In "Why Are You" the hooky parts sound as artificially treated as any vocal trick from T-Pain. In places, so much air and echo whooshes around Carey's voice, she seems to hiss.

Isn't this how producers treat stars who can't sing?

Then again, non-singers regularly score big singles these days. So perhaps it was a savvy move for Carey to mimic their style.

Certainly, it's a cynical move, if hardly a new one for the singer. Carey's last CD, "E=MC2" also applied a heavy layer of gauze to her voice, though a less gloppy one than this time. Likewise, her last CD pushed her further into hip-hop's most melodically spare palette. The more years that pass following Carey's time with Tommy Motolla, the more she shuns her broad and tuneful ballads in favor of something melodically bare and rhythmically slovenly.

This time, Carey takes that m.o. to the extreme. Like some female equivalent to R.Kelly, most of the new songs feature no more than 3 notes a piece, repeated in a sing-songy drone. As sheer craft, it's so depressing, even something like Foreigner's "I Want To Know What Love Is" (which Carey covers at the CD's close) sounds like The Beatles by comparison.

To camouflage the bare tunes, Carey over-indulges her most mocked features: those rococo melismas and that shrieking tea-kettle whistle. One track, "Angel (The Prelude)" consists of nothing but the latter.

The instrumentation proves just as eagerly artificial. If there's a non-synthezed instrument here, it's keeping itself well hidden. Carey even carries over the impersonal nature of the CD to her lyrics. Despite the "Memoir" moniker, there isn't a single telling disclosure. Or so we have reason to presume. Though this is her first CD since she married Nick Cannon, only two tracks treat love as anything but an act of betrayal or a spur to longing.

The result may mean to mirror the youthful frustrations of hip-hop-inflected R&B but it's an antique version of it. R&B stars like Beyonce and Keisha Cole have lately progressed into something far more sophisticated than this. Coupled with the nervous over-correction of her voice, the result makes Carey seem like the proverbial aging actress who's trying so hard to cover her perceived flaws, all she does is call more attention to them.

Source: --

AP Review: Carey's 'Imperfect Angel' is perfect
Posted by Lynn on Monday, 28-Sep-2009, 4:19PM EDT

Associated Press
By Mesfin Fedaku

Music Review: Carey's 'Imperfect Angel' is perfect
"I should crack you right in your forehead," Mariah Carey sings on the breakup tune "It's a Wrap."

The song, on her latest CD, "Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel," finds a hungover Carey kicking her lover to the curb with particularly harsh words.

"Another early morning, and you walk in like it's nothing ... ain't no doughnuts, ain't coffee," she sings with attitude in her signature high-pitch tone. "Let me take a breath and regain my composure, told you more time, if you (expletive) up it's over."

But even though she's spitting venom, Carey's cooing on the doo-wop sounding song is so sensuous and sweet, even the song's intended target will remain under her spell – as will her listeners.

"Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel" is an exceptional album that is about love – being in it, out of it, over it and trying to reach it. While the subjects are tried and true, they are never tired, thanks to Carey's approach, which mixes a good dose of humor and wit with her multi-octave voice.

"Betcha Gon' Know," the disc's opening track, sets the tone as Carey compares the seriousness of her broken heart to news programs like "60 Minutes," "20/20" and "The Oprah Winfrey Show."

Carey produced and wrote the majority of the album with Christopher "Tricky" Stewart and Terius "The-Dream" Nash – and those hitmakers add their own touch to "Imperfect Angel" without overdoing it.

"Ribbon," which bumps with southern flavor, is radio-friendly, showcasing The-Dream and Tricky's signature sound. As does "Standing O," with its addictive hook.

Other notables tunes include "H.A.T.E.U." ("Having a Typical Emotional Upset"), a beautiful heartbreak ballad, and the top-notch "Candy Bling," a teenage love affair tune that finds Carey so in love she "can't delete your picture from my mind."

Some of the tracks use samples: "Inseparable" interpolates Cyndi Lauper's "Time After Time" and "The Impossible" finds Carey "layin' in the bed bumpin' Jodeci." The latter samples the R&B group's hit song "Forever My Lady."

"Imperfect Angel," though helmed by The-Dream and Tricky, still maintains a classic Mariah sound – especially on the soothing "Angels Cry" and its accompanying prelude, and the personal "Languishing," highlighted by a piano.

No one is perfect – that's obvious. This CD is – that's obvious too.

CHECK THIS TRACK OUT: "It's a Wrap" joins tracks like "Vision of Love," "Always Be My Baby" and "We Belong Together" as a classic Mariah song.

Source: Associated Press

Boston Herald Reviews Memoirs
Posted by Lynn on Monday, 28-Sep-2009, 12:40PM EDT

Boston Herald
Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel (Island)
By Lauren Carter
Rating: B+

Singing is fun again! And so is Mariah. On her 12th studio album, Mimi gets a face-lift from urban music's current hit-king The-Dream and his sidekick Tricky. The duo's textured, often quirky brand of r & b has birthed some of the biggest hits in recent memory - Rihanna's "Umbrella" and Beyonce's "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" - but here they opt for a lighter touch. "Ribbon" and crunk-laced single "Obsessed" are the closest "Memoirs" comes to hip-hop; the remainder is a throwback mix of ballads and midtempo r & b mini-sagas that let Carey wander into whispers, purrs, high-octave whistles and full-throttle force (check out "It's a Wrap"). Sassy and occasionally ridiculous lyrics ("love you like a freeze pop") bring out a playful side that offsets the time Carey spends languishing in lost love territory. She's at her best when dismissing, not missing, that no-longer-special someone, as on the track to download, "Up Out My Face."

Source: Boston Herald

Memoirs Available For Download Now!
Posted by Lynn on Monday, 28-Sep-2009, 8:43AM EDT

Amazon has Mariah's new album Memoirs of An Imperfect Angel now available for download for a low price of $5.99. Get it here today!

The album is officially out in stores tomorrow, September 29!

Source: Amazon | Garett

Important Upcoming Dates
Posted by Lynn on Monday, 28-Sep-2009, 8:21AM EDT

Mark your calendars! Below is Mariah's schedule of appearances/events in the next two weeks:

Monday, September 28
The View (Taping for Oct. 2 Show)
Location: 320 West 66th Street
Ticket holders must arrive at the studio by 9:30am

Tuesday, September 29
MEMOIRS OF AN IMPERFECT ANGEL IN STORES!

Tuesday, September 29
In-Store CD Signing/Perfume Launch
Location: Macy's Herald Square, 151 W. 34th St., NY
Main Floor, Fragrances - 5:00pm

Tuesday, Friday, October 2
Today (Performing live)
Location: 49th Street & Rockefeller Plaza, NY
Airing: 7:00am-11:00am, NBC

Friday, October 2
The View (Taped on Sept. 28)
Airing: 11:00am, ABC

Friday, October 9 & Saturday, October 10
Mariah Live in Concert
Pearl Theatre at The Palms, Las Vegas

Saturday, October 10
Mariah Live in Concert ONLINE
Pre-order here

Source: MariahDailyJournal

New York Times Reviews Memoirs
Posted by Lynn on Sunday, 27-Sep-2009, 8:33PM EDT

New York Times
By Jon Caramanica

When exactly did Mariah Carey stop singing? Even when she began flirting aggressively with hip-hop in the mid-1990s she was happy to impose her titanic vocals atop even the scrappiest production. And no matter how grimy her surroundings became – Ol' Dirty Bastard, anyone? – she remained inexorably Mariah, an impenetrable acrobat of technique.

Of late though, Ms. Carey has been whispering, as if newly scared of grand gestures. In 2005 it made for a surprise success with "The Emancipation of Mimi," one of her best-selling albums, but also one of her most deceptive. Though the melodies were straightforward, Ms. Carey was working hard, imbuing them with vulnerability and ache even while keeping her vocal power in check.

That nuance is mostly gone on "Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel," Ms. Carey's 12th studio album, which manages simplicity and clutter all at once. "Memoirs" is produced almost entirely by Ms. Carey with The-Dream and Tricky Stewart, who are masters of compensation, helping elevate mediocre singers – like The-Dream himself or Rihanna, on "Umbrella" – to something sublime.

On paper Ms. Carey shouldn't need that help, but her collaborators have underdelivered with largely listless arrangements just as she has thinned her voice to a hush. (The Dr. Dre-esque stomp of "Obsessed" is a notable exception.) On "Betcha Gon' Know (The Prologue)," she's almost mumbling, and the talk-singing on "Ribbon" and "Inseparable" is typically the preserve of far worse singers.

Even more troubling are the perplexing, jumbled lyrics full of daffy references and batty assertions. On the unintentionally hilarious "Up Out My Face," she insists, "Not even a nail technician/ with a whole lotta gel and acrylic/ can fix this, when I break, I break." On "Obsessed," she tells an ex, "See right through you like you're bathing in Windex." (Inexplicably, two songs, "Standing O" and "More Than Just Friends," echo "Umbrella," a move unnecessary and outdated.)

"H.A.T.E.U." has some of the ease of her recent successes, and "It's a Wrap" swings with girl-group melody. But it's the vintage notes here that resonate most intensely. She lets her voice go at the end of "Candy Bling," a cold splash of water that reminds us what Ms. Carey can do when left unfettered. The same is true of the smoldering "Languishing (The Interlude)," which despite its language of self-improvement seminars, is Ms. Carey at her most astute, devastatingly precise in tone and feeling; notably, it's the only song on this album untouched by Tricky and The-Dream.

It bleeds into the closer, a cover of Foreigner's "I Want to Know What Love Is," that begins in surprisingly modest fashion. Then comes the gospel-choir backup and the glass-shattering high notes, restoring Ms. Carey to the role she was born for: a singer unafraid of pomp, of ambition, of herself.

Source: New York Times

Mariah on Sunrise, Australia
Posted by Lynn on Sunday, 27-Sep-2009, 4:03PM EDT

Click here to stream a video of Mariah's brand-new interview with Australia's Weekend Sunrise that aired on Sunday morning, Sept. 27th on Channel 7.

Source: Sunrise | Tim

All Music, Toronto Sun Review Memoirs
Posted by Lynn on Saturday, 26-Sep-2009, 12:15PM EDT

Mariah Carey
Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel

All Music
By John Bush
Rating: 3.5 / 5 stars

Any Mariah Carey album carries a lot of weight – fan dreams, commercial expectations, the prospect of genuine pop thrill, the star's outsized persona – and 2009's Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel is no different. Trailing a pair of hits, "Obsessed" and her anthemic cover of Foreigner's "I Want to Know What Love Is," it's a lock for commercial success, and it includes plenty of the soaring vocals and falsetto trills that fans love her for. It's also remarkably unified, with no guest features and a very special coup, in that every song on the album was composed by R&B's best songwriters of the late 2000s, Terius Nash (The-Dream) and Christopher Stewart (Tricky); they give each song the intelligent mid-tempo bump-and-grind they've made into a specialty. Personally, it finds Carey probing and investigating her inner life, with lines like "I can't wait to hate you" and "Why you so obsessed with me?" shot at targets both public and private.

Toronto Sun
By Darryl Sterdan
Rating: 3 1/2 stars

Don't judge Carey's Memoirs by her latest eye-rolling title. The diva's 12th album is neither self-indulgent nor silly. In fact, it's one of her more focused efforts, downplaying the hip-hop and club bangers of late for well-penned, creatively produced R&B ballads that showcase Carey's powerhouse pipes without sacrificing hooks and melodies. Imperfect, but susprisingly good. Download: H.A.T.E.U., Up Out My Face

Source: All Music | Toronto Sun

Super Tuesday
Posted by Lynn on Friday, 25-Sep-2009, 8:19PM EDT

Sept. 29, this Q4's Super Tuesday, boasts anticipated releases from Island/IDJ's Mariah Carey (whose previous LP debuted with 463k and did 1.3m), Interscope's AFI (183k, 995k), Hollywood's Breaking Benjamin (125k, 1m), Columbia's Barbra Streisand (101k, 515k) and Fueled by Ramen/Atlantic's Paramore (42k, 1.2m), along with Madonna's Warner Bros. swan song, a greatest hits collection (280k, 730k). This field holds great promise, starting with Carey, who has a pair of breaking singles in play.

Source: HitsDailyDouble

Mariah to Play an Exclusive Show in Tribeca
Posted by Lynn on Friday, 25-Sep-2009, 6:50PM EDT

Mariah Carey will perform live during a very special performance at Tribeca's P.C. Richard & Son Theater on October 5th for 200 of her biggest fans.

New York's radio station Z100 is giving away tickets to this intimate, invite-only show. Tune-in to Z100 and listen to the contest prompt at the following times:

Friday, Sept. 25 - AM Show, 2pm, 9pm
Saturday, Sept. 26 - 11am, 12pm, 1pm, 2pm, 3pm, 6pm
Sunday, Sept. 27 - Noon, 2pm, 3pm, 4pm, 6pm, 8pm

You can also enter to win your tickets online! And for more ways to win, visit PCRichardTheater.com.

Source: Z100 | Chris

Los Angeles Times Reviews Memoirs
Posted by Lynn on Friday, 25-Sep-2009, 1:58PM EDT

Los Angeles Times
By Ann Powers
Rating: 2.5 / 4 stars

She shows off her talent by coming off as just another girl at the nail salon

On her recently leaked and soon-to-be-released 12th studio album, Mariah Carey and her latest producers, Terius "The-Dream" Nash and Tricky Stewart, attempt to get at something by distilling it. They're seeking the Essence of Mimi, the liquor in the oyster of Carey's famously luscious voice.But instead of showcasing this musical Olympian's dazzling way with a vocal run or her nearly unmatchable whistle register -- obvious choices when it comes to Carey's talent -- she and her team tune into a particular tone, the one that earned her another nickname, Honey.

There's a breathiness to this album that's not only sexy but emotionally intimate. Heavy on slow jams, quiet confessions and kiss-offs closer to the work of the rappers she admires than to Carey's soul sisters, "Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel" capitalizes on an underrated aspect of the singer's talent: Her ability, even when she's scaling vocal heights, to still come off as just another girl at the nail salon.

Carey's lyrics -- she co-writes everything here, except for her fairly unremarkable cover of Foreigner's "I Want to Know What Love Is" -- make this point most obviously. Even when fully dressed in the armor of her glamour, as when she advises an ex (Eminem? More likely it's Latin pop star Luis Miguel) to "pretend you on a sofa, and I'm on MTV" when he spies her walking by.

Carey still compulsively shares details about her runny mascara and her appetite for Duncan Hines yellow cake. "Bubble baths on the jet" might be a ridiculous fantasy, but it's not at all elitist. Any real housewife or working girl has been in that daydream.

What The-Dream and Stewart help Carey realize is that her vocal style also communicates this accessibility. Even at its most extravagant, Carey's singing has a warmth, a sensuality and openness to it that sets her apart from peers like Whitney Houston and younger pretenders like Leona Lewis. When she tones down her singing, those qualities dominate.

Not incidentally for a big-ballad singer who's hit 40, stressing her more endearing small voice keeps Carey from any embarrassing shortfalls.

Throughout "Memoirs" she locates that mode of expression in whispers, murmurs and late-night lovers' quarrels. (She tosses off some amusing zingers in the latter.) The tempos here lean back slowly, and the sound is thick, a little heavy, inevitably responding to the sonic shift that occurred in R&B in the wake of Nash and Stewart's first female foil, Rihanna, and their smash "Umbrella."

Even the more aggressive songs on this album -- "Obsessed," Carey's volley in that silly Eminem feud, and "Up Out My Face," in which she recovers via her now-husband Nick Cannon's specialty, the drumline -- proceed with a laid-back nod instead of a disco spin. After a while, the approach is too much of a mildly interesting thing, and Carey's restraint stops serving her agenda.

As every long-married couple knows, intimacy loses its power when the gestures that define it get repetitive. That happens about halfway through "Memoirs," when Carey's soft outpourings start to melt into each other, and it ceases to matter whether she's mourning a broken heart or celebrating a new start.

Nash and Stewart have settled into their own groove as producers; their unctuous, Caribbean-inflected, R. Kelly-inspired tracks work well song by song (especially on the sad ones, like "Languishing" and "Angels Cry," and the sex ones, like "The Impossible"), but there's a point where a trademark sound starts to be a cage, not a calling card.

"Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel" will stand out in Carey's catalog as an experiment that illuminates her place in the pantheon without either boosting it or damaging it. I wouldn't be surprised if, a decade from now, Carey cites this effort as a personal favorite. It's that kind of wholly decent effort: a self-exploration that settles on its unpretentious insights by not pushing too hard.

Source: Los Angeles Times

MDJ's Memoirs Promo Banners
Posted by Lynn on Friday, 25-Sep-2009, 12:00PM EDT

Below are banners and signatures that you can use to promote Mariah's new single "I Want To Know What Love Is" and upcoming album Memoirs of An Imperfect Angel. Thanks to Ed for creating them for us!

Source: MariahDailyJournal

Mariah on Australia's Sunrise
Posted by Lynn on Friday, 25-Sep-2009, 9:44AM EDT

Australia's morning show Sunrise will air a preview of its exclusive interview with Mariah on Sunday, September 27. The full interview is set to air the week of Memoirs album release (Oct. 2) in Australia. The show airs weekdays, 6-9am, and Sundays, 7am-10am on Channel 7.

Source: Sunrise | Dani

Mariah is in a happy place with projects, love life
Posted by Lynn on Friday, 25-Sep-2009, 1:47AM EDT

Mariah Carey could really use a nap. After a few hours of restless sleep, she rose at 4:30 a.m. to prepare for a performance in Central Park to promote her new album, Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel. In the past, this scenario would have been a source of anxiety for the singer, who has long struggled with insomnia and worried about its effect on her famously fluid, multi-octave-spanning voice.

But sitting in her hotel suite as evening approaches, Carey, 39, seems alert and unruffled. "I felt really good about myself today," she says. For starters, she got positive feedback on the morning gig, taped live for The Oprah Winfrey Show, from her backup singers. "They're really talented, and they don't give me compliments all the time."

Another factor contributing to Carey's contentment is sprawled on the bed behind her, sleeping soundly – or at least pretending to. "Nick, I know you're awake," she says teasingly, as actor/rapper/TV host Nick Cannon, to whom she has been married for 17 months, stirs and mumbles, "Uh-uh."

Before she met Cannon, 28, "I wasted my time with stuff that wasn't really real, in my personal life," Carey says. "I was always more focused on my career. But now I have this support system."

The tracks on Memoirs, out Tuesday, hardly present a unified portrait of a blissed-out newlywed. The album "was going to be about women's empowerment," Carey says. "There are songs on there that are just saying (to men), 'I don't need you.' " The first single, Obsessed, accuses a wannabe beau of "lyin' that you're sexin' me," chiding him, "Finally found a girl that you couldn't impress." The song, which has sold more than 1 million downloads, peaked at No. 7 on Billboard's Hot 100. It recently topped USA TODAY's rhythmic airplay chart and is at No. 12 and rising in top 40 airplay.

In the video, Carey appears both as herself and in a couple of male guises, one of them a goateed, hoodie-wearing chap bearing a suspicious resemblance to Eminem, who launched a media feud in 2003 by suggesting in his Superman single that Carey had unrequited designs on him.

Asked if the rapper inspired the tune, Carey says, a bit coyly, "I wouldn't ever call anyone an inspiration for that song. But I'm happy (that) all the people who have been stalked and abused now have an anthem."

Carey insists, though, that Obsessed was crafted with a generous dose of humor, as was much of the material on Memoirs. Even the angelic reference "is a wink and a nod" to previous album titles, among them Butterfly, Charmbracelet and Rainbow. "People were saying, 'Oh, she's going to call her next album Unicorn.' There are so many jokes on this album. It still makes me laugh thinking of them."

Co-produced by Carey and contemporary urban/pop wizards Christopher "Tricky" Stewart and Terius "The Dream" Nash, Memoirs was "a really fun project. We'd sit around quoting movies, having a really great time. Dream was literally rolling around the studio floor."

Mr. and Mrs. C
The process wasn't entirely lighthearted. Carey points to Languishing, a plaintive interlude preceding the album's closing number and second single: a gospel-flavored reading of the power ballad I Want to Know What Love Is, a hit for the rock band Foreigner 25 years ago. Cannon was instrumental in selecting the cover, which is positioned at No. 20 and No. 30 on the adult-contemporary and urban AC airplay charts, and climbing both.

"Nick and I talk about music a lot, and we were talking about that song. I knew that if I was going to do it, I would have to bring my own thing to it." Carey also credits the track's co-producer James "Big Jim" Wright, who honed his gospel chops with Sounds of Blackness, and American Idol judge Randy Jackson, a veteran musician and longtime Carey confidant who lent additional production. "I wanted more drums, and Randy got a drummer who works predominantly in church, which took it to a different level."

The label has furnished Memoirs with various bells and whistles, including a bonus enhanced disc with four remixes of Obsessed and two versions of the video. The CD booklet consists of 34 pages compiled with Elle magazine, featuring ads for Angel Champagne, Elizabeth Arden and the board of tourism for the Bahamas, where Carey has a home, and where she and Cannon wed after a whirlwind courtship.

Island Def Jam Music Group chairman Antonio "L.A." Reid, who served as co-executive producer of Memoirs, got the idea while reading "one of those niche magazines where they sell ad pages with luxury brands, then give the magazine away. I thought, 'We reach more people with our CDs than these (publications) do,' and we need more ideas for how to generate revenue. I'm having many conversations (about this) with other artists," among them Carey's labelmate Rihanna.

Carey, who approved all the merchandise, says, "I love Elle, and the products are all things that I like. I thought it would be good to incorporate these little bits of my life and share my happiness with fans that way."

Clearly, neither Carey nor Cannon, her second husband (she was married early in her career to Tommy Mottola, then chief of Sony Music, her record company at the time), is reluctant to advertise their domestic beatitude. In conversation, Carey pulls her shirt up ever so slightly to reveal a burnt-orange butterfly tattoo on her lower back, with "Mrs. Cannon" inked delicately down the stem. Cannon, in turn, has "Mariah" branded in sprawling black letters across his upper back.

The couple met in 2005 at the Teen Choice Awards, but started dating in March 2008, when Cannon directed and appeared in the video for Bye Bye, a single off her last studio album, E=MC2. "The first thing I said to him is, 'I'm going to call you Mr. C,' " Carey says. "And the first thing he said was, 'I'm going to call you Mrs. C.' And we just started doing that."

Later that month, it was Mariah's "anniversary." ("I don't call them birthdays," she says. "I refuse birthdays.")

"We were on this island, and my security didn't want people around me – I guess they were being protective – so they planned for him to be on another part of the island that night. But I snuck over to where he was and woke him up with a piece of pineapple, and we stayed up and talked all night. When he had to go in the morning, neither of us wanted to leave." They tied the knot just over a month later.

A precious opportunity
Carey's lucky breaks have not been limited to the romantic arena. Director Lee Daniels, who cast her in last year's Tennessee– one of several films in which she has quietly picked up good notices since 2001's aggressively maligned musical Glitter– thought of her again when he needed an actress to play a dowdy social worker in Precious, his adaptation of Push, Sapphire's acclaimed novel about an abused, underprivileged teenager trying to overcome her wretched circumstances.

Precious, which arrives in theaters Nov. 6, boasts Winfrey and Tyler Perry as executive producers and has already earned top prizes at the Sundance and Toronto Film Festivals. Carey's role was originally intended for Helen Mirren, but the younger star, who had read and loved Push, happened to call the director shortly after he learned that Mirren was unavailable.

"A light bulb went off in my head," Daniels recalls. He offered Carey the part, "but I told her, 'The only way you can do this is if you lose your entourage and come to set without any makeup on, and be prepared for me to make you look even plainer.' I actually had somebody on standby, in case she wouldn't do what I wanted. But she gave her spirit to me, and became the Mariah I know: a girl who listens and is loving and nurturing."

Carey concedes that assuming the character's glammed-down appearance wasn't easy. "I was like, keep me away from every mirror! But Lee gave me several gifts. He gave me what I needed to get to the truth of this woman, and he gave me a certain lack of self-consciousness. Because you can't be self-conscious and look like that."

Looking ahead
Still, Carey's confidence has its limits. The negative press surrounding Glitter and her subsequent breakdown stung, despite her ability to defy critics by rebounding with 2005's best-selling album, the-six-times-platinum-plus The Emancipation of Mimi. She would consider doing another movie musical, "but it would have to be with an incredible director, someone who's really a genius, because I've been burned by that."

She's susceptible to stage nerves, as well. Singing I'll Be There at Michael Jackson's memorial service in July, she was still shaken by the pop icon's unexpected death "and didn't know I was going to go on first." She delivered an emotional but vocally tentative performance. "I wish I had done him more justice." (Memoirs is dedicated "to the King of Pop" and Carey's pastor.)

Former Spin and Vibe editor Alan Light says Carey "faces the challenge that all those at her altitude face now. Nobody sells records the way she used to, even as recently as Emancipation of Mimi. How do you scale expectations when that's the field you've played on?"

Light is particularly eager to see how Carey's career progresses as she enters her 40s. "She is so much a pop artist, and has so affiliated herself with urban musicians, and that's a young person's game. It would be good for her to get out and sing in front of people more, re-establish herself as a vocalist, because that's her strength."

Carey, who last toured in 2006, did two Las Vegas shows recently and has another pair scheduled for October, but she still isn't sure when she'll do a concert trek again. She has plainly thought about embracing more grown-up challenges. Having or adopting children is one consideration, "though I'd want to be in a position to handle that as well as possible." As Memoirs' title suggests, she's inclined to look back now and then – but not, these days, with anger or regret.

"There's a little bit of almost every album I've done on this new one," Carey says. "It's like I put everything in a blender and made drinks for my friends. They're festive drinks, though some are bittersweet. I'm at such a good place in my life, and that allows me to be honest. And to enjoy things."

Source: Elysa Gardner - USA Today

More Memoirs Album Reviews
Posted by Lynn on Friday, 25-Sep-2009, 1:23AM EDT

Chicago Tribune
By Greg Kot
Rating: 3 / 4 stars

Who says being a pop diva is easy? There is the constant pressure to look great and sound all-conquering while staving off a legion of younger sisters nipping at your stiletto heels. Which brings us to Mariah Carey, she of the 175 million worldwide record sales and the multitude of comebacks.

Carey's voice isn't what it used to be, and her last couple of records were lightweight even by her modest standards, brimming with adolescent lyrics and tarted-up production designed to keep her sounding fashionable. They restored her standing as a commercial force, but as an artist she sounded adrift.

On her 12th studio album, "Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel" (Island), Carey doesn't resort to vocal histrionics or production gimmickry. Instead, she plays it low-key, and ends up with her best album since the '90s heyday.

A few caveats: The first single, "Obsessed," isn't typical of the album as a whole, with its Eminem-baiting video, distorted wordless vocal hook and accusatory lyrics. Neither are the rap cadences Carey adopts for the combative "Up Out My Face."

Otherwise, Carey focuses on introspective ballads. Her voice has lost range off the top, but she's learned how to inhabit a song rather than simply knock it around like a rag doll with her rocket-propelled trills. Rather than farm out songs to a series of producers, she primarily sticks with the songwriting/production team of Tricky Stewart and the Dream, who frame her voice in subtle, low-key arrangements. Using sparse keyboards, a spritz of strings, a kick-drum rumble here and there, and lots of slow-motion handclaps and sensual finger snaps, they dial down the bombast considerably. In response, Carey turns in some of the most measured and beautifully understated singing of her career.

Her voice is frequently multi-tracked to create the illusion that she's dueting with herself, with counterpoint melody lines. The effect is nothing new in R&B; Marvin Gaye turned this studio technique into an art form on his 1971 masterpiece "What's Going On." But the old-school soul connection is appropriate: This is Carey building on slow-jam R&B and adult-themed ballads to create a loose song cycle about love lost and regained.

As the album title suggests, the melodrama can get thick at times, and a few of the songs are a bit slow in developing, revealing their hooks reluctantly. "Betcha Gon' Know" aptly sets the melancholy, inward-looking mood, but as an album-opener it's a bit of snooze. It's not until "Candy Bling," with its back-in-the-day reminiscences, that things pick up.

Carey really hits her stride on "It's a Wrap"; she sounds refreshingly raw, surrounded by the most minimal of instrumental backdrops. As she emotes with just a hint of grit, a small squadron of Carey voices loop in and around her lead vocal, giving the song just the right amount of decoration.

"Impossible" is almost impossibly fragile, but Carey turns it into a tour de force of soft-core texture, as if whispering into a lover's ear. "Angel (Prelude)" brings out the high-pitched vocal flights that were the singer's signature earlier in his career. But instead of showing off, she's going for something eerier with a muted, otherworldly tone.

A cover of Foreigner's "I Want to Know What Love Is" is an appropriate closer. After an album in which the distance between pillow talk and recrimination, seduction and betrayal is painfully thin, it's a potentially potent gospel plea. Unfortunately, it resorts to the soft-to-loud-to-louder formula that has ruined many a power ballad in this "American Idol" era. Perhaps this was Carey's opportunity to prove that she can still climb those Everest-like octaves. Fortunately, the restraint she brings to much of the rest proves she's maturing into more than just a vocal acrobat.

HipHop DX
By Kathy Iandoli
Rating: Multi-Platinum

Throughout her two-decade career, Mariah Carey hasn't been without flaws. She is at times a prime example of separating the artist from the art – save a few very specific career hiccups (Glitter anyone?). Spraypainting her crazy all over the walls of the music industry didn't help either. Luckily for Mimi, her music has withstood the test of time and Memoirs Of An Imperfect Angel is a continuation of that musical grace.

The Emancipation Of Mimi marked Mariah's third career turning point. We met the first one in between Daydream and Butterfly when she discovered her sexy side – around the time rumors swelled that she'd eventually become a Bad Boy vixen (think "Honey" remix). The next came around the Glitter and Charmbracelet era, circa 2001-2002 when the slow mental decline began for Carey. While her music didn't always reflect that breakdown, it was chock full of overzealous whistle-tones and syrupy Pop ballads that kept her relevant at a time when TRL could have permanently marred her. Then she took a spa holiday and was reinvented for 2005's Emancipation. Both The Emancipation Of Mimi and E=MC² honed in on Carey's new skill-set for crafting songs that would inspire the girl who previously took a breakup a little too far, but eventually put her makeup back on and hit the club again. Now it's a brand new Mariah. Her marriage to Nick Cannon has left those who bet it wouldn't last with empty pockets and she seems sublimely (and scarily) happy. So here's the age-old Mary J. Blige question: if she's happy then what are we left listening to?

Well, the answer can be found in her early career – more "Dreamlover" than "Vision Of Love" – when love fueled her desire to sing and not the other way around. Memoirs is an amalgam of that era mixed with the established divahood that Carey has rightfully earned. There are of course some exceptions. The gossip-kissing "Obsessed" along with a "Shake It Off" revamped "Up Out My Face" (plus a disastrous drum-lined reprise) show that Carey is either really smart or really naive in thinking those songs maintain a fan-base. On the Pop side, they do, but her loyal following who now reside in the 30-40 year old age bracket might beg to differ. Memoirs' plentiful ballads are indicative of one undeniable truth: no one rocks a mid-tempo like Mariah. The opening tale "Betcha Gon Know" smooths the entrance of the album, and songs like "Candy Bling" and "The Impossible" keep the momentum going throughout. An attempted whistle-tone at the close of "H.A.T.E.U." doesn't necessarily indicate that Carey's pipes are rusting, but perhaps she's succeeding more with less blustery vocals these days. The album closes with a near-perfect cover of Foreigner's "I Want To Know What Love Is" that brings you right back to the moment you first heard "Hero" and knew that Carey wasn't leaving anytime soon. It's apparent she still isn't, "imperfect angel" and all, and we're quite all right with that.

USA Today
By Brian Mansfield
Rating: 3 /4 stars

'Angel,' while imperfect, flies high nonetheless
Mariah Carey albums typically boast an assortment of producers, but not so on Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel. Working primarily with hot hip-hop producers Tricky Stewart and The Dream but without her usual supporting cast of guests brings the focus squarely on the singer for what, as its title suggests, is essentially a musical memoir.

Most tracks stick to midtempo R&B grooves and slow jams, but Carey is all over the place emotionally – seductive, nostalgic, vindictive, occasionally within a matter of lines. Sometimes, she pulls the songs in different directions. First single Obsessed conveys pride and repulsion at being the object of unwarranted advances. Betcha Gon' Know, which plays like a first-person account of The Persuaders' '70s R&B hit Thin Line Between Love and Hate, suggests both vulnerability and violence.

Just as many listeners assumed Obsessed to be about Eminem, they'll also hear Up Out My Face, with lyrics like, "I know you're not a rapper, so you better stop spittin' it," to be the continuation of Carey's beef with him. That song also contains one of Memoirs' many funny lines: "If we were two Lego blocks, even the Harvard University graduating class of 2010 couldn't put us back together again."

By the album's end, this imperfect angel seems no closer to finding heaven – though her gloriously gospel-infused version of Foreigner's I Want to Know What Love Is certainly comes close.

Download:Obsessed, I Want to Know What Love Is
Skip: More Than Just Friends, Ribbon

The Independent UK
By Andy Gill
Rating: 3 /5 stars

Once upon a time, Mariah Carey's albums had infantile titles like Butterfly, Rainbow, Glitter and Charmbracelet - sickly-sweet enough to be some pre-teen cartoon superheroine line-up.

Then they started to get serious, the equivalent of Mariah wearing specs to appear more mature: The Emancipation Of Mimi was followed by E=MC2, succeeded now by Memoirs Of An Imperfect Angel, which sounds like a novel by Toni Morrison.

But, whatever she calls them, her albums all feature much the same kind of featherlight R&B grooves, pricked here and there by those wineglass-endangering squeaks which are Mariah's stock-in-trade. So it is with this work, which opens with the suggestion that it might be a concept-album following the singer through her day - a sort of soft-centred Ulysses - but then seems to leap prematurely to the bubble-bath and boudoir that most of us encounter after dark, before ultimately slamming into the brick wall of Foreigner's "I Want To Know What Love Is".

Early accounts reported Mariah working with Timbaland, and Jermaine Dupri, though neither of their efforts have made it to the album. But there's a reason why soul divas employ vast teams of different producers. Here, Carey ended up writing and recording the entire album with co-producers Tricky Stewart and The-Dream, a fact that becomes blindingly evident by the fourth or fifth track, when you start to wonder if you're not just hearing the same track over and over again, with minor variations: it's all pretty much the same drum sounds, the same tempos, the same keyboard textures, fronted by the same downy vocal timbre expressing the same small range of emotions.

Such differences as there are are largely matters of accessorisation: "Candy Bling" is standard bathtime tea-light Chablis chill-out music, "The Impossible" anticipates Marvin Gaye re-making "I Want You" with harpsichords, and "Up Out My Face" features an incongruous reprise in high-school marching-band style. Any notable moments are entirely down to Mimi herself, whether emitting stratospheric squeals on "Inseparable", swapping overlapping vocal phrases with herself on "Ribbon", or layering perfect lines of "oh-oh-oh-oh"s behind her lead vocal on "Standing O". There's no denying her extraordinary vocal facility, but it's akin to a Ferrari laying rubber, spinning its wheels furiously but progressing not one jot.

The sole exception is the single "Obsessed", a stalker song whose lyrics lead one to surmise it's her eventual response to years of jibes by Eminem. It's the best thing here by miles; but of all singers, does Mariah really need to use that Auto-Tune?

Download this: Obsessed, Ribbon, Standing O, The Impossible

Source: --

Listen To Memoirs on Mariah's Myspace
Posted by Lynn on Thursday, 24-Sep-2009, 5:56PM EDT

You can listen to Mariah's brand-new album Memoirs of An Imperfect Angel in its entirety on Mariah's MySpace page.

Check out the lyrics here and sing along with Mariah!

Source: MariahCarey.com

Mariah Dedicates New Album to Michael Jackson
Posted by Lynn on Thursday, 24-Sep-2009, 12:38PM EDT

Mariah Carey dedicates her new album, "Memoirs of An Imperfect Angel" to Michael Jackson. The album hits the world on September 29th.

"Angel" is a little different than most releases. This is the first time I can remember a major magazine – Elle, in this case – sponsoring the liner notes. "Angel" comes with a mini magazine tucked into the CD jacket, produced by Elle and featuring ads for Carey's new fragrance and movie ("Precious") as well as Mariah's lists of favorite things and interviews with her and husband Nick Cannon. It's a first, but what else do you expect from Mariah Carey?

Island Def Jam is not taking any chances with "Angel," by the way. They're starting with the release of Mariah covering Foreigner's "I Want to Know What Love Is," followed by a slew of potential singles – "Angels Cry," "Ribbon," and at least two others. So get ready for a Mariah onslaught – post-the Whitney Houston avalanche. And just before an Alicia Keys tsunami. It's the autumn of the divas!

Help Promote Memoirs
Please log on to your Twitter account and click to RETWEET this message here. If we reach 500 retweets, two (2) winners will be randomly selected to win.

Source: Roger Friedman - Showbiz 411

Billboard: "I Want To Know..." Debuts at #66 on Hot 100
Posted by Lynn on Thursday, 24-Sep-2009, 6:01AM EDT

Below, find Mariah's chart positions in Billboard magazine issue dated October 3, 2009.


No. 66, "I Want to Know What Love Is," Mariah Carey. The song returns to the Hot 100 24 years and 10 months after Foreigner's original bowed at No. 45, eventually leading the chart for two weeks.

'OBSESSED' WITH 'LOVE': Mariah Carey passes Kristine W for third-most No. 1s in the history of Dance/Club Play Songs, as "Obsessed" rises 2-1. The song is Carey's 15th (<--link this) leader on the list.

The artists with the most toppers on the chart now stand as Madonna (40), whose "Celebration" retreats 1-4, Janet Jackson (18), Carey (15) and Kristine W (14).

Carey concurrently debuts on Adult Contemporary at No. 21 with her remake of Foreigner's 1985 No. 3 hit on the chart, "I Want to Know What Love Is." The start ties for her second-best at the format, topped only by a No. 17 launch for "Dreamlover" in 1993. Another cover of an '80s smash, Lionel Richie and Diana Ross' "Endless Love," updated by Carey with Luther Vandross in 1994, also began at No. 21.

Source: Billboard | MariahDailyJournal | bks

Lyrics to Memoirs Songs
Posted by Lynn on Wednesday, 23-Sep-2009, 10:53PM EDT

Check out the official lyrics to each of the Memoirs of An Imperfect Angel songs by clicking on a title below.

Memoirs of An Imperfect Angel
	Betcha Gon' Know (The Prologue) Obsessed H.A.T.E.U. Candy Bling Ribbon Inseparable Standing O It's A Wrap Up Out My Face Up Out My Face (The Reprise) More Than Just Friends The Impossible The Impossible (The Reprise) Angel (The Prelude) Angels Cry Languishing (The Interlude) I Want To Know What Love Is

Source: Bernard | MariahDailyJournal

Memoirs Album Reviews
Posted by Lynn on Wednesday, 23-Sep-2009, 8:38PM EDT

Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel (Island/Def Jam)
Mariah Carey

Entertainment Weekly
By Leah Greenblatt
Rating: B

Mariah Carey has already found radio rapture with Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel's first two singles, the brash synth kiss-off ''Obsessed'' and a soaring cover of Foreigner's schmaltz-supreme ballad ''I Want to Know What Love Is.'' Still, it's puzzling to hear one of music's most powerful voices continually corralled into a feathery R&B midrange; imperfections are nowhere to be found on Memoirs, but neither are many true revelations.

Us Magazine
By Ian Drew

For a happily married lady with more No. 1 hits than any soloist in history, it's surprising Mariah Carey spends so much of her 12th CD recalling ex-flames ("I should crack you right in your forehead!" she hums on "It's a Wrap"). Still, she finishes with the heavenly Foreigner cover "I Want to Know What Love Is."

Slant Magazine
By Sal Cinquemani
Rating: 3 / 5 stars

Mariah Carey has always had a way with words. Despite unlikely pop-song vocabulary like "alienation" appearing in hits like "Vision of Love," her lyrics started out relatively simple. Love takes time. You've got me feeling emotions. Dreamlover, come rescue me. But right around the time she dived out of Tommy Mottola's mansion and into the deep end (of the pool) in her music video for "Honey," Mariah's increasingly multisyllabic language started to feel like compensation for her progressively regressive image–and undoubtedly sent her young fans running for their dictionaries. The album titles, of course, remained elementary (Butterfly, Rainbow, Charmbracelet), but Mariah shifted gears and embraced titular verbosity with her 2005 comeback album The Emancipation of Mimi and last year's Energy Equals Mass Times the Velocity of Light Squared. Her new album, Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel, follows suit.

Memoirs is a purported day in the life of Mimi, and it finds the singer "Having a Typical Emotional Upset" ("H.A.T.E.U."), lashing out at one-time beau Eminem ("Obsessed"), and kicking all kinds of men to the curb (basically the whole album). It's a breakup record, to be sure–this despite its subject being (reportedly) happily married. No matter, Mariah throws more shade than she ever has before, making it her campiest venture yet. "I'm gon' la-la-la-la-la-laugh," she taunts in her best schoolyard sneer on the promising opening track "Betcha Gon' Know." Sometimes the 'tude is sexy ("You a mom and pop, I'm a corporation/I'm a press conference, you're a conversation," she quips on "Obsessed"), other times it's downright cheesy ("See right through you like you're bathin' in Windex"). She also achieves a whole new level of lyrical ridiculousness on "Up Out My Face," with what's sure to be the most quoted passage from the album, involving Legos, the entire Harvard University graduating class of 2010, and an allusion to Humpty Dumpty. Yeah.

If Energy Equals Mass Times the Velocity of Light Squared was her most commercial album in years, with each song carefully constructed to become a potential radio hit, Memoirs is ostensibly for the longtime fans, her first album in 14 years not to feature any rappers and one that dips into her back catalogue to depths we haven't heard since 2002's Charmbracelet. In fact, Mariah even compared the album to lamb favorite Butterfly on her Twitter account, but it's really more like Rainbow. Having The-Dream and Tricky Stewart on the boards for all 17 tracks makes the album one of her most sonically consistent–but it also makes it one of her most boring. If this is Mariah's attempt at making a soul album, it's shockingly soulless: Despite some cool tricks, the production sounds cheap and same-y, lacking the fullness of her best work, and is there really any acceptable explanation for drenching her vocals in Auto-Tune? Not to mention, these "memoirs" don't really reveal much about the singer other than that she's capable of harboring a grudge.

Mariah is in fine voice throughout the album, and there are plenty of inspired moments to be found: the hard-edged "Standing O"; "Inseparable," which is probably her most successful attempt at a redo of "We Belong Together"; and "Up Out My Face (The Reprise)," which features a kick-ass marching-band arrangement that could have been used to optimum effect on the song proper. Which makes it all the more disappointing that the album's final stretch devolves into a mess of old-school Mariah rehashes that should have been left in the past. "Languishing" is a lazy rewrite of a Mariah song that's been lazily rewritten at least three or four times already, while a cover a Foreigner's "I Want to Know What Love Is" climaxes prematurely with a cacophony of screaming and gratuitous whistle notes–the kind that marred the closing number of her last album too. A gospel choir and half-step key change is not how you spell soul.

Source: --

Audio: Mariah on the Billy Bush Show
Posted by Lynn on Tuesday, 22-Sep-2009, 12:31PM EDT

Mariah called in to the Billy Bush Show on Tuesday, September 22 to promote her new album Memoirs of An Imperfect Angel. In the interview, Billy and Mariah talked about dog breeding, Mariah's marriage with Nick, kids, and Eminem. Listen below!


[ Download an MP3 file here ]

Source: Billy Bush Show

MTV Base UK Films Mariah Documentary
Posted by Lynn on Tuesday, 22-Sep-2009, 6:46AM EDT

MTV Base head and Mariah's close friend Jasmine Dotiwala reveals in her The Voice column today:

Source: The Voice

Audio: Mariah & Barbara Walters Get Sirius
Posted by Lynn on Monday, 21-Sep-2009, 9:03PM EDT

Mariah talked to Barbara Walters on her satellite radio show Here's Barbara on Monday, September 21 about everything from her upcoming 12th studio release Memoirs of An Imperfect Angel, meeting and marrying hubby Nick, etc. Listen below!


[ Download an MP3 file here ]

Source: Sirius | Che

Memoirs One of EW's Most Anticipated Albums
Posted by Lynn on Monday, 21-Sep-2009, 1:16PM EDT

Memoirs of An Imperfect Angel makes Entertainment Weekly's "20 Fall Albums We Can't Wait to Hear" list.


Meanwhile, MSNBC wants to know "Which artist's new album are you looking forward to the most?" Mariah is currently in 3rd place behind Adam Lambert and Carrie Underwood. Take the poll and vote for Mariah here!

Source: EW | MSNBC

Mariah on Barbara Walters' Sirius Show Tonight
Posted by Lynn on Monday, 21-Sep-2009, 9:21AM EDT

Premieres Monday, Sept. 21, 6pm ET (with replay at 10pm ET)

On Here's Barbara, exclusively on SIRIUS|XM Radio, Barbara Walters and her co-host Bill Geddie will welcome Mariah Carey.

Carey, who mentions Barbara Walters in her song "Betcha Gon' Know" from her most recent album Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel, scheduled to be released September 29, will visit with Barbara Walters and Bill Geddie to discuss the album, her recent marriage and more.

Source: Sirius | Nik

"Obsessed" Tops Dance/Club Play Chart!
Posted by Lynn on Sunday, 20-Sep-2009, 6:32PM EDT

Congratulations, Mariah! "Obsessed" advanced a notch to take the #1 spot on the Dance/Club Play Songs chart in Billboard magazine issue dated October 3, 2009. Mariah has a total of 26 entries on the chart, 15 of which have reached the top position.

Mariah's 15 No. 1 Dance/Club Play Songs
1. Someday (1991)
2. Emotions (1991)
3. Dreamlover (1993)
4. Anytime You Need A Friend (1994)
5. Fantasy (1995)
6. Honey (1997)
7. I Still Believe (1999)
8. Through The Rain (2003)
9. It's Like That (2005)
10. We Belong Together (2005)
11. Don't Forget About Us (2006)
12. Say Somethin' (2006
13. Touch My Body (2008)
14. I Stay In Love (2009)
15. Obsessed (2009)

Source: Billboard | MariahDailyJournal | Ritcher | Joao