Mariah Carey Wins Me Over (Again)

April 14th, 2008

mariah carey wins me over blog edit.jpg I used to be a big Mariah Carey fan waaaay back in the day. When I was a wee whittle one. When she would belt it out to Vision of Love, Emotions, Dreamlover, Hero, and even up to 1996 with Always Be My Baby.

But then things started to change. She got odd. She stopped belting like she used to, instead going for a more flighty, light sound. Then came the much-publicized emotional breakdowns. And Glitter. (Oh God, Glitter). And music videos where she would just sit naked in a tub, looking completely and utterly ridiculous.

So needless to say, I’ve been skeptical. I haven’t been able to jump back onto the Mariah Carey bandwagon that quickly. Even the first time I heard her new single Touch My Body, my thoughts were, “What. The. F*ck?” To me, it was light, forgettable, and annoying.

But recently something interesting happened. It was during the first time I saw the jokey music video for Touch My Body. Something in me shifted. I suddenly “got” her. I realized, she’s in on it! She knows she’s ridiculous! She’s just trying to have a good time! (This was made even more evident in a recent episode of MTV’s Making The Video where we got to see Mariah and director Brett Ratner rave about each other like actual human beings – you could see they truly were good friends).

I’ve now gone back and watched older videos that had previously bothered me (aka Honey‘s bizarre spy story) and understood what she was doing. Once again I’m a Mariah fan!

I’ve finally given in and now she truly makes me laugh. In a recent interview with The Sun, she talks about her new album title, E=MC2: “Einstein’s theory? Physics? Me? Hello! I even failed remedial math. I could not pass seventh grade math even in the lowest class with the worst kids.”

And goes on to say, in plain normal-person speak, “Basically I’m freer on this album than I’ve ever been… Some of the songs on the last album were cool but maybe not quite as neat as this album.”

And now, with Touch My Body, she has made history by surpassing Elvis Presley’s total of Number 1 singles on the Billboard Hot 100.

“Cool” and “neat” indeed. I’m glad to be back, MC. Keep being ridiculous!

Posted on Monday, April 14th, 2008 at 11:58 am by Soja and is filed under Celebrities & Pop Culture.