Mariah Carey is a woman of great range.
She demonstrated that musically during a private concert Tuesday night, as well as during a conversation with USA TODAY right after that performance.
The singer took to the stage at the swanky Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc during a fete put on by Clear Channel Media and Entertainment and advisory firm MediaLink. Party guests, which included top business executives as well as celebrities such as Courtney Love and Kanye West, swayed and sang along to Carey’s old and new songs such as Always Be My Baby and Cry.
Carey, dressed in a low-cut black gown, gave shout-outs to Clear Channel executives that she’s worked with, such as CEO Bob Pittman and Entertainment Enterprises President John Sykes.
Pittman, Sykes and many of the other attendees were in the South of France for the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, which is the marketing industry’s biggest awards competition and trade show.
Set-list from the event:
* We Belong Together
* Always Be My Baby
* Cry
* Touch My Body
* I’ll Be There
* You Don’t Know What To Do
* Vision of Love
* Emotions
* Hero
During Carey’s post-performance sitdown with USA TODAY she discussed her early beginnings as a singer, her 3-year-old twins, her new album, her Twitter use and the social media use of her husband, Nick Cannon.
She deemed TV host Cannon’s Twitter use “excessive,” with a laugh, and went on to say that the social media service helped her to stay connected with others when she was pregnant.
“All I did when I was pregnant was take a bath and tweet,” she says.
Carey, who wore a sparkling butterfly ring, says that she named an earlier album Butterfly because it was representative of when “when I took control of my life.”
This is also the name of a new drink that that was created with her collaboration. Butterfly, from company Go N’Syde, comes in a pink bottle with a label that says it is “a melodic beverage inspired by the magic of Mariah Carey.”
People magazine polled drinkers on the taste, and wrote that the “closest flavor approximation” was that it tasted like a liquefied Ring Pop.
During the interview with USA TODAY, Carey sometimes spontaneously broke into song, singing lyrics from her first demo tape or belting out parts of conversation in song.
On a more serious note, she also talked of the “guilt” she feels when she has to be away from twins Monroe and Moroccan.
“I don’t like to leave them,” says Carey, who took them with her to France.
She talked of her son’s athletic abilities, saying that the first time he tried on skis he got right up.
“He’s a natural,” she says.
She says her daughter has a big personality and “has far surpassed me as a diva.”
The voices of the children are featured on the Supernatural song in her new album, Me. I am Mariah…The Elusive Chanteuse.
Carey says each of the songs was carefully curated, but the song Cry is “the one that meant the most to me.”
“I don’t think it’s a hit. I just know that it’s honest,” she says.
Carey says she hopes that folks will listen to the album as a whole “body of work.”
“I wanted people to hear from start to finish. … It’s really an emotional journey,” she says. “I worked very hard on the sequencing of this album.”
But if a single song is played on the radio, that is OK by her, too.
When she was younger, “my dream was to hear myself on the radio,” she says.
And even now, she says “I still get butterflies” when she hears herself on the radio.
And then she laughed at herself for using the butterfly reference.
If you haven’t purchased your copy already, Mariah Carey’s latest album can be purchased digitally from the following outlets:
Standard: Google Play | iTunes
Deluxe: Google Play | iTunes
CD editions (come with free MP3) of the album are available from Amazon by clicking one of the following links: Standard Edition | Deluxe Edition
Source: USA Today | Set List: Alexandre Dumont