Mariah Carey is giving fans an inside look into the singer’s new project “The Butterfly Lounge,” unpacking her personal journey in the musical world.
“Portrait of a Portrait is a deep dive into the personal and emotionally unexplored depths of Mariah’s songwriting using the soul-stirring final track on her album Caution as the centerpiece,” reads the synopsis.
Throughout the hour-plus podcast, Ms. Carey discusses certain moments throughout her career that helped define her musically, while speaking on her storytelling process.
When songwriting, Ms. Carey reflected on her young adolescent self, hoping she could use her outlet to express herself through words and music. With her very first single “Vision Of Love,” the singer says she was simply “writing from her heart and the realization of dreams.”
“Portraits” on the other hand, holds a sad lyrical undertone, mirroring the traumatic experiences she had to overcome in her life. She notes getting into deeper songs puts her in a different place creatively.
“With Portraits, I wanted to write something that felt like right now, this has to be the truth of where I am at this precise moment … what I was living through that’s what I was hurting through and the pain that I was processing through.”
She does admit however, there were certain parts of the song that were more whimsical and embellished in order to reflect the melody. Despite this, Ms. Carey says there was nothing more real than what that song meant to her at the time.
“I love ‘Portrait’ and I just never thought, ‘Oh, we’re going to remake this song as a ‘dance’ remix.’ That was never on my mind. It was a very sad song, very much about where I was at in my life at that moment,” she said.
Overall, Ms. Carey enjoys creating remixes as they give a song a different perspective and style that can cater to everyone.
The Rise of ‘Mimi’
Born in 1969, Ms. Carey was born and raised in Huntington, New York, and developed a love for singing and songwriting at an early age.At the age of 17, she debuted “Vision of Love” becoming her first number 1 single, and by 19-years-old Ms. Carey received her big break signing with SONY Music Entertainment.
Over the last three decades, she has released over 15 studio albums, 88 official singles, and collaborated with a number of industry icons. She is also a mother, entrepreneur, producer, and author recognized as a New York Times #1 Best Seller.
She is best known for chart-toppers including “Always Be My Baby,” “Dreamlover,” “Fantasy,” “I'll Be There,” and “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” which has become the most successful post-1963 Christmas staple.
