American pop singer Mariah Carey, noted for her remarkable vocal range opened up in a new interview about the music she created during the pandemic, the 25th anniversary of Butterfly and more.
In an interview with Rolling Stone, the icon revealed that she recorded multiple projects in her Butterfly Lounge studio over the course of the last couple years. “It’s about three or four different things,” she said. “One is a project that I’m almost finished with that I was doing some background vocal tweaks on. One is [new] songs that could be for the scripted series [by Lee Daniels] or a documentary. And then there’s a themed album. It’s something that people have been asking me to do for years, but it’s not done in the traditional sense. It’s not done yet, but I’m really excited about it. I’m working [on that album] with some very eclectic, newer artists, as well as some legendary folks.”
For her sixth album’s milestone, Carey is releasing an expanded version of the LP with eight new bonus tracks, including a remake of “The Roof (When I Feel the Need)” with Brandy. However, she still looks back on the 1997 album and feels its single “Breakdown” wasn’t appreciated or supported by the label at the time, per Billboard.
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“People did not believe in it, or believe in me in that genre and that moment,” she said, recalling that the label feared her change in sound was “too urban.” “By people, I mean the corporate morgue, the entities that run things. I mean, ‘Tha Crossroads’ was such a big record!”
Meanwhile, any new album would be a follow-up to Carey’s 2018 fan favorite studio set Caution, which featured singles “GTFO,” “With You” and “A No No.”
Stream Mariah’s full interview about her upcoming music and more on Apple Podcasts.
The “Lady Marmalade” singer Patti LaBelle sat with CBS Mornings and revealed that Mariah Carey, Ledisi, and Jazmine Sullivan are all set to appear on her new album.
“[There will be] a lot of surprises,” said LaBelle, 78. After dabbling in several genres including jazz and gospel, the Philly native revealed that her constant need to reinvent herself is “very intentional.”
“You don’t want to become boring to people,” she explained.
LaBelle first spoke on her collaboration with the Heaux Tales singer during her recent Drink Champs episode.
“I thought Jazmine Sullivan hated me,” LaBelle told N.O.R.E. and DJ EFN. “Whenever I would see her, she’s shy and I would give her all these props and stuff and I’d say ‘baby girl don’t like me.’ My feelings were hurt until last week.”
The women wound up on a call in which Sullivan expressed her longtime admiration. “When we talked on the phone, she said ‘Patti LaBelle, you’re my everything. I love you so much.’ So, you see how things are misunderstood in this business … sometimes people wanna make us hate each other and say ‘oh, she don’t like her.’”
The forthcoming, untitled LP marks LaBelle’s first in 15 years, but she has yet to announce further details. In the meantime, watch songstress sashay through her iconic catalog for NPR’s Tiny Desk below.
Carey reveals the real origin of the “Butterfly” chorus: “If you should return to me/We truly were meant to be/So spread your wings and fly.” “If you listen to the lyrics of the song ‘Butterfly,’” she says, “that’s what I was kind of always hoping that Tommy would say to me. As if, you know, ‘Here’s all you have to do, and it’ll all be good.’ But really it was too late for that.”
Carey is still irked that the ahead-of-its-time track “Breakdown,” featuring members of Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, wasn’t promoted more heavily as a single from the label. “People did not believe in it, or believe in me in that genre and that moment,” says Carey, who talks at length in the podcast about her label’s ludicrous fears that her music was becoming “too urban.” “By people, I mean the corporate morgue, the entities that run things. I mean, ‘Tha Crossroads’ was such a big record!”
She’s spent a lot of time thinking about how to cast an actress to play her in Lee Daniels’ planned scripted series about her life — but she wants to do the singing herself. “Well, that’s a thing,” Carey says. “It is a thing! I really care more about the acting than the person being a singer. It really does matter that the actress nails that part. I’ve done my vocals, and I can redo any of my vocals at this point. It’s gonna be an interesting task also because the person being ambiguous, looking and being of mixed race, is gonna be important to me,” according to Rolling Stone.
Carey spent the pandemic recording all sorts of music in her Butterfly Lounge studio, from a new remake of “We Belong Together” to what sounds like more than one potential new album — and she may also release a documentary of the sessions. “It’s about three or four different things. One is a project that I’m almost finished with that I was doing some background vocal tweaks on. One is [new] songs that could be for the scripted series or a documentary. And then there’s a themed album. It’s something that people have been asking me to do for years, but it’s not done in the traditional sense. It’s not done yet, but I’m really excited about it. I’m working [on that album] with some very eclectic, newer artists, as well as some legendary folks.”
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Sources: Vibe, Billboard, Rolling Stone
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