Carey is the first recording artist to have her first five singles top the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and was named the best selling female artist of the millennium by the 2000 World Music Awards, after selling 200 million albums.

She also has the most No. 1 singles for a solo artist in the United States, so any album featuring Carey’s best love songs can’t be a bad album. It’s impossible - unless Carey’s high octave, window shattering voice and huge choruses aren’t your thing.

Although Carey has already produced two greatest hits albums, including # 1s and Greatest Hits, Mariah: The Ballads is simply a collection of Carey’s most popular love songs, the ballads. The album features songs Carey sang early in her career from her time at Columbia Records, while excluding her more recent music with her current label, Island Records.

While her current music is mostly R&B, The Ballads features Carey’s early days in pop, showing off her softer side and focusing on her vocals.

Including some of what are considered to be the best ballads of all time, Mariah: The Ballads is an album any one can enjoy - not only the Carey aficionados. Carey’s best are all there from “Without You” to “My All” to “Always Be My Baby.”

The album also has Carey’s famous duets that diversify the album, including “One Sweet Day” with Boyz II Men, “I’ll Be There” with Trey Lorenz, “Endless Love” with Luther Vandross, “When You Believe” with Whitney Houston and “How Much” with Usher.

The first single on the album is, of course, “Hero,” one of Carey’s signature songs from her fourth album, The Music Box.

Starting the greatest hits album - after Mariah’s nearly 20 years in music with the ups and downs of her career and the public displays of her worst breakups - “Hero” can be taken as a symbol of Carey’s own inner strength, her ability to rise beyond discouragements, and still produce good music.

source: The Good 5 Cent Cigar

If you’ve been musically trained you know that octaves are arranged C D E F G A B and then C’. There are 8 octaves on the piano and to count octaves you start with the lowest note and count to the same note in the next octave until you get the range. Now in order for Mariah to sing all eight octaves she’d have to be able to sing several notes lower than what any man can which is impossible even for someone with her range. The lowest most men can sing is a G2 while there are those like Viktor Wichniakov (a male opera singer) who can sing C2 (C1 in European standard). Mariah’s lowest note she ever sung was C3 at the end of My All, and the beginning of Emotions, and You’re So Cold–not A2 or D3 like some people keep saying.

A singer’s true range is measured by the number of notes they can actually SING–not necessarily HIT. You see, in actuality Mariah can only sing up to D7. The E7 she hit on Emotions (album version), the F7 she hit on All in Your Mind, and the G7 she hit in 2 live versions of Emotions were all done when she was either congested or sick. You see in order to access what is called the flageolet register the vocal cords are held closely together and a high pitched sound moves up into the sinus cavities. When a singer is sick or congested the vocal cords become swollen making it easier to access this range but it can throw a singer off a little when this happens. This explains why none of Mariah’s songs with the exception of Emotions, and All In Your Mind have been written to go higher than D7. Mariah herself has said that she’s hit notes she can no longer do. If you’ve ever heard the clip of Mariah singing All In Your Mind acapella you’ll notice she can’t go higher than D7. You can find that clip by going here

You’ll also find a clip of Mariah singing her G7 and a G7# (it was unintentional because it didn’t match the melody) But I doubt some of the accuracy of what the author has written about Mariah’s range. That’s why I’m telling the information now so that nobody will get confused. Now if you have been paying attention Mariah’s range (C3 to D7) is 4 octaves and 1 note.

Next Mariah has 2 top vocal registers she can use. One is called the “Whistle Voice” and the other is called “Super Head Voice”. Contrary to popular belief whistle voice can be used by both females AND males. That’s right–MEN can do it too. The only reason hardly anybody uses it is because the voice can be hard to control since the sound is moving into the nasal cavity and so it sounds soft and has a low volume. Super head voice on the other hand has a higher volume and a sharper sound and it doesn’t really move up in the sinus cavities. It DOES take a little more effort than whistle voice but it’s easier to control. It also sounds higher than whistle voice but it’s the EXACT same range–whistle voice has a lower volume because the tone of the voice is airy while super head voice isn’t.

And guys CAN sing as high as women. And woman CAN learn to sing as low as men (alto’s are most likely able to do this). The lower your is the wider you can develop your range with practice. If you’ve heard of Adam Lopez then you probably know he can sing D7 using super head voice. Technically he doesn’t hold the record for highest note ever because Betty Wright also uses super head voice and when she appeared on Making the Band II (when she was teaching Sara how to control her voice) she sang Eb7 which is higher than D7 by a semitone so if anybody holds the record for singing the highest note ever it’s neither Mariah or Adam it’s Betty Wright. Mariah could HIT those notes when she was sick but she couldn’t hold them because THE NOTES IN THE 7TH OCTAVE ARE ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE TO ACTUALLY SING. I don’t expect many people to know this but this is the reason why no opera has ever been written in the 7th octave.

In conclusion I would also like to say that it IS possible to have a range wider than Mariah (Mariah fans don’t hate me for this because I’m a fan of her too) I have a range wider than Mariah (since I’m a baritone) I can sing down to a Bb1 and up to a G6 or higher) But neither Whitney Houston or Christina Aguilera have a wider range. Whitney has a 3 octave range (C3 to C6–she did C6 on How Will I Know) and Christina has close to a 3 and a half octave range (E3 to G6#–the note she sang on The Christmas Song was D6 in super head voice).

source: Pop Dirt, 18 August 2004

A source tells the New York Daily News, “Jerry stood by Mariah through her breakdown (in 2001). He believed in her when other people lost faith.

“(After the success of Mimi) she wanted to distance herself from anybody who saw her in those dark times.”

Blair claims Carey owes him a percentage of her record and tour profits.

The source adds, “She hasn’t paid him in two years. He had to call in lawyers.”

Blair is now working with Carey’s ex-husband, music mogul Tommy Mottola at his Casablanca Records label.

The My Humps hitmaker explains, “Mariah was cool. She came into the studio wearing a big ball gown. “She was like, ‘I’m so sorry! I know everybody thinks I’m a diva, but I’m wearing this because I’ve just come from a party and I didn’t want to go home and change.’ She’s a real diva in her own right, but she is real cool.”
The producer admits he can handle the occasional diva, but insists the big stars he agrees to work with leave their bodyguards at home. He adds, “I remind them not to take themselves so seriously: ‘When you come into the studio, leave the bodyguards in the f**king lobby. Why bring them into the studio? Is the mike going to choke you? Relax.’ ”

Source: ContactMusic, MCArchives.

Who will raise their “Umbrella” this fall and have the back-to-school jam that rivals Rihanna’s unstoppable summer hit? We’re not sure (though we suspect we know what Kanye’s answer would be), so we’ve laid out the contenders for you. (These release dates and album details are based on MTV News reporting - information supplied by labels is subject to change, of course.)

November 20 - Heavyweights: They don’t get any bigger than Mariah Carey, and while details on her yet-untitled follow-up to the career-reviving The Emancipation of Mimi album are scarce, she recently told fans via a voicemail on her Web site that she’s got 10 songs in the bag and is planning to work with old pal Jermaine Dupri.

November to-be-announced: Yet-untitled albums by Jennifer Hudson, Spice Girls (greatest hits), Daft Punk (live), Mary J. Blige, Slim Thug, Gnarls Barkley and Sean Paul.

Source: MC Archives, MTV News

Transcript

“Hello! I know I haven’t called you since 1802. Actually, I haven’t called anyone. I’ve been really, really busy and when I do get free time, I’m on vocal rest so I can like get back in the studio for 20 billion hours. So everybody’s mad at me but whatever (laughs). I did get a couple of days of vacation in Capri which was a stone groove and I was happy ’cause I hadn’t been there since I was recording a Mimi record like three years ago. So that was nice for me.

Anyway, I was just sitting here and I was looking into some fan books and like letters and stuff that I’ve gotten from you guys over the years and I was like, you know, reminiscing and just realizing how stellar you are and how funny. Some of you guys are stone comedians you do notice, right? (laughs). So funny you are and how happy you make me and I decided that I needed to give you a nice call to check in and tell you that everything is fantastic.

Let’s see what’s going on. I’m not allowed to talk about Tennessee because they want the performance to speak for itself and everything like that but that is obviously something that I’m excited about. What can I talk about? Let’s think. I’m very, very, very excited about, I have a fragrance came out. Remember I was telling that it was like I had so much fun you know working on it and stuff like that and so it’s really, I’m very looking forward to see how you guys like it, should be in stores by September and hopefully you like it as much as I do.

And yeah, last but not least, the nice songs that I’ve been working on, I quite enjoy them. I’ve written my 10th so far and like about…and I guess I’m going to Atlanta next week to work with JD so that should be a stone groove/hit wonder or at least a stone groove, hopefully (laughs). But that’s about it. I’m trying to get the record out this year so I’m gonna be holed up in the studio for the next few months and I will see you when I’m done. Also, there are bleakness ’cause my trainer is living with me and it’s bleak because I can’t eat anything good and she makes me workout after I’ve been in the studio for like 80 trillion hours but whatever. We love her, and we love everybody.

So I will check in again but please don’t take it personally if it’s like a little bit sporadic because it’s just because I’m working and I’m trying hard to get the nice album out by the end of this year. That is the goal. So I’m gonna wrap it up now but I love you as always. Love you, appreciate you, and I enjoy you and I will chat with you soon. Buh-bye!”

Source: MariahCarey.com | Transcript: MariahDailyJournal

Carey has been recording all over the world, including on her beloved Isle of Capri, where she was recently photographed cavorting on designer Roberto Cavalli’s yacht. In fact, she’s been working her ample posterior off, and has as many as eight finished tracks in the can, sources tell me. “She’s working with all different producers and writers,” a source said. “And she sounds great.”

Meanwhile, Houston is said to have two completed tracks finished and is getting ready for a third. Her album still has no name or release date, but all systems continue to be “go” according to insiders. The big news about Whitney is that she may be ready to quit living in Los Angeles, where she’s been for more than a year while kicking drugs and starting her life over.
The talk now is that this fall, Houston will resume living in Atlanta, the place where she had many painful experiences during her turbulent marriage to Bobby Brown.

Thanks to MC Archives for this update.

Alexis wrote about the song: “I can see how this track didn’t make TEOM. The chorus is not as catchy or as developed as the other tunes on the record. Also, TEOM had a balance of power vocals and softer tunes, this middle-of-the-road record could have leaned the album too far towards the latter.”download “I Feel It”…

Thanks to MC Archives.

I just wanted to touch base with you about a new Mariah Carey virtual dress up doll I just had put on my website.  I noticed that you mentioned her on your site so I thought you might be interested.  You’re more than welcome to use the doll on your site if you’d like. Here’s a link to the Mariah Carey doll.