Throughout her career, American singer Mariah Carey has received recognition as a cultural and public figure. Her public image has undergone transformations, subsequently receiving press coverage.
Initially emerging in the early 1990s with a polished and controlled image under the influence of her then-husband Tommy Mottola, Carey later embraced a more liberated persona following their separation and the release of Butterfly (1997). Throughout the early 2000s, Carey's image was faced with media scrutiny after her much-publicized breakdown during the promotion of her 2001 film Glitter. She made a musical comeback with The Emancipation of Mimi (2005). During the 2010s, Carey faced heavy media attention for her celebrity life before making another smaller musical comeback with Caution (2018). Her music has also inspired several viral challenges on TikTok.
Throughout her career, Carey has maintained having and embracing a signature diva persona, and has also been called a pop icon, gay icon and a fashion icon. She been praised for her ability to throw shade and has had publicised feuds with Eminem and Jennifer Lopez. She has been credited for starting the trend of wearing low-rise jeans in the early 2000s and her outfits have been the subject of polarizing reviews and reactions. Carey has also contributed heavily to several social media memes, being the (often unintentional) originator and inspiration for various memes including "I don't know her" and "skinny legend".
Carey has also been dubbed the "Queen of Christmas" for her impact as a holiday icon and her popular Christmas music, and has since become synonymous with the Christmas season. Her 1994 song "All I Want for Christmas Is You" is a Christmas standard and has won Carey several awards and honors. Since 2014, she has toured every holiday season, earning various achievements over the years. She has also hosted Christmas specials (television and film). Every year since 2019, Carey has posted a video on social media on November 1 to ring in the Christmas season, coining the popular Christmas phrase "It's Time".
Mainstream perceptions In the media 1990s After her debut in 1990, Carey was featured in the media, with Medium writer Lucas Cava noting that her debut single, "Vision of Love" signalled the emergence of a "supremely talented writer and performer". Carey's debut was described by Stephen Holden, writer for The New York Times as a win for Columbia Records, noting that it "came with more fanfare and promotional hoopla than [they] had bestowed on a new young talent in years". The story of Tommy Mottola, the Chairman and CEO of Sony Music Entertainment, spending two weeks using his contacts in the music industry to find Carey after she handed him her demo tape at a CBS music executives' gala, has often been described as Carey's "Cinderella story". Holden was the first journalist to note comparisons of Carey's voice to American singer Whitney Houston's who had made her debut five years earlier in 1985. Early in her career, she faced criticism from journalists that she was a "Whitney Houston knock-off". Despite this, Dennis Hunt, writing for the Los Angeles Times noted that "Carey is undeniably, unstoppably popular" calling the situation ironic as Carey's debut album sold more than Houston's in its sixth week. Rumors of a rivalry between the two artists began to spread, with both Carey and Houston being asked about each other during interviews. Carey noted "that since people weren't familiar with her, they needed to compare her to someone they already knew", hoping that people would see their musical differences. The two later performed the duet "When You Believe" from the animated feature film The Prince of Egypt (1998), dispelling any feud. The duo performed the song live on The Oprah Winfrey Show, and at the 71st Academy Awards.
After the release of Carey's second studio album, Emotions (1991), critics began to doubt Carey's vocals and "questioned her ability to replicate it in the live setting". Several critics accused Carey of being a studio artist and not being capable of delivering or replicating the same quality vocals live, particularly that of her whistle register. In response, Carey performed a special concert on MTV Unplugged, a show aired by MTV to present artists in an "unplugged" or stripped environment. Carey's performance received critical acclaim, with BET writer Paul Meara noting that Carey not only "silenced her critics with the performance", but also "had the last laugh" according to Billboard writer Starr Bowenbank, with the live version of the performance released as an EP and selling over 2.7 million copies. The EP peaked at number three on the US Billboard 200 and garnered the number-one single "I'll Be There".
At the beginning of her career, Carey adopted a polished image due to the influence her then-husband, Tommy Mottola had over her career. Carey's marriage and later divorce to Mottola received media attention. The two married in 1993, with the wedding said to have cost over $500,000. In a 2019 interview with Cosmopolitan, Carey noted that during her marriage to Mottola, "there was no freedom for [her] as a human being", feeling like a "prisoner". Mottola later called the relationship "wrong and inappropriate". Carey and Mottola separated in 1997 and divorced in 1998. Carey's subsequent relationship with American baseball player Derek Jeter received media attention, with Carey retrospectively calling him a "catalyst" for her divorce to Mottola.
After her separation with Mottola, Carey began to be depicted more sexually in her music videos and her red carpet looks were more provocative. The music video for "Honey" received media attention for showing a more sexual side to Carey, portraying her half-naked, jumping off a balcony into a pool. Carey and Mottola were in the process of their divorce, which "caused fans to speculate the messages displayed within the video". The song was featured on Carey's 1997 album, Butterfly, which was later credited for revamping Carey's image in the public as a pop star who embraced hip-hop and R&B themes. This resulted in butterflies becoming a metaphorical symbol of her impact and legacy upon pop and R&B music. Carey noted in her 2020 memoir The Meaning of Mariah Carey that Butterfly was "a turning point in her songwriting career, where bits of her personal life began to inform her craft more explicitly". The Washington Post writer Bethonie Butler called Butterfly "symbolic" adding that during the rollout of the album, Carey's "clothing style grew noticeably sexier" and in turn that made her "more playful with her fans, more frank in interviews".
During the late 1990s, Carey was involved in a publicised dispute between herself and her label. After the release of Butterfly and Carey's divorce with Mottola, her working relationship with the label deteriorated. Due to this, Carey negotiated her exit from the label with Norio Ohga, the president and chairman of Sony Corporation. She achieved this, but not before reaching an agreement on two greatest hits albums (#1's and Greatest Hits – later released in 1998 and 2001 respectively), a remix album (The Remixes – later released in 2003) and a last album under the label, her seventh studio album, Rainbow (1999). During the rollout of Rainbow, Carey originally intended for her ballad "Can't Take That Away (Mariah's Theme)" to be the third single from the album (following the number-one singles "Heartbreaker" and "Thank God I Found You"); however, Sony made it clear that they wanted the single to be a more upbeat track like "Crybaby". In response, Carey began posting messages on her website, informing fans about the dispute and instructing them to request "Can't Take That Away (Mariah's Theme)" on radio stations. Fearing to lose Carey's commitment to the label, Sony released "Can't Take That Away (Mariah's Theme)" and "Crybaby" as a simultaneously double A-side single, with limited promotion.
2000s
In the early 2000s, after her departure from Columbia, Carey signed a four-album contract with Virgin Records worth an estimated $80–$100 million, which in turn received publicity for being the largest contract in music at that point in time. The first album to be released under Carey's contract would be the soundtrack to her 2001 film, Glitter. During this time, Carey became a "tabloid fixture", particularly for her public breakdown during the promotion of Glitter which became the "stuff of tabloid legend"
The soundtrack to Glitter received several setbacks, including the original sample for its lead single, "Loverboy", being used in Jennifer Lopez's song "I'm Real", causing Carey to rush to find a new sample. Vulture writer Matthew Jacobs noted that "assumptions about Carey's erraticism" began to spread in the media after her "quasi-scandalous" appearance on Total Request Live (TRL). Carey's appearance on TRL garnered strong media attention, with many critics and newspapers citing her behavior as "troubled" and "erratic". Carey was later hospitalized and Glitter faced several additional setbacks. The soundtrack was eventually released on September 11, 2001, with Carey retrospectively blaming the September 11 attacks for the project's weak commercial reaction.
The film itself was received to mostly negative reviews, with many media outlets calling it a "critical and commercial" failure. Initially, Carey insisted that the film was not autobiographical, although it was noted that the film often "mirrored details from her life". Carey's acting was also panned by critics and she won the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actress. Several actors and actresses from Glitter have openly dismissed and criticised the film including Max Beesley, Da Brat, and Terrence Howard. Glitter has also been called one of the worst films ever made. In response to the failure of Glitter, Carey was bought out of her contract with Virgin Records for $28 million with The New York Times reporting that it marked "the first time that a major music corporation decided to cut its losses on a superstar agreement".
During this time, Carey faced media attention for other personal setbacks including her relationship with Latin singer Luis Miguel. Carey and Miguel were in a relationship from 1998 to 2001, with Carey stating in 2000 that the two were happy despite the media always attacking their relationship. Carey later explained in her memoir that there were "cultural gaps" between Miguel and herself. Their relationship was later dramatised in Miguel's autobiographical television series, Luis Miguel: The Series (2021), where Carey was portrayed by British singer and actress Jade Ewen. In 2002, Carey starred in WiseGirls alongside Mira Sorvino and Melora Walters which received generally mixed reviews, although praise was given to Carey's role. Various journalists called it a small comeback for Carey as an actress after Glitter. That same year, Carey signed a record deal with Island Def Jam valued at more than $24 million, after The New York Times reported that there was a bidding war. Carey had a mildly unsuccessful period in music following Glitter with her follow-up album Charmbracelet (2002).