The Meaning of Mariah Carey

by Mariah Carey

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

Her multi-octave vocal range continues to surprise even today. She was the backup singer with the heavenly voice who also wrote a lot of her own songs. Her savvy business sense also included her recent surge in social media popularity as she has fun poking fun at herself. She has come full circle, from diva to delight.

The Instant #1 New York Times Bestseller

The global icon, award-winning singer, songwriter, producer, actress, mother, daughter, sister, storyteller, and artist finally tells the unfiltered story of her life in The Meaning of Mariah Carey

It took me a lifetime to have the courage and the clarity to write my memoir. I want to tell the story of the moments - the ups and downs, the triumphs and traumas, the debacles and the dreams, that contributed to the person I am today. Though there have been countless stories about me throughout my career and very public personal life, it’s been impossible to communicate the complexities and depths of my experience in any single magazine article or a ten-minute television interview. And even then, my words were filtered through someone else’s lens, largely satisfying someone else’s assignment to define me.

This book is composed of my memories, my mishaps, my struggles, my survival and my songs. Unfiltered. I went deep into my childhood and gave the scared little girl inside of me a big voice. I let the abandoned and ambitious adolescent have her say, and the betrayed and triumphant woman I became tell her side.

Writing this memoir was incredibly hard, humbling and healing. My sincere hope is that you are moved to a new understanding, not only about me, but also about the resilience of the human spirit.

Love,
Mariah

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250816429
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	11/02/2021
Pages:	368
Sales rank:	79,351
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 8.10(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Mariah Carey is an American artist of Black and Irish ancestry.

She is an award-winning singer, songwriter, producer, actress, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. She has recorded fifteen studio albums and holds numerous industry records, including the most number one singles of any solo artist in history.

She has received many accolades, honors, and distinctions throughout her career, including the Congressional Award for her charitable work with youth through the Fresh Air Fund's Camp Mariah. She is an inductee into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Carey remains forever thankful and fiercely loyal to her global family of fans.

Ms. Carey is the mother of two children, Moroccan and Monroe.

Editorial Reviews

"A full-circle triumph for Carey... The writing in this book is arresting. Carey is rendered as much a spiritual force as a musical prodigy — resilient, self-aware, and also funny, in her regal way."
- The New York Times

“The Meaning of Mariah Carey is an instant classic of pop diva lit”
- Rolling Stone

"We finally get to meet the real woman behind the image of a diva... Now, by releasing her memoir, Mariah Carey is finally free—and she's offering that key to freedom to readers who have longed to hear her true story so they can better understand their own. It seems she has finally, after all these years, become the butterfly she's always wanted to be."
- O Magazine

"Mariah Carey's memoir is her best performance yet."
- L.A. Times

"Any reader of her new memoir, will appreciate and devour unapologetic chapters that aim to take back the narrative on Carey's terms, dahling."
- USA Today

"A fascinating memoir by a misunderstood star... A carefully pieced together self-portrait of one of this generation’s most fascinatingly idiosyncratic, frequently misunderstood artists from the ground up."
- The Guardian

“As piercing and specific as a song… Carey’s prose has rhythm and high drama… There’s plenty in the 337-page volume that will surprise even the most devoted Lambs. [Mariah Carey is] a miracle, a memoirist, a singer, a songwriter — the girl’s got range. Famously so.”
- Entertainment Weekly

"Page-turning…Provides depth and valuable context around the experiences of a star... A wholly entertaining tale of a woman who made a harmony out of the discordant elements of her life."
- Time Magazine

"The notoriously private Mariah Carey shares her personal experiences on her own terms. Nothing is left off the table."
- Essence

"Mariah Carey’s new book makes it official: We are in the golden age of the celebrity memoir"
- The New York Post

"Carey’s memoir is an incisive, entertaining, and impressively well-written account of her road from poverty and obscurity to superstardom."
- The New Yorker

"Vivid, powerful, and comforting"
- BuzzFeed

From the Publisher

10/23/2020

Carey's heartbreaking but down-to-earth and often humorous memoir begins with a childhood filled with neglect, emotional abuse, and poverty. The daughter of a Black man and an Irish American woman, Carey often felt like she didn't fit in, and was the frequent target of racism. Early on, she turned to music and humor, and her drive to succeed eventually led to her becoming the best-selling music artist of the 1990s. Along the way, she endured an abusive marriage to Sony Music head Tommy Mottola, a headline-making "meltdown," and constant battles with family members, who needed money but were unable to provide support or stability. Carey's obsession with Marilyn Monroe plays an ongoing role in her life story, and she draws parallels between herself and the actress; both faced unhappy childhoods and tumultuous relationships and were victims of their industries. Yet Carey's ability to overcome inspires. The stories behind her lyrics will undoubtedly create a new appreciation for her work, and readers will enjoy glimpses into the music industry that few have experienced firsthand. VERDICT A must-read for Carey's fans, though music lovers of all genres will also delight in this personal story.—Lisa Henry, Kirkwood P.L., MO

Library Journal

2020-09-30
The mega-selling singer chronicles her life via the “moments that matter.”

Carey begins with her early childhood on Long Island in the 1970s, when she used music as a form of escapism and distraction. The fearful youngest daughter of a Black father and an Irish Catholic, opera singer mother, Carey and her two siblings braved physical violence, racial prejudice, and emotional trauma within a turbulent household “weighed down with yelling and chaos.” In the late 1980s, her music career began to blossom, especially after she met and fell in love with Tommy Mottola, who was the head of Columbia Records at the time. Carey openly shares the lurid details of her controlling and emotionally abusive marriage to Mottola in the 1990s. Through her notes on the multifaceted recording process, readers will see the author’s undeniable passion and work ethic as well as her burgeoning self-confidence. Some of the most entertaining moments are encapsulated in dishy free-form anecdotes sandwiched between tales of music career honors, personal triumphs and hardships, and health problems. Carey is at her best when her outspoken personality shines through, as when describing numerous “diva” moments or her harsh regrets about the “collision of bad luck, bad timing, and sabotage” that characterized the making of her disastrous film Glitter. The author also offers appreciative commentary on Marilyn Monroe, Whitney Houston, and Aretha Franklin (“my high bar and North Star, a masterful musician and mind-bogglingly gifted singer who wouldn’t let one genre confine or define her”). Carey frankly reveals the many conflicting emotions she has experienced as a mixed-race woman both energized by and dismayed at the music industry’s cutthroat, often prejudicial landscape. “Lambs,” as her fans call themselves, will find plenty of juicy gems, including the revelation that she recorded a never-released “breezy-grunge, punk-light” album. These intimate ruminations are impressively detailed without being overly concerned with industry gossip or petty squabbles, creating a refreshingly candid celebrity self-portrait.

100% Mariah, unburdened by filler material and written with pure heart and soul for both die-hard and casual fans.

Kirkus Reviews