- Hi, I'm Mariah Carey.
And we're about to throw it back with Billboard.
(upbeat music)
Yay (sighs)
Okay, so looking at this album cover.
My first album, my very first album cover.
Mariah Carey.
I know, I got really creative with the title.
Honestly, I'm looking at some really bad retouching
that they did on my teeth for some reason.
I don't know why they did that.
It wasn't necessary.
(laughs)
And my little brother/nephew once told me that I look
like George Washington in this photo.
I think it's the hair, I don't know.
So every time I look at this picture, all I think about
is the fact that he told me that I look like
George Washington, I don't know.
♪ And you know you can survive ♪
♪ So when you feel like hope is gone ♪
I'm looking at this particular shot going
I would now kill somebody for leaving that shot in here.
Because it's just a full-on shot from my bad side.
And it's something that I would've definitely removed
but back then they kind of told me everything
like tell me what to do.
But I would love to re-edit this video and this performance.
The whole thing.
But, I'm very thankful for this song.
Let me be serious for a minute.
I'm really proud of it because of the fact that
it has endured for a really long time and
a lot of people have told me that it helped
save their lives and they've had it tattooed on their bodies
and just persevered through difficult times
and I've performed it at the benefit on 9/11/2001.
A tribute to heroes was the name of the show.
I've performed it at the inauguration of President Obama.
So as a songwriter it's a huge deal for me
that I have the song.
So for me to nitpick the video about my bad side
is kind of rude, but I'll give myself break.
♪ Christmas ♪
♪ This is all I'm askin' for ♪
♪ I just wanna see my baby ♪
This is so festive, you can't say it's not festive!
I don't love every shot in this video.
But it's the first Christmas song I ever wrote,
and it makes me happy every single year that I listen to it.
And when people tell me that
I'm a part of their holiday celebrations
and that I have been part of their holiday memories
and that we're gonna continue doing this
and when I meet little kids
and they're singing the song to me
and they're like four years old,
it's the most incredible feeling ever.
So thank you anybody out there that's ever heard
and loved the song.
♪ Sweet sweet fantasy baby ♪
Okay, I rode the rollercoaster at Rye Playland
I don't know how many times to do this video.
I directed this video actually.
I don't know if anybody really knows that or what they know.
And then when ODB was there it was his idea
to put on the wig and to tie up the clown
but I had one of the best times making a video
prior to the next chapter of my life
which was a butterfly era and honey
and all those videos that followed that
I had a great time cause I got to ride the rollercoaster
that many times and I love riding rollercoasters
and I got to hang out with ODB upstate New York
when he went wig shopping
and we just had the best time ever.
So Heartbreaker is one of my favorite videos
that I've ever done, I had the best time.
We recreated
I don't know how to explain it.
We created a character called Bianca.
Christopher Buckle, the fabulous Christopher Buckle
did a total transformation of me and created
this version of me, dark haired version,
the villainous version of Mariah Carey
and her name is Bianca.
And we have a fight scene, Jackie Chan choreographed
the fight scene and it was so much fun.
Also I ripped off the top of my jeans for this video
and I noticed that the low whatever you want to call it.
Low rider? What are they called? The jeans with a lower
Cause other than that the jeans people were wearing
were high waisted and and I was like why?
Why are we doing a high waisted jean, that's not flattering.
I didn't understand it. So me and my stylist then,
Stylist Tonjua Twist may she rest in peace,
we cut the top of the jeans off and ripped them off.
We cut them and then ripped them.
Then I did the video with those jeans on and afterwards
I went to the studio and I remember
DJ Clue and my friend Tracy were there and they were like
where did you get the jeans?
And then I noticed the next really soon after
that all these designers were doing the same cut of jeans
and I'm like, why did nobody patent this?
But it's okay, I made it through
and I still hate high waisted jeans.
One of my favorite collaborations I've ever done
was with the incomparable Whitney Houston.
We did a song for the movie The Prince of Egypt
called When You Believe.
I'm looking at this picture which is from
our live performance at the Oscars.
Ms. Debbie Allen who I love with all my heart
told us that we both had to wear white, and I was like okay.
So I remember that Joan Rivers made me feel horrible.
She was like I heard you gained weight,
but you look great to me.
And I'm like thank you, now I have to go sing
live at the Oscars with Whitney Houston on stage
in front of the entire world.
But anyway, God bless her.
This was one of my favorite nights ever.
Working with Whitney was an experience I'll never forget
and it was a bonding experience.
Before that when we did the video for When You Believe
we really
put all the whatever,
the rumors and nonsense behind us.
There was nothing, we didn't know each other.
Once we knew each other, we had the best time together
and I was honored to work with her
so when I look at this picture I'm really proud
that we had this moment together.
♪ ...part of me ♪
♪ It's still so hard to believe ♪
Okay, so there's a lot of things
I could say about this video.
When I got together with Jermaine Dupri for the album
The Emancipation of Mimi I had already written
and collaborated with a lot of other people for that album
and then L.A. Reid said to me have you gone in with Jermaine
what's up with that and the truth is I hadn't
gone in with Jermaine yet for that album.
And I had this whole drama with Glitter and it was like
when is she going to have a huge comeback
cause we can't like her again until it's cool to like her.
God forbid you have your own opinion
and you just like the album Charmbracelet
which is one of my personal favorites but anyway.
When we wrote this song, it was the most focused writing
session we had ever had together.
I was listening to the rough
all the way home on the airplane
and I was like there is something special about this song
and then it became I think the number one song of the decade
for the early 2000s on the Billboard charts.
♪ So, oh, oh oh oh ♪
♪ Why you so obsessed with me ♪
♪ Boy I want to know ♪
Okay, so I'm not gonna talk about the writing process
for this song because
there was a very specific inspiration for it.
♪ Oh oh oh ♪
(laughs)
I had the best time making this video
because once again Christopher Buckle
recreated, or not recreated, created
this character which is not anybody specific.
But it is the stalker, the male stalker.
And I have never ever ever put on any kind of
even a blazer,
I don't do that.
So this was a huge moment and
even now that I have twins and my twins are eight years old
they look at this and they're like how is that you?
(laughs)
I'll never forget the making of that video or the song
it actually had a huge resurgence in 2019, this year.
On Tik Tok where there was this Obsessed challenge
and it became a really big thing
and my kids were like what is this, let's do this challenge
the Obsessed challenge is huge, we can't believe it.
I guess it felt like a new song to people.
It had peaked at number 7
originally on the Billboard Hot 100.
Not that that's low,
but compared to a number 1 I guess it's low.
It became my most streamed song of the past year.
So that's kind of a big deal
considering that it came out in 2009.
So, fun fact about Obsessed.