MARIA CAREY: THE LATEST INTERVIEW ON HER NEW CD

Mariah Carey - Tim Etheridge
July 14, 2005, 1:02:18 Mariah Carey - stunningly beautiful, hugely talented, the most successful female recording artist, often described as a diva,yet Mariah Carey remains intensely private. Femalefirst takes a close look at Mariah Carey in this exclusive special feature...

Mariah Carey is set to storm the UK charts this week with her new single 'We Belong Together' as her popularity and place in the world of celebrity soars to new levels.

Every day Mariah's reported diva demands and alleged outrageous behaviour is splashed across newspapers the world over, yet still she remains one of the most popular singers of all time.

The second hit from her new album 'The Emancipation of Mimi' has already seen her top America's single chart for the past two weeks. The album is clearly a deeply personal album for Mariah, both in its title and her need for it to be successful after she has endured a tough few years both personally and professionally.

The sexy singer has recently asked fans to call her by the nickname Mimi. She explained: "Mimi is a very personal nickname only used by those closest to me. It's just one of those little things that I've kept for myself in an attempt to have some delineation between a public persona and a private life."

But now Mariah has revealed her personal nickname in a bid to show fans the 'real' her. She said in a message posted on her website: "I am letting my guard down and inviting my fans to be that much closer to me. Most importantly, I am celebrating the fact that I've grown into a person and artist who no longer feels imprisoned by my insecurities or compelled to try and live up to someone else's vision of 'Mariah Carey.' I now feel I can honestly say, 'This is me, the real me, take it or leave it.'" The album's title, with its reference to Mariah's personal freedom hints that her troubles extricating herself from her marriage to Sony boss Tommy Mottola and record deals with Sony and Virgin are firmly behind her. Some critics may have struggled to sympathise with a singer who received a reported £15.5 million payoff from Virgin.

However, if she had fulfilled that contract she would have allegedly received three times the cash from Virgin, who dropped her like a hot potato after both the film and album entitled 'Glitter' flopped in 2001. The following year's 'Charmbracelet' did nothing to dispel the idea that Carey's career was now on an unstoppable downward spiral, like it's predecessor it was panned by critics and ignored by fans. But three years on and the pop princess appears to have made a remarkable comeback, sales are up, fans and critics are happy again. The 'The Emancipation of Mimi' has dance tunes, mid tempo and slow jams to fit every mood, lyrically it is a superb album. Mariah's voice is a pleasure to listen to, as she is now following a simpler singing style rather than trying to hit a ridiculous number of notes whenever she opens her mouth. Mariah confirms: "I no longer feel the pressure to bring the house down from the first note."

The New York born singer has endured a rough few years personally, she was treated for exhaustion after the 'Glitter' debacle and since her divorce has made it absolutely clear that her marriage to a domineering father-figure 20 years her senior, Sony record boss Tommy Mottola, was little short of hellish.

At times she has likened the relationship to imprisonment. The pop diva explained how their weekend trips to the country town of Hillsdale made her feel bored and trapped.

Mariah said: "Tommy loved it. He was very much like, 'Let's go stare at the foliage'. After a while though, I got to calling it Hills-jail. After that first three-and-a-half-hour ride in the car, when the radio station stops about an hour into the journey we would make every Thursday." And the 35-year-old revealed that the mismatched couple could not even agree on musical taste.

She added: "I would want to put on my Wu-Tang Clan CD and he would want to listen to Frank Sinatra."

In the past the pop babe has gone even further confessing her marriage almost killed her, saying the shackles of being married to the millionaire almost pushed her over the edge.

She said: "People think I've had this fairy-tale life. That I met this rich prince who put me in a mansion and made me a star. It wasn't that way. In fact it almost killed me."

The diva said although she lived in the lap of luxury the relationship was emotionally abusive. "I was in a beautiful house, surrounded by beautiful things, but I couldn't be who I really was. There were moments when I thought I was going to die in this relationship."

But the sexy star says the 2001 breakdown helped to get her back on track. She said: "It forced me to put the breaks on everything and admit my life wasn't working. I had to revaluate myself and get re-centred." Mariah's new work is taking her career back to the heights of the nineties and she it looks like she is ready to start dating again.

The curvy singer invited Robbie Williams on a dinner date after he impressed her with his show-stopping Live 8 performance.

However her insensitive demands for water onstage at Live 8 brought her image as a demanding diva into a sharp focus.

The star never travels without a huge wardrobe and extensive entourage, she is famed for outrageous riders at her shows. Earlier this year Mariah infuriated organisers at an award ceremony in London by holding up the show for 90 minutes because of a broken fingernail.

She later confirmed her diva status by getting staff at her hotel to roll out a red carpet accompanied by lit candles for her arrival at 2am. However, Mariah says she is happy to be called a diva as long as the context is right.

She said: "Well, my mother was an opera singer so I'm comfortable with the old-fashioned meaning of the world diva. And if somebody said you were the cupcake diva of Manhattan, that would be OK too."

But the pop princess was at pains to point out her reputation for tantrums is undeserved.

She added: "I'm not like this hysterical woman - I promise you!"