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![Aretha Franklin: MARIAH CAREY
Not Another
White Girl
Trying To
Sing Black'
Daughter of Black father
and White mother is
hottest new artist
By Lynn Norment
ARIAH CAREY has a score to settle. Last
summer, soon after her debut recording
started racing up the record charts, she says a
music critic referred to her as "another White
girl trying to sing Black."
Carey, indisputably the hottest new artist of
the year, was infuriated
A hit on Black and White
charts, Mariah Carey is
biggest new pop star
since Whitney Houston
54
EB NY March 1991
Continued on Page 56
Denying reports that she is a White star imitating Blacks, talented singer-lyricist poses (left) at New York luncheon. "My father, Carey says, "is Black
and Venezuelan, my mother is Irish. That makes me a combination of all those things."
MARIAH CAREY Continued
sing a certain way. I'm just trying to be
Because she and her mother moved
And now, here at a luncheon at Lolas me. And if people enjoy my music, often, she didn't have many close
n Manhattan, she has the then they shouldn't care what I am, so friends or get involved in high school
music programs. Instead, she spent af-
straight and "tactfully" correct the Carey says she has always loved to ter-school hours writing songs and
ing, and she gives credit and thanks to making demo tapes with longtime ac-
perfect opportunity to set the record
it shouldn't be an issue
erring critic.
"Im not a White girl trying to sing her mother for the "genes. Her quaintance Ben Margulies
Black," the 20-year-old singer says in mother started giving her vocal lessons I 1987, right after finishing high
an interview soon after. “My father is when she was four years old, and she school at age 17, she moved from her
Black and Venezuelan, my mother is spent considerable time around her mother's home on Long Island into a
Irish. That makes me a combination of mom's musically talented friends, one-bedroom apartment in Manhattan
all those things. I am a human being, a soaking up the sounds of Billie Holiday with two other struggling performers
During this exceptionally lean period,
As a kid, she also spent a lot of time she slept on a mattress on the floor and
Though barely out of her teens, Ma- listening to the radio and her sister's worked as a waitress, hat checker and
riah Carey is indeed her own woman records. The soulful sounds of Gladys restaurant hostess to make ends meet
She grew up in New York with her Knight, Aretha Franklin, Stevie Before and after work, she diligently
mother, Patricia Carey, a vocal coach Wonder and Al Green were constant shopped her demo tapes from record
and former singer with the New York companions. She sang along and stud- company to record company, but was
person. What I am not is a White girl
trying to sing Black.
and Sarah Vaughan
City Opera. Her parents divorced ed the lyrics and arrangements. By basically ignored
when she was three, and Carey had an the time she was in high school, Carey
ther, Alfred Roy Carey, an aeronautica which appear on her recordin
a brother, 29, and a sister, 30.)
back
on-and-off" relationship with her fa was writing her own songs, several of up to Brenda K. Starr, and she was reg
ularly doing studio session work. "We
engineer in Washington, D.C. (She has Gospel music was also a great influ became good friends, and she helped
ence. On occasion, she accompanied me out a lot," she says of Starr. "She
Some people look at me and they her paternal grandmother, who is was always saying, Here's my friend
see my light skin and my hair," she says Black, to a Baptist church. Even today, Mariah, here's her tape; she sings
Eventually she began
running a slender, neatly manicured
she says, "I get up and go to bed listen-
writes..。。..
hand through her long, semi-curly, ing to gospel music." Her favorites i It was Starr who took Carey to the
honey-colored tresses for emphasis. "I clude the Clark Sisters, Shirley Caesar CBS party where she was discovered
can't help the way I look, because it's and Edwin Hawkins, in addition to Ar
me. I don't try to look a certain way or etha Franklin and Al Green
56
At t
Sony Music Entertainment) president
Continued on Page 58
EBONY March 1991
ways felt kind of different from every
one else in my neighborhoods. I was a
different person-ethnically. And
sometimes that can be a problem. If
you look a certain way everybody goes
White girl, and I'd go, No, that's not
Carey chose to express her inner-
most feelings in her songs rather than
become depressed and bitter. You re
ally have to look inside yourself and
find your own inner strength, and say,
Im proud of what I am and who I am
and I'm just going to be myself
And for Carey, that translates into
being a "respected" singer and song
writer. But her phenomenal success
has not inflated her head or her bank
account, for she has yet to realize any
monies from the album's success. The
days when she and two struggling
roommates stretched out a boxed mac
aroni dinner for a week are still too
Vivid, she says
And, no, I don't let stuff like this go
to my head, because success isn't a
scale for talent," says the singer. I
don't want to be a big star,' but I want
to be respected as an artist. I'm de-
Black singers, Carey lighted and very thankful [that people
Influenced by Gladys
Knight, Aretha
Franklin and other
started writing songs ike her work]
in high school. She
is a big gospel musio
fan.
"This is my love," she says emphat
ically. "I want to sing for the rest of my
MARIAH CAREY Continued
more than two million copies. In At this point, she sings every chance
Tommy Mottola a demo. In return, he ically, Carey wrote "Love Takes Time" she gets. In the studio. During promo
gave her a Great-another demo for a second LP. But when Mottola tional stops. In the shower. Around her
tape" smile, and Carey assumed it was
another dead end. But on leaving the
heard it, he insisted on stop
g the one-bedroom Upper East Side Marn
hattan apartment. To the boyfriend/
affair, Mottola popped the demo into but album, even though some record singer she's known since high school
presses and adding the song to her de-
his limo's tape deck. He liked what he ings were already in record stores
heard so much that he immediately re-
To her two Persian cats
Carey says she was just as startled as
Singing makes me incredibly
turned to the party to find Carey. But anyone that Vision of Love" hit so big happy," she says. "Music makes me im
she had already left
because "it isn't hip-hop music, it isn't measurably h
Having no address or telephone house music, and it isn't rap. But I am
number did not deter Mottola from so glad and thankful," she says. That
tracking her down. Ironically, another song really represents everything in
record company had expressed mild
interest in Carey, and a bit of a biddii
war evolved
my life. It is a song from the heart.
ing
Consider the lyrics: "Prayed
through the nights/Felt so alone/Suf
In December 1988, she signed with fered from alienation/Carried the
CBS Columbia Records. Within a weight on my own/Had to be strong/So
week she wrote Vision of Love" for I believed/And now I know I've suc-
her debut album. In fact, she wrote ceeded/In finding the place I con-
lyrics for all l songs on her self-titled ceived
LP, and she even produced Vanish-
the lissome artist with the clear, passio-
inging "America The Beautiful" at the
Just why would such a seemingly
tender womanchild write these words
Columbia went all-out to promote of despair and sing them with suclh
deep passion?
nate seven-octave voice, flexing a little "Well, just because you are young
clout to get her the coveted task of doesn't mean that you haven't had a
hard life," she says with a knowing lit
1989 NBA finals, where she was ex- tle smile. "It's been difficult for me,
posed to 16 million people. Both "Vi moving around so much, having to
sion of Love" and "Love Takes Time grow up by myself, basically on my
have gone gold, and the album has sold own, my parents divorced. And I al
EBONY March 1991
festivemomentspow:Mariah Carey, 1991](https://pics.onsizzle.com/mariah-carey-not-another-white-girl-trying-to-sing-black-42247060.png)
