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- Duration: 3:12
- Updated: 15 Jul 2013
- published: 15 Jul 2013
- views: 301
- author: NTDTVJP
Earth to your brain
Yo, yo, yo, yo
Yo, yo, Houston I think we have a problem
Yo, yo, I think we have a problem
Yo, yo, we have a problem
Yo, yo
Days, you know those days
When everyone seems to aggravate you
Unfazed, fucked up ways
Don't try to ignore, you know that it's true
See you say to yourself that you really don't wanna deal
And this day to day action on Earth just don't appeal
You know how hard you try
You've been known to take so much
They shoot at you cause you're fine
Bite the bullet I know that it sucks
If security's thin then faith will pull you through
If you still angry follow me
And do what I do
- Do you hear what I'm talking 'bout?
Do you hear we can conquer the world?
Got this whole world running from
This love between a boy and a girl
They're afraid of this chemistry
Plus the speed of light of laser guns
They go
To the light in every one
There you want some friends
Seems like everybody has friends
Depends on what you call friends
You don't really care you just want one
It's a person full of feelings but nobody's there
But you have to ask yourself if they were
Would they really care?
They do bullshit some times
They do the things that you've done
They're people just like you
But tell me do you really want one
98 percent of faith won't follow through
Don't you know real magic comes from the other two?
It was last week we were watching TV
My boyfriend wanted to watch channel three
Then he started to freak
The news flash came on then
So I said hey, my popcorn's burning
Hey, why is the channel turning?
Hey, that was NASA what did they want
Hey, yo just pass the blunt
I was so high that I didn't realize what they said
Plus my eye vision fried
If it's not then it's messing with my head
Hey, you can't be serious
Hey, but I need my contacts
Hey, float and spin
Hey, so I turned and I said, shit
- Do you hear what they talking 'bout?
About to send your black ass to Mars
That's exactly what I'm talkin' bout
Money, science, space, and mars
Till someday you got that million
Just because you've been hanging with stars
Wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up
And send your black ass to Mars
Yo, yo, yoooo
Yo, nigga-nigga, yo
Yoooo
Yo, Star Track, yo, yoooo (ha-ha)
Yo, Kelis, yo, Neptunes, yoooo
Earth to your brain, yoooo
UFO, who knows?
Earth to your brain
What is it already closed?
My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard
And they're like, it's better than yours
Damn right, it's better than your's
I could teach you but I have to charge
My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard
And they're like, it's better than yours
Damn right, it's better than your's
I could teach you but I have to charge
I know you want it
That thing that makes me
What the guys go crazy for
They lose their minds
The way I whine
I think it's time
La la la la la
Warm it up
La la la la la
The boys are waiting
La la la la la
Warm it up
La la la la la
The boys are waiting
My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard
And they're like, it's better than yours
Damn right, it's better than your's
I could teach you but I have to charge
My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard
And they're like, it's better than yours
Damn right, it's better than your's
I could teach you but I have to charge
I can see you're on it
You want me to teach the
Techniques that freaks these boys
It can't be bought
Just know thieves get caught
Watch if you're smart
La la la la la
Warm it up
La la la la la
The boys are waiting
La la la la la
Warm it up
La la la la la
The boys are waiting
My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard
And they're like, it's better than yours
Damn right, it's better than your's
I could teach you, but I have to charge
My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard
And they're like, it's better than yours
Damn right, it's better than your's
I could teach you, but I have to charge
Oh, once you get involved
Everyone will look this way so
You must maintain your charm
Same time maintain your halo
Just get the perfect blend
Plus what you have within
Then next his eyes will squint
Then he's picked up your scent
La la la la la
Warm it up
La la la la la
The boys are waiting
La la la la la
Warm it up
La la la la la
The boys are waiting
My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard
And they're like, it's better than yours
Damn right, it's better than your's
I could teach you, but I have to charge
My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard
And they're like, it's better than yours
Damn right, it's better than your's
I could teach you, but I have to charge
Yo, yo
Yo, this song, yo
This song is for all the women out there
That been lied to by their men
And I know you all been lied to
Over and over again
This is for y'all
Yo, maybe you didn't break the way you shoulda broke, yo
But I break, knowwhatumsaying, so
This is how it goes, yo
Psss...
Damn
Yo, yo
Last year, Valentine's day
You would spoil me and say
"Babe, I love you, love you (Yo, he's lying) and I swear"
Held you when you were sick, even ... (sucked yo dick)
The whole time I think to myself, this isn't fair
What is this I see (No)
You don't come home to me (Oh, no)
When you don't come home to me (Man)
Can't deal, can't bear
You keep tellin' me lies
But to your surprise
Look, I found her red coat
And you're (Bitch) caught out there
- I hate you so much right now
I hate you so much right now
Ahhhhh...
I hate you so much right now
I hate you so much right now
I hate you so much right now
Ahhhhh...
I hate you so much right now
So sick of your games, I'll set your truck to flames
And watch it blow up, blow up, (ha-ha-ha) tell me
How you gonna see it now
So far from sincere (I love you)
Fabrications in my ear
Drive me so far up the wall
I come slidin' down
What is this I see (I don't believe this)
You don't come home to me
When you don't come home to me
I can't deal, can't bear (I won't)
You keep tellin' me lies
But to your surprise
Look, I hope you're happy
Since you're caught out there
(Yeah, you've been caught)
Yo', come on
Come on
(She's so)
Raunchy, so vulgar, not me, why the hell her
Look, she dresses (Look at her)
A mess, what do you see (I don't know)
It's not all about cash (Hell, no)
Not how much you flash
How I dress is a reflection of me
What is this I see
You don't come home to me (Uh-uh)
When you don't come home to me
Can't deal, can't bear (Told you I won't)
You keep tellin' me lies
But to your surprise
Look, I got somethin' for y'all
Dear God it's me transmittin' from
This tiny place I live in Harlem
Oh heaven we have a problem
Cuz we lost all correspondence
And there's no more prophets
They've all been replaced with politics
And they have your people hostage
That's why I'm sending you this postage
If you're listening Mr. UFO man
Speak to Jesus tell him we're on earth and
Things are worse than they have ever been now
Father, it's urgent we need u
Come down
Hey now
You're my father
And I don't know what's out there
So many of us are scared
Hey now
We got people shooting people
We live in warface
I'm not talking nuclear
I ain't got there yet
Why we got intelligent mouths
on Larry King with religious doubts
While the rabbi and minister fuss
Shit, another one bites the dust
So the yellow red black and white
Send missiles in the dark of night
Probably wanna stop but don't know how
That's why Lord, we really need you now
If you're listening Mr. UFO man
Speak to Jesus tell him we're on earth and
Things are worse than they have ever been now
Father, it's urgent we need u
Come down
People around if you feel our vibe ride
Come on aboard there's enough room inside
We're flying high where heaven hides
Hope I see you on the other side
If you're listening Mr. UFO man
Speak to Jesus tell him we're on earth and
Things are worse than they have ever been now
Father, it's urgent we need u
Come down
Why we got intelligent mouths (intelligent mouths)
on Larry King with religious doubts
While the rabbi and minister fuss (while they got fuss)
Shit, another one bites the dust (another one bites the dust)
So the yellow red black and white
Send missiles in the dark of night
Probably wanna stop but don't know how
That's why Lord, we really need you now
God we need you now
If you listen Mr. UFO man
Speak to Jesus
Tell Him we're down on earth
People around if you feel our vibe ride
Come on aboard there's enough room inside
We're flying high where heaven hides
Flashbacks of the last summer
It was hot and I was bored
I took a walk to the corner store
I was at the counter
And that's when you walked by
Holding your St. Ides
You just brushed right by my side
I swear I got butterflies
Yeah Yeah
Ooh you make my body go
Yeah Yeah
Ooh you make my body go
Yeah Yeah
Ooh you make my body go
You make me come alive
Yeah Yeah
Ooh you make my body go
Yeah Yeah
Ooh you make my body go
Yeah Yeah
Ooh you make my body go
Oh shit, there you go again
Speaking can't be a sin
So I fingered you over
Caesar n' tattooed shoulders
Girls know your name badly
But to me you're my daddy
Though you only shook my hand
Could have sworn you held me
Yeah Yeah
Ooh you make my body go
Yeah Yeah
Ooh you make my body go
Yeah Yeah
Ooh you make my body go
Yeah Yeah
Ooh you make my body go
Yeah Yeah
Ooh you make my body go
Yeah Yeah
Ooh you make my body go
Yeah Yeah
Ooh you make my body go
Yeah Yeah
Ooh you make my body go
Yeah Yeah
Ooh you make my body go
You make me come heheh alive
Yeah Yeah
Ooh you make my body go
Yeah Yeah
Ooh you make my body go
Ooh you make my body go
I'm so blessed I found you
You make all my days brand new
Late at night you call my name
And early in the morning
The thought of sex is soaring
Like a plane
I'm so blessed I found you
You make all my days brand new
Late at night you call my name
And early in the morning
The thought of sex is soaring
Like a plane
Yeah Yeah
Ooh you make my body go
Yeah Yeah
Ooh you make my body go
Yeah Yeah
Ooh you make my body go
You make me come alive
Ooh you make my body go
Yeah Yeah
Ooh you make my body go
Yeah Yeah
Ooh you make my body go
Ooh you make my body go
Yeah Yeah
Ooh you make my body go
Yeah Yeah
Ooh you make my body go
Yeah Yeah
Ooh you make my body go
You make me come heheh oh yeah alive
Yeah Yeah
Ooh you make my body go
Yeah Yeah
Ooh you make my body go
Yeah Yeah
Ooh you make my body go
Yeah Yeah
Ooh you make my body go
Yeah Yeah
Ooh you make my body go
Ooh you make my body go
Ooh you make my body go
Ooh you make my body go
Yeah Yeah
Yesterday, I rolled through the hood
And I seen somethin'
And it hurt me
Yesterday, I rolled throught the hood
And I seen somethin'
And it hurt me
You were talkin' to that woman
Like you could show her somethin'
And I didn't know what to do
You pulled out your pen and paper
And I know it your number you gave her
I never thought this bad dream would come true
Baby I want you to know
The suburbs to the ghetto
Joy is joy and pain is pain...pain
One day sooner than you know
We'll be livin' tomorrow
And we'll be laughin' about today...today
Yesterday, I rolled through the hood
And I seen somethin'
And it hurt me
Yesterday, I rolled throught the hood
And I seen somethin'
And it hurt me
You were talkin' to your boys
And though y'all didn't make noise
You tapped him and you pointed at this woman
Then she turned around
As if she'd been found
And all I know my heart started jumpin'
Baby I want you to know
The suburbs to the ghetto
Joy is joy and pain is pain...pain
One day sooner than you know
We'll be livin' tomorrow
And we'll be laughin' about today...today
Maybe tomorrow...Maybe tomorrow
Maybe tomorrow...Maybe tomorrow
Beautiful baby don't you know you mean the world to me
The moon would lose the sky if you don't stay
Did I ever tell you that you were my sunshine?
So basically if you leave, there is no day
Yesterday, I rolled throught the hood
And I seen somethin'
And it hurt me
Yesterday, I rolled throught the hood
And I seen somethin'
And it hurt me
Instead of scorin' high in college
We're scorin' high in gargabe
And not rememberin' who we are
And not to mention...forgettin' who God is
Don't know that you're special
And God will never forget you
The world is used, watch what you do with it
Baby I want you to know
The suburbs to the ghetto
Joy is joy and pain is pain...pain
One day sooner than you know
We'll be livin' tomorrow
And we'll be laughin' about today...today
Maybe tomorrow...Maybe tomorrow
Got credit cards in my pockets
But I walk past bums all day
Why why why
I see dealers pushing poisons
But I have nothing to say
Why why why
I date two people at the same time
Knowing it is twice the sin
Why why why
Oh yes I have this little problem here I'm being vain again
Why why
Hey man I'm just listening to His teachings my soul and heart
This is God's movie and I'm just trying to play my part
Time is running out and we've broken the seventh seal
The more I read I realize that UFOs are real
Hey little Suzie
You don't have to cry no more
hey little Bobby
Don't you worry about the war
Hey little Jessica
You just keep up with the score
Cuz God closes the windows
Next thing you know He opens doors
I blew my paycheck getting real high today
Why why why
I lied and told my nephew that I had no more time to play
Why why why
I saw this lady gettin robbed I looked away
Why why why
I put my grandma in a home and made her stay
Why why
Hey man I'm just listening to His teachings my soul and heart
This is God's movie and I'm just trying to play my part
Time is running out and we've broken the seventh seal
The more I read I realize that UFOs are real
Hey little Suzie
You don't have to cry no more
hey little Bobby
Don't you worry about the war
Hey little Jessica
You just keep up with the score
Cuz God closes the windows
Next thing you know He opens doors
Singing la la la la la
Singing la la la la la
I give in church
But you are asking me where it really goes
Why why why
I could give more but I end up spending it on shoes and clothes
Why why why
I chew ice, look at my watch some Middle Eastern babies sold
Why why why
In the winter I have furs knowing some poor child is cold
Why why
Hey man I'm just listening to His teachings my soul and heart
This is God's movie and I'm just trying to play my part
Time is running out and we've broken the seventh seal
The more I read I realize that UFOs are real
What if the holy trinity was Christians, Muslims, Jews
Yet we bomb eachother for more coverage on the news
He was this he wasn't that he never touched the girl either way
Our messiah shall save the world
Hey little Suzie
You don't have to cry no more
hey little Bobby
Don't you worry about th war
Hey little Jessica
You just keep up with the score
Cuz God closes windows
Next thing you know He opens doors
(singing la la la la la)
Hey little Suzie
You don't have to cry no more
hey little Bobby
Don't you worry about th war
Hey little Jessica
You just keep up with the score
Cuz God closes windows
Next thing you know He opens doors
Singing la la la la la
Singing la la la la la
Come join our circus where we all wear masks
Lying while our fans are expected to last
Could it be that the jig is on us?
Masquerading like we are the one
Can you blame us?
It started as fun
Didn't know that the game must be won...
Sorry
Never did I lie; never did I need a trick yall
But they told me this how they get rich yall
Make a hit song, same lame lyrics, same bass, same kickdrum
Buy the record you became a big big victim
Bitch can't front, get what I want, neck, hands and my wrist numb
Sick none, diamonds on my wristband
Who I'm talking to? You, you and my biggest fan
Thinking that ya girl got it all, and I got the best man, best hair, best legs
Need a break, you in my face, asking K, what I'm putting out next year
Is it gonna be real freaky, critics wanna come critique me
Are you gonna be more grunge, rock and roll like back when you dropped before
But get back, before I get ill
Black love, black mask, listen to some real black love
That's all I have, that's all I have
Come join our circus where we all wear masks
Lying while our fans are expected to last
Could it be that the jig is on us?
Masquerading like we are the one
Can you blame us?
It started as fun
Didn't know that the game must be won...
Sorry
Musicians, magicians, tightropes, strobe lights, lion tamers, entertainers, Sold Out Nights
Dressing rooms, costumes, who's doing who? Gossip rumors
Groupies just too much, everybody's like let's do lunch
That's why it doesn't matter
That's why I'm not a rapper
Still spit a few bars, might never hear this song
Label might say hell naw, get a new female star
She don't have to sing, she don't have to bring anything
Get her some new earrings, fly her off to Beijing
Book her shows in Wyoming, David Letterman and Conan
Your advance just alone and doesn't it all sound grand?
Number one on soundscan, just keep the clubs bouncing
Come join our circus where we all wear masks
Lying while our fans are expected to last
Could it be that the jig is on us?
Masquerading like we are the one
Can you blame us?
It started as fun
Didn't know that the game must be won...
Sorry
How can I shake this circus clown?
What does the ringmaster need from this clown?
Should I dive through the circle of fire?
No... I'm just gonna be me
Come join our circus where we all wear masks
Lying while our fans are expected to last
Could it be that the jig is on us?
Masquerading like we are the one
Can you blame us?
It started as fun
Didn't know that the game must be won...
Young and different, uh
She looked at a condom, uh
And could still see the sun, uh
Do you remember 21, uh?
Can I stay to wait huh?
Grow up today huh
Can you really blame her?
Shit you couldn't even stay home
When the world feels like it's coming and
And you don't know what you know
And you think about what's holding you
It's relatives and close
Just leave it all behind, you gotta get away
You gotta get away
Everybody
See the look in my eye, uh
I've gotta get it out, uh
I don't care if they stare, uh
I know life's not fair, uh
I'm gonna play while I'm here, huh
I gotta get out, huh
Just watch me run away now
Uh, you know sometimes you just gotta
HEY!
Run away from home
Run away from (young, fresh and new) home
Run away from home
Run away from...
(Got to get away...)
I've got to get away
Hey...
(I've got to get away...)
I've got to get away, yeah
HEY!
Run away from home
Run away from (young, fresh and new) home
Run away from home
Run away from...
When the world feels like it's coming and
And you don't know what you know
And you think about what's holding you
It's relatives and close
Just leave it all behind, you gotta get away
You gotta get away
Everybody
(Got to get away...)
Gotta get away
Hey, hey...
(I've got to get away...)
I've got to get away, yeah
Hey...
But I've gotta be young, fresh, and new
HEY!
Run away from home
Run away from (Young, fresh and new) home
Run away from home
Run away from...
HEY!
Run away from home
Run away from home
Run away from home
Run away from...
HEY!
Run away from home
Run away from home
Run away from home
Run away from...
When the world feels like it's coming and
And you don't know what you know
And you think about what's holding you
It's relatives and close
Just leave it all behind, you gotta get away
You gotta get away
Don't wake me
I'm still dreaming
I don't see you
I can't feel you
I'm alone for real in my mind
I'll feel this all night
When my life takes flight
- This isn't just in your mind
We're suspended from space and time
I feel like I'm falling
What happens when I hit?
Must mean then that's it
This black abyss, this pit
It all seems shades of gray
I'm never ready for light of day
Why do you hurt me?
This reality
Why you smile at me?
Show your fallacies
Dreams hold me down
But let me go
When reality will wake me
Am I dreaming?
If so, then why?
My bodies back on Earth
Only spirits can fly
Soaring through dimensions of love
Kinds only my father speaks of
Scenery changes, spins and roll
So does the color of our soul
I know how this must make you feel
You hate me but believe me this is real
Well you can tell ev'ryone I'm a down disgrace
So drag my name all over the place.
I don't care anymore. (I don't care)
You can tell ev'rybody 'bout the state I'm in
You won't catch me crying 'cos I just can't win.
I don't care anymore I don't care anymore
I don't care what you say
I don't play the same games you play.
'Cos I've been talking to the people that you call your friends
And it seems to me there's a means to and end.
They don't care anymore. (they don't care)
And as for me I can sit here and bide my time
I got nothing to lose if I speak my mind.
I don't care anymore I don't care no more
I don't care what you say
We never played by the same rules anyway.
I won't be there anymore
Get out of my way
Let me by
I got better things to do with my time
I don't care anymore I don't care anymore
I don't care anymore I don't care anymore
Well, I don't care now what you say (I don't care what you say)
'Cos ev'ry day (everyday)
I'm feeling fine with myself (I'm feeling fine with myself)
And I don't care now what you say (I don't care what you say)
Hey I'll do alright by myself (I'll be alright by myself)
I don't care (I don't care) anymore (anymore)
I don't care (I don't care) anymore (anymore)
I don't care (I don't care) anymore (anymore)
I don't care anymore
Do you care? Hell no!
Do you care? Hell no!
Do you care? Hell no!
What what?
Do you care? Hell no!
Do you care? Hell no!
Do you care? Hell no!
What what?
Do you care? Hell no!
Do you care? Hell no!
Do you care? Hell no!
What what?
Do you care? Hell no!
Do you care? Hell no!
Do you care? Hell no!
What what?
'Cos I remember all the times I tried so hard
And you laughed in my face 'cos ya held all the cards.
I don't care anymore.
And I really ain't bothered what you think of me
'Cos all I want of you is just a let me be.
I don't care anymore
Did you hear? I don't care no more
I don't care what you say
I never did believe you much anyway.
We won't be there any more
So get out of our way.
Let us by
We got better things to do with our time
We don't care anymore
We don't care anymore
We don't care anymore
We don't care anymore
We don't care
We don't care
We don't care (anymore)
We don't care
Yeah, I'm telling you boy
You're wasting your time on her
The good stuff's right here
I seen you when you walked in
Stealing all the light
You're the type of guy
That makes them fly girls fuss and fight
They can't love you more
Not the way you're wishing for
They go about it all wrong
Experts get it right
- (Ooh, ooh)
I'm telling you now boy
Put your eyes on me
(Ooh, ooh)
And if you call now boy
I'll throw my heart in free
(Ooh, ooh)
I can love you
In one million ways
(Ooh, ooh)
And if you don't like it
Send it back in thirty days
I know you're sick of them
Knowing who you are
All they wanna do is
Ride around in your fancy car
Gimme this, gimme that
And yeah I know it's so whack
All they wanna do is be seen with a superstar
- This is the good stuff
This is the good stuff
You don't know this is that good stuff
This is the good stuff
Bulletproof under the suit, no need for alarm
The way I flow through the club call me Disco Don
But my name, still Terrar, still the world at my palm
You chicken, heat front passenger seat load in my arm
Who she with next?
One of two Clipse intended specs then
Dance floor, hot sex
My hands rubbing her breast
What am I saying baby?
Discotech or discotheque?
Either way to miss my spray just swish your neck
Now that you've seen
You really wanted me
And those girls wasted their time
Thinking they could possibly (yeah right)
You want this you don't want that
Here girls he don't want it back
And if you want the next one
You should repeat after me
(Ooh, ooh)
This is the good stuff
(Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh)
Yo you looking at stars
Yeah, you know who we are
(You don't know)
Clipse, Kelis, Neptunes
Star Track I'll be back baby
Good stuff
This is the good stuff
This is the good stuff
I'm not really on a hustle
But I must admit I still enjoy the grind
Now traffic doesn't bother me at all
'Cause for once I'm not racing time
Questions I used to ask myself
Answers I needed now
Problems seem so unsolveable
But nothing much bothers me now
Nothing bothers me at all
I'm falling down again
But it seems this time I can't break my fall
But if I hurt myself I'll put my band-aid on
And I'll fall, fall again
Questions I used to ask myself
Answers I needed now
Problems seem so unsolveable
But nothing much bothers me now
Nothing bothers me at all
Nothing's perfect
But today is close as it will ever ever be
Making songs is hard when your happy
No one wants to hear about your lovely, lovely days
But why should I be bothered at all
When everyday I have a ball
Why should I care what you think about my songs
Why would I be bothered by the things you say at all
Told my manager
I had nothing scandalous to say
Told my publicist, "Note this, OK?"
Leave me by the beach today
So I can feel the breeze
And watch the children play
So why would I be bothered at all
When everyday I have a ball
Why should I care what you think about my songs
Why would I be bothered by the things you say at all
No meetings or phone calls
They only plan to catch you
All the words I see
Flying up above of me
Hope they have a very, very, very, very, very
I want ya, I need ya
I wake up first to feed ya
You’re the only one I ever really loved (you’re the man above)
I’ve been conquered and lovin’ to you
You know all the real things I’ve been through, yeah
You rescue me when everyone has let me down
Like a soldier, you protect me from what’s goin’ down
But you better remember - talk to me like a lady
I know that you ain’t crazy
Don’t take my kindness for weakness (appreciate me)
Don’t take my kindness for weakness (appreciate me)
Don’t take my kindness for weakness (appreciate me)
Don’t take my kindness for weakness (appreciate me)
Runnin’ in the streets, you are the man
But when you come home, respect who I am
Keep it gangsta ‘cause you 1ne on the block
But when you step inside the door, give the key to your heart
I’m not tryna wear the pants, they fit you right
But I’m your wife so in these hands, you put your life
Hold me like your baby, treat me like your lady
‘Cause I know you ain’t crazy
Don’t take my kindness for weakness (appreciate me)
Don’t take my kindness for weakness (appreciate me)
Don’t take my kindness for weakness (appreciate me)
Don’t take my kindness for weakness (appreciate me)
Just hold me close - I love you near
One look at you and I see so clear
The reason you won’t let me down
‘Cause I feel you in my heart
It’s like I’m floatin’ way up off the ground
Don’t take my kindness for weakness (appreciate me)
Don’t take my kindness for weakness (appreciate me)
Don’t take my kindness for weakness (appreciate me)
Ay yo while I dream about Fortune 500 man
Hundred grand bracelets
The diamonds in my ear only cost as much as a facelift
When the listeners picture this
They gon' say shit
Me and you fucking in the window of my spaceship
High like fuck
To all the bitches that I might fuck
Get to see they would only fuck my life up
The flyest couple killin' em suttle
Delivering our first born on a NASA space shuttle
Come on
Have you ever thought there might be something out there?
Far out, way out
Would you think those movies are insinuating?
Look out, look out
Do you think you'd even know one if you saw one?
Watch out, watch out
If you think the government just don't know nothing
Watch out, watch out
- The roller rink, the roller rink
Just skate away no need to think
No cars and minks, no Gucci links
No need for shrinks, just roll the rink
The roller rink, the roller rink
Just skate away you don't need to think
No cars and minks, no Gucci links
No need for a shrink
If you see what's coming our way then get ready
Watch out, watch out
Ain't gonna be no one in bed to put your hands up
No doubt, look out
Better hide your babies and all of your family
Be right, look out
If you think the government just don't know nothing
Better watch out, watch out
Ay yo, ay yo the whole world gets hot
When they hear this Neptune talk
N.E.R.D. we levitate when we moon walk
Ain't shit stoppin', my laser clip dropping
Pullin' up in my intersects with my bitch robbing
Star Track we walk around with rockets in our pockets
Make my fucking dick hard the way my glock spit
Remind me of last night got my neck and cock licked
Day dream, rude awakening she smoking chocolate
Jesus, Simon
Love roaming like Caesar's time and
Yo Kelis you Arabian diamond
If I'm the sun and your a diamond
Baby we be shining
And all my hoes gone
You blowed them away and the ozone
So hot and so rich feeling this ghost tone
Sol nigga and sol bitch
Accept our foes is gone
The world smells is fishy
But I smell nothing when your lips kissed me
Guardian now, fuck is he?
Don't dare but love me
Karats stuffed
Straight up beware of us
Body in the truck odor it's just scared of us
The devil's mad and ain't trying to see the Armageddon
So I name our first daughter Nazareth
My first son Heaven
Yeah the world is real crazy, huh
And ya don't stop, uh
Star Track, Kelis, that's how we do it
Got credit cards in my pockets
But I walk past bums all day
(Why, why, why)
I see dealers pushing poisons
But I have nothing to say
(Why, why, why)
I date two people at the same time
Knowing it is twice the sin
(Why, why, why)
Oh yes, I have this little problem here I'm being vain again
(Why, why)
Hey man I'm just listening to His teachings my soul and heart
This is God's movie and I'm just trying to play my part
Time is running out and we've broken the seventh seal
The more I read I realize that UFOs are real
Hey little Suzie, you don't have to cry no more
Hey little Bobby, don't you worry about the war
Hey little Jessica, you just keep up with the score
'Cuz God closes the windows
Next thing you know He opens doors
I blew my paycheck getting real high today
(Why, why, why)
I lied and told my nephew that I had no more time to play
(Why, why, why)
I saw this lady getting robbed I looked away
(Why, why, why)
I put my grandma in a home and made her stay
(Why, why)
Hey man I'm just listening to His teachings my soul and heart
This is God's movie and I'm just trying to play my part
Time is running out and we've broken the seventh seal
The more I read I realize that UFOs are real
Hey little Suzie, you don't have to cry no more
Hey little Bobby, don't you worry about the war
Hey little Jessica, you just keep up with the score
'Cuz God closes the windows
Next thing you know He opens doors
Singing la la la
Singing la la la
I give in church
But you are asking me where it really goes
(Why, why, why)
I could give more but I end up spending it on shoes and clothes
(Why, why, why)
I chew ice, look at my watch some Middle Eastern babies sold
(Why, why, why)
In the winter I have furs knowing some poor child is cold
(Why, why)
Hey man I'm just listening to His teachings my soul and heart
This is God's movie and I'm just trying to play my part
Time is running out and we've broken the seventh seal
The more I read I realize that UFOs are real
What if the holy trinity was Christians, Muslims, Jews
Yet we bomb each other for more coverage on the news
He was this he wasn't that he never touched the girl either way
Our messiah shall save the world
Hey little Suzie, you don't have to cry no more
Hey little Bobby, don't you worry about th war
Hey little Jessica, you just keep up with the score
'Cuz God closes windows
Next thing you know He opens doors
Hey little Suzie, you don't have to cry no more
Hey little Bobby, don't you worry about the war
Hey little Jessica, you just keep up with the score
'Cuz God closes windows
Next thing you know He opens doors
Singing la la la
Singing la la la
Hey You Ain't Ready For Me, OOOH OOH NO
Hey You Ain't Ready For Me, OOOH NO, OOH NO
I'm known the block to keep my weight up like the big guys
Know how to throw my weight like the big guys
And I want to much I got big eyes
So I see how to get it wit these big eyes
Keep It Flashing with my worrking pumps on
Working dress with some lipstick on
This world aint ready for this honey comb
IF YOU A HANDFULL SING ALONG
Ba,ba,bah,bah,bah,bah,bah,bah,bahh,bah,bah,bahhh
Ima Handful
Ba,ba,bah,bah,bah,bah,bah,bah,bahh,bah,bah,bahhh
Hear me beating down the black with my grey porsch Cayene
Gotta be hot red like cayene
Some them dudes hittin switches in them low lows
I know how to hit them switches in the low lows
you might see me with a 3 peice on
pin stripe holla fitted cap on
You ain't ready for this honeycomb
IF YOU A HANDFULL SING ALONG
Na na nah boo boo Is it overwhelming
can't stand the drama
If you having problems
this how you sole em'
Tell em'you a Hanful
Ba,ba,bah,bah,bah,bah,bah,bah,bahh,bah,bah,bahhh
Hey You Aint ready for me oh no,oh no (im a handful)
Hey You Aint ready for me oh no,oh no (im a hanful)
Na na nah boo boo is it overwhelming
can't stand the drama
If you having problems
just can't help it
Na na nah boo boo
If you having problems
this how you sole em'
Tell em'you a Hanful
Ba,ba,bah,bah,bah,bah,bah,bah,bahh,bah,bah,bahhh (im a Handful)
Ba,ba,bah,bah,bah,bah,bah,bah,bahh,bah,bah,bahhh
Ba,ba,bah,bah,bah,bah,bah,bah,bahh,bah,bah,bahhh
Hey You ain't aint ready for me oh no (im a handful)
You come stand in line
And over here, come get my kiss
And I'll be clear:
I need some distance
I want the distance, some distance
Is there someone else on your mind
When your lips press up on mine
I taste the difference
Now I need some distance, some distance
Why pretend everything's ok
I'll put my time in
And this will never be safe
Will never be the same girl I was when
Calling you Chris
Tonight, I'm fine, your goodbye
Cause you really don't wanna go
Here tonight, I won't cry,
But you never listen though
You come stand in line
And over here, come get my kiss
And I'll be clear:
I need some distance
I want the distance, some distance
Is there someone else on your mind
When your lips press up on mine
I taste the difference
Now I need some distance, some distance
Who knows who to blame
Should've brought us close
The ones you say you never knew most
I am a once, and you will get it twice
It's for the best, and now it's turning fast
Tonight, I'm fine, your goodbye
Cause you really don't wanna go
Here tonight, I won't cry,
But you never listen though
You come stand in line
And over here, come get my kiss
And I'll be clear:
I need some distance
I want the distance, some distance
Is there someone else on your mind
When your lips á¹—ress up on mine
I taste the difference
Now I need some distance, some distance
All I wanna feel is distance between us
All I wanna feel is distance between us
All I wanna feel is distance between us
[1st Verse:]
Lookin’ too fly walkin’ to the bar
Niggas wanna stop, askin’ who I are
Hands on my waist tryna find out
If I’m gonna flip off of one drink and can he get down
I’m a rock hip-hop pop star
Bitch I got the doe and a fast car
Never run from nothin’ when I come thru
Roll with the realest that can take out your whole crew
[Hook:]
(Hicky-Hicky-Hicky) Aww shit!
(Hicky-Hicky-Hicky) Aww shit!
(Hicky-Hicky-Hicky) Aww shit!
I can make a whole song talk shit!
(Hicky-Hicky-Hicky) Aww shit!
(Hicky-Hicky-Hicky) Aww shit!
(Hicky-Hicky-Hicky) Aww shit!
I can make a whole song talk shit!
[2nd Verse:]
I don’t like to dance to a slow song
You too close and I can’t get my groove on
Drop a beat and let a girl feel somethin’
I’m so gutter, watch me two-step do somethin’
Tippy-toes tip and make a mean walk
I ain’t tryna listen to your big talk
High off my drink for the third time
Boy, come and get it
Watch me make these niggas fall in line
[Hook:]
(Hicky-Hicky-Hicky) Aww shit!
(Hicky-Hicky-Hicky) Aww shit!
(Hicky-Hicky-Hicky) Aww shit!
I can make a whole song talk shit!
(Hicky-Hicky-Hicky) Aww shit!
(Hicky-Hicky-Hicky) Aww shit!
(Hicky-Hicky-Hicky) Aww shit!
I can make a whole song talk shit!
[3rd Verse:]
‘Bout to head to the hills ‘fore I pass out
Get my coat from the check ‘fore I spaz out
Pull my whip to the front and I jump in
Catch a look comin’ from the niggas in the black Benz
Red light and now they tryna hop in
(Remember when I was in school, I was your boyfriend)
Got the tint so we never entertain those
Hungry-ass groupies on the phone like they got hoes
[Hook:]
(Hicky-Hicky-Hicky) Aww shit!
(Hicky-Hicky-Hicky) Aww shit!
(Hicky-Hicky-Hicky) Aww shit!
I can make a whole song talk shit!
(Hicky-Hicky-Hicky) Aww shit!
(Hicky-Hicky-Hicky) Aww shit!
(Hicky-Hicky-Hicky) Aww shit!
I can make a whole song talk shit!
[Bridge:]
Now I’m feelin’ m’m, m’m good
Eyes filled up with the bloodshots
Look like a lamp with the lights out
Now he’s tryna get a lick but I’m long gone
Keep, keep talkin’
Keep, keep talkin’
Keep, keep talkin’
Keep, keep talkin’
[Smoke’s Rap:]
Who’s this man who’s not star?
Yet you wondering who I are
On track with rock hip-hop star, the pop star
Who the man behind hot bars?
Smoke, I’m soon to be popular
Now, where he from?
Is it my city, your city?
All you need to know, I come from a dope city
Never shoot the boys, still keep the dope Bentley
Text to the cush with a chase of the Henny
And when I’m lookin’ for a freak, really picky-picky
And if it smell icky, tell her pull up her Vickie’s
But if it smell alright, I might do the licky-licky
Let you suck on my neck but, please, no hickie-hickies
[Hook:]
(Hicky-Hicky-Hicky) Aww shit!
(Hicky-Hicky-Hicky) Aww shit!
(Hicky-Hicky-Hicky) Aww shit!
I can make a whole song talk shit!
(Hicky-Hicky-Hicky) Aww shit!
(Hicky-Hicky-Hicky) Aww shit!
(Hicky-Hicky-Hicky) Aww shit!
Welcome to the 22nd Century
You will front a [?]
Religion, science-fiction, technology.
There's no difference from you and me
Welcome to the 22nd Century
Who who whooo who, who who whooo who,
Welcome to the 22nd Century
Who who whooo who, who who whooo who,
Welcome to the 22nd Century
Who who whooo who, who who whooo who,
Welcome to the 22nd Century
Who who whooo who, who who whooo who,
Everybody's dancing cing cing
Everybody's dancing dancing cing cing
Everybody's dancing cing cing
Everybody's dancing dancing cing cing
Cause we are the stars
We're the stars
We are the stars
We're the stars
We are the stars
We're the stars
We are the stars
We're the stars
Welcome to the place where you want to be
Religion, science-fiction, technology.
I can place my mind where I want to be
One chance one dance for you with me
Where everyone can be be be be
Welcome to the 22nd Century
Who who whooo who, who who whooo who,
Welcome to the 22nd Century
Who who whooo who, who who whooo who,
Welcome to the 22nd Century
Who who whooo who, who who whooo who,
Welcome to the 22nd Century
Who who whooo who, who who whooo who,
Everybody's dancing dancing cing cing
Everybody's dancing dancing cing cing
Everybody's dancing dancing cing cing
Everybody's dancing dancing cing cing
Cause we are the stars
We're the stars
We are the stars
We're the stars
We are the stars
We're the stars
We are the stars
We're the stars
Just take me away, away
Oh baby, just take me away,
Oh baby, just take me away, away
Oh baby, just take me away, away
Oh baby,
Welcome to the 22nd Century, Welcome to the 22nd Century, Welcome to the 22nd Century, Welcome to the 22nd Century
Wooo
This is It Yeah
Wooo
Said I've paid my dues for all that i've done
And I showed you that I love you more than once
Theres nothing left there to decide
Said you might trick me once
I won't let you trick me twice
Freedom to us has alwayz been a trick
Freedom to u has alwayz been who ever landed on your dick
Seen it in your one to many times
Said you might trick me once
I won't let you trick me twice no
Might trick me once
I won't let you trick me twice
Might trick me once
I won't let you trick me twice no
Might trick me once
I won't let you trick me twice
No I won't let you trick me twice
Those days are old and overdone
And it's only cause i'm not with you that you make me number one
Though I may love you
It hurts me deep inside Oh
Now you no longer have to hide
I used to be down with the late night hit
Started gettin' heavy when I really wasn't ready
Used my class to get in my mind
So I fell for your lies like all the time
I thought you were the shit to be playin around
Call the police theres a mad girl in town
Could'nt get even here without a sound
It's not how I wanna get down Yeah You
Might trick me once
I won't let you trick me twice
Might trick me once
I won't let you trick me twice no
Might trick me once
I won't let you trick me twice
No I won't let you trick me twice
No I won't let you trick me twice
And I've paid all my dues for what i've done
And I showed you that I love you more than once
Theres nothing left there to decide
Ooh Trick me I won't let your trick me twice
You might trick me once
No I won't let me trick you twice no
You might trick me once
No I won't let me trick you twice
Woooo
Peace
Woooo
Woooo
There's only one way to my galaxy
Hop on your moon soon
Don't separate it from me
Your feet wont' touch the ground
Cause there's no gravity
Experiencing my trilogy
It seems like you're ready to go
Got your bags packed up
And your mind is set on touching the stars
Can't you tell I'm ready to leave
So I can meet you wherever you are, baby
Something 'bout the sky
Something 'bout tonight
Something 'bout the way you look
Something 'bout your eyes
Something 'bout that flight
that makes me wanna ride in outer space with you all night
We can start the countdown now
Got my rockets turned on
So we can blast off straight to the moon
You can take that jacob off
Cause we won't be coming back no time soon, oh no, we won't
We can reach the sun by dawn
Feel the heat that's pouring at me
NASA should call off the search cause this Earth has nothing for me
Buckle up your seatbelts
We're about to land in 20 seconds
Oh, oh, Thank You.
You.
Thank You for continuing to fly with me
throughout this whole ride, ride
What is this?
I have no idea
Okay welcome, follow come in okay single file, watch your step,
Welcome to Kelis's world
You've entered?
Don't touch that!...
Yesterday, we were born
We took your stereos by storm
In just one day,
Through all the scorn and the hate we'll penetrate your homes and domes
With just one take
And now we're here let the games begin
Get ready, start, let's play
We''ll win this race
This is the new beginning
The empire strikes back
Learn from losing
Cherish winning
Forever
Hey baby what you doing?
Your flight left yet?
Pshh, I'm half way there
I can't wait to see you
So tell me have you left yet, damn
I'm running late to the airport
Every time we do this
In my mind saying should I go through with this?
All I see is you kissing me
Last time shut my eyes
Plane goes higher, higher
Hotel's booked all I have to do is get my key
I can't wait to have you walk up and hold on me, yeah
I've never felt this way before
- But in the morning
When you're gone
I must wait and be strong
And have faith
You'll return
In my arms
Hope you miss your flight
Hope you miss your flight
Casablanca has always been my dream
I heard that it's absolutely radiant in spring
In the garden drinking shots of Hennesy
Calm my nerves, it's been way too long for me
Finally we're driving in a far out dream
Nothing seems even real or close for me
Afternoon sun showers change the way I see
I've never felt this way before
It's okay, it's okay
(It's okay)
I'm at work and you're on my mind
And I'm hoping to find some time
To get your loving
Lately we've needed to take a break
So anxious that I can't wait
To get your loving
- I want your love
I need your love
You are the only that I've been dreaming of
I want love
I want your love, love, love
You know that I've gotta get your love
I'm know you're boss can be real mean
Especially when you're thinking of me
To get my loving
You want me yes I know
Tell me how far would you go
To get my loving
- Baby don't you hear me calling
If you have some time
You can come spend the night
Many will search high and search low
But it's like only few will know
To get this loving
The nerve to tell people these words
Baby, baby don't we deserve
To get this loving
There's a wild streak in me
But it's only for u to see
Look to my heart, cause u know I'm ready to start
I guess I'm tryin to say, yes I've been waiting for this very day
Hope ur goin too slow, cause we're bout to shoot the sun a-glow
How do we make it, I do know
If there was ever a problem they had to go
Sometimes it's kinda hard yes I do agree
See 1 + u just equals me
They'll just watch us glow, they'll just watch us glow
Now in love something crazed ,
Exude from ur eyes when they are fixed on me & like the eternal flame,
We have a fire that won't ever stop burning
There's a power in numbers baby,
But 2 is deemed the perfect team
Me & u equals 2
We will battle the masses baby, but we will claim the victory
How do we make it, I do know
If there was ever a problem they had to go
Sometimes it's kinda hard yes I do agree
See 1 + u just equals me
They'll just watch us glow, they'll just watch us glow
Some said we would never change.
Look at us now people tried to tear it all apart,
Last night we were watching this game show
They were talking 'bout marriage
And that stuff you know
I found myself laughing
Cause those couples weren't clear
And then here he comes with this bright idea
So I said to him
- I know you mean well
You're genuine I can tell
Besides you and me
I know that we would soar
But are you ready?
You gotta be sure, you gotta be sure
- Oh no, I know you got the feeling, hold on
Baby, you're price ain't right, hold on
I know you got the feeling, hold on
Hey this is my life, hold on
I know you got the feeling, hold on
Baby you're price ain't right, I know
You feel like hitting the ceiling, hold on
Hey this is my life, hold on
So we're arguing
Talking about it back and forth
And forth and back as if there is no source
And now I'm wondering
Is this what he had in mind?
Cause if I thought we'd get through that door
Tell me what's gonna be my price
So I said to him
- Game show, game show, game show
Baby, you're price ain't right, hold on
Hey this is my life hold on
I know you got the feeling, hold on
Baby you're price ain't right, I know
You feel like hitting the ceiling, hold on
I watched the verse
You wanted,
Brought to you by the fearsome tunes,
Here come the nerves,
Look in the sky
It's eclipse,
And eagles flying real high too,
They'll be here soon.
Now Star Trak is here,
We come to save the day
When Star Trak has appeared,
We're going to pay the way.
This is a new beginning,
The empire strikes back,
Learning from losing,
Cherish winning,
Forever Star Trak.
This is a new beginning,
The empire strikes back,
Learning from losing,
Cherish winning,
Forever Star Trak.
This is a new beginning,
The empire strikes back,
Learning from losing,
Cherish winning,
Forever Star Trak.
You know
I saw it coming
I watched her watch me
The girl wanted what I had
Isn't that the story?
I'm not mad
I'm not mad
She spent so much time
Pursuin' you knowing that you were blind
And that's a bummer babe
It left me under babe
And it's true
Her tits were blinding you
While I had a hard enough time finding you
And thats a bummer babe
But I still love you baby
(get even)
Don't you hate when you lose your man to a chick
(even)
And she does it in your face to make sure you feel lit
(get even)
so the story draws out like some long ass skit
(even)
and bitch you knew that I like him get even
She wants to change her mind
And make sure you don't ever end up mine
And that's a bummer babe
She's so annoying babe (God)
But over my dead body
Will you not see that the grass is sure enough more green
And that's a bummer babe
Don't you ever wonder baby?
This is no new phenomenon
This always has been going on
When some punk bitch just does you wrong
And she keeps going on and on
This is no new phenomenon
This has been going on and on
When a relationship is going wrong and you just want to fucking get even
I'm a survivor
I'm getting older and wiser
I'm gonna live now
And nothing can change my mind
I'm a survivor
I'm getting older and wiser
And nothing can change my mind
I'm gonna live now
(get even)
Don't you hate when you lose your man to a chick
(even)
And she does it in your face to make sure you feel lit
(get even)
Some story draws out like some long ass skit
(even)
and bitch you knew that I liked to get even
(get even)
Don't you hate when you lose your man to a chick
(even)
And she does it in your face to make sure you feel lit
(get even)
Some story draws out like some long ass skit
(even)
and bitch you knew that I liked to get even
I'm a survivor
I'm getting older and wiser
I'm gonna live now
And nothing can change my mind
I'm a survivor
I'm getting older and wiser
And nothing can change my mind
I'm gonna live now
(get even)
Don't you hate when you lose your man to a chick
(even)
And she does it in your face to make sure you feel lit
(get even)
Some story draws out like some long ass skit
(even)
When he want it he blindfolds me
Then I get sexy on him, get sexy on him, like
Told him what I like
When he heat it up at night
Made him stand behind my door and watch me (uh uh uh)
And I couldn't believe the type
He was saying all the right,
Whispers gettin' mami right, I was (uh uh uh)
So I had to get the ice
Homie wanna fly the kite
Had to show him what a pro I was (uh uh uh)
I was headed for the light
He refused to take a bite
Till I put my blindfolders on
I'm saying something like
You just taking it all, what's gon' be left for me
I told you get it, but you're taking it all from me
When he want it he blindfolds me
Then I get sexy on him, get sexy on him, like
Hold up
Let me take this off
Just to see where I can catch my breath at all.
Hold up
You got a pretty strong team
Got somethin on the bench that Kelis ain't seen
Hold up
Why you treat me like that
Bout the 3rd or 4th time you ain't had to do that
Hold up
Won't you let me cheat once
And I promise you won't never make me keep this on
You just taking it all, what's gon' be left for me
I told you get it, but you're taking it all from me
When he want it he blindfolds me
Then I get sexy on him, get sexy on him, like
The last thing you get
Is a blindfold and a cigarette
You willing to bet
Like an ocean cruise
Mami, I'm so addictive
How long I('ve) been stroking you gives you motion sickness
Grant your wishes
I leave you four senses
Smelling, feeling, tasting, and hearing
One minute I'm gone
Next I'm reappearing
The bed is the bentley
I'm doing the steering
I got your eyes in the veil
With your hands all over my tattoos
Like your reading the braile
Like my wine
With a spicy aftertaste
Though you fine
I like to cover up half your face
If you blind and can't see
What I'm bout to do
The suspense so intense won't allow you to move
Gonna surprise you
Like Hugh Grant in 8 and a half weeks
Kelis and Nasty
You just taking it all, what's gon' be left for me
I told you get it, but you're taking it all from me
When he want it he blindfolds me
...Let's go...
I've been lovin' u for here long knowin' I was never clear
But I have no fear today cause I'm gonna say
What I gotta say, I don't wanna play the role
Bustin' through the door, I'm gonna take ur heart fo' sure, oh
Put ur hands up in the air, it's a stick up
I'm gon take ur heart from here, now let's fix up
Put ur hands in the air, in the air, in the air
I'm gonna play my cards from here
And take this gamble sure
My words are gonna fumble, but this beat is mighty humble
Ain't goin nowhere, sure I'm scared but my life's a dare
And baby u just got so much flare, we'll be the perfect pair
I'm gonna share my mind with u, u've been blinded
My life's been blue, I'm takin u, I'm takin u
Put ur hands up in the air, it's a stick up
I'm gon take ur heart from here, now let's fix up
Put ur hands in the air, in the air, in the air
Put ur hands up in the air, it's a stick up
I'm gon take ur heart from here, now let's fix up
Put ur hands in the air, in the air, in the air
In the air, in the air, in the air
When I first met u, I wanted to wet u
Not a gun but a different content, sexual
U tried to run, I still get u
Steel metal not needed, a whole 'nother meaning
Don't want ur gold, want ur soul
Control ur heartbeatin, cause when I start squeezin that muscle
That's the trigger, than I got u nigga, in ya
Chopper spinners, got ur bodyguards wit cha
Diamond dog tag chain swingin, I had them thangs ringin
This is a robbery, no one's gettin free
Till that man, he comes with me
Put ur hands up in the air, it's a stick up
I'm gon take ur heart from here, now let's fix up
Songwriters: Baptiste, Jean; Board, Printz; Mchenry, Michael; Rogers, Kelis;
So I'm writing this letter to you, baby
Just like my mother told me
She always said
\"Say yes before you say no and say maybe\"
See I never sugar coat any life lessons for you
'Cause I wanna make you equipped for the best
And I can't always be here to rescue you when life gets crazy
But I love you more than you'll ever know
With you, love never dies
With you, love never dies
'Cause I love you more than you'll ever know
I love you more than you'll ever know
I love you more than you'll ever know
I love you more than you'll ever know
I love you more than you'll ever know
No, I can't promise to have all the answers
To all of your questions
But I'll never lie and I'll raise you without not an obsession
See I never sugar coat any life lessons for you
'Cause I wanna make you equipped for the best
And I can't always be here to rescue you when life gets crazy
But I love you more than you'll ever know
With you, love never dies
With you, love never dies
'Cause I love you more than you'll ever know
I love you more than you'll ever know
I love you more than you'll ever know
I love you more than you'll ever know
I love you more than you'll ever know
You can do it if you try
You can do it if you try
You can do it if you try, try
You can do it if you try
You can do it if you try
You can do it if you try
You can do it if you try, try
I gotta protect my heart
I gotta protect my heart
You were the heart of the spot
But you wouldn't tell me your name
You were like
Girl you ready or not
To dance the entire night away
You and I
Let me hold you girl, hold you girl
You were sayin
Let me touch your girl
You were sayin
Let me squeeze you girl, squeeze you girl
You turned me on
Let me you girl
So when I first got here I knew love barely
I gotta protect my heart
And then you come changing things, I knew that's unfair babe
I gotta protect my heart
The room is Oh so hot
If you want move than move out of the way
I'm givin it all I got
And at the same time tryin to maintain
You were sayin
Let me hold you girl, hold you girl
You were sayin
Let me touch your girl
You were sayin
Let me squeeze you girl, squeeze you girl
You turned me on
Let me you girl
So when I first got here I knew love barely
I gotta protect my heart
Then you come and change things you know that's unfair babe
I gotta protect my heart
Never been touched by the way someone moves and that scares me
I gotta protect my heart
If cupid knew you were comin, he should have prepared me
I gotta protect my heart
I just need ta
I walked away from the door
I could feel myself reverseing
I never gave it before
See i guess that's what happend
when you were like
Let me hold you girl, hold you girl
You were sayin
Let me touch your girl
You were sayin
Let me squeeze you girl, squeeze you girl
You turned me on
Let me you girl
So when I first got here I knew love barely
I gotta protect my heart
Then you come and change things you know that's unfair babe
I gotta protect my heart
Never been touched by the way someone moves and that scares me
I gotta protect my heart
If cupid knew you were comin, he should have prepared me
I gotta protect my heart
Break It Down
So when I first got here I knew love barely
I gotta protect my heart
Then you come and change things you know that's unfair babe
I gotta protect my heart
I gotta protect my heart
My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard,
And there like,
Its better than yours,
Damn right its beter than yours,
I can teach you,
But i have to charge!
My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard,
And there like,
Its better than yours,
Damn right its beter than yours,
I can teach you,
But i have to charge!
I know you want it,
The thing that makes me,
What the guys go crazy for,
They lose their minds,
The way i wind,
I think its time,
Lala-lalala,(LaLa)
Warm it up, (thats disgusting)
Lala-lalala,
The boys are waiting,
Lala-lalala
Warm it up,
Lala-lalala,(LaLa)
The boys are waiting,
Boy's wanna know how my milkshake taste
See them fanstise when they look in my face
Want a slice of my icecream cake
Cream in the middle how many licks will it take
How u want it my flavor last hours
Once you've had mine your gurl was sweet and sour
Let me feel that candy cane
See if u can make my candy rain
Throw it back and your girl wont bug
All over me like a cup of hot fudge
I'm your peppermint patty wanna scope
Boy let me satify your sweet tooth
I can see your on it,
You want me to teach thee,
Techniques that freaks these boys,
It can't be bought,
Just know things get caught,
Watch if your smart,
Lala-lalala,
Warm it up,
Lala-lalala,
The boys are waiting,
Lala-lalala
Warm it up,
Lala-lalala,
The boys are waiting,
My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard,
And there like,
Its better than yours,
Damn right its beter than yours,
I can teach you,
But i have to charge!
My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard,
And there like,
Its better than yours,
Damn right its beter than yours,
I can teach you,
But i have to charge!
Oh once you get involved,
Everyone will look this way-so,
You must maintain your charm,
Same time maintain your haylo,
Just get the perfect blend,
Plus what you have within,
Then next his eyes are squint,
Then he's picked up your scent,
Yeah FlipeMode Baby
It go's one for the money, two for the club
Three for the eat and i dont mean da
Chose your own weppin
Jersey im reppin
Home boys a sling more rock the led zeplin
Bitch mob hold me down
Spit round for round
Milk shakes that will make u drown
Even worse then that kennedy boy they found
WHO LOVE holla back wen u hear the sound
Cuz im something like a fa-nom-in-nonm (shake)
And aint none of ya chickens are rum-enough (bounce)
Fall back you aint got the stum-in-na (brake)
Type heat that will buss a ter-mo-meter (bounce)
And if your rollin up or your chasen tail
Digga Digga in the house and we got it for sale
Grade A all day brothers chocken up
Night fall in a party we be smoking up
Dat...
Lala-lalala,
Warm it up,
Lala-lalala,
The boys are waiting,
Lala-lalala
Warm it up,
Lala-lalala,
The boys are waiting,
My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard,
And there like,
Its better than yours,
Damn right its beter than yours,
I can teach you,
But i have to charge!
My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard,
And there like,
Its better than yours,
Damn right its beter than yours,
I can teach you,
Hey whatcha know
Outside of the beastie boys show
Saw that kid that tried to get with me
He said by the way where ya been
Are you still wit that boyfriend
I said no with an evil grin
Wanna hook up but i thought again
Meet him on the train one day
When I was wrapped in pain
He said I love you
In more ways than I've ever heard
And before I got his name I thought it might be ok
To use for service to take some pain away
I know guys that talk around town
Girls like me wanna keep it down
Dope boy fresh in all your clothes
Want that girl where anything goes
Yeah beat boys want all the fame
Girls get hurt when you play that game
You weren't concerned in how I feel
No thank you i'd rather chill
Hey whats the deal
I'll let you know if things get ill
Can't hook up when you call the shots with me
But ya got things that i'd like to see
Soft porn doesnt do it for me
I don't like sex and drugs wit me
I don't like sex and drugs wit me
And one day on the train
I'd never leave my man stray
I don't deserve this
In more ways than I've ever heard
But instead of bein scared
His words just went straight to me head
And I got nervous and left my love away
I know guys that talk around town
Girls like me wanna keep it down
Dope boy fresh with all your clothes
Pop that girl if anything goes
Yeah beat boys want all the fame
Girls get hurt when you play that game
You weren't concerned in how I feel
No thank you i'd rather chill
I know guys that talk around town
Girls like me wanna keep it down
Dope boy fresh with all your clothes
Pop that girl if anything goes
Yeah beat boys want all the fame
Girls get hurt when you play that game
You weren't concerned in how I feel
Hi everyone uhm... my name is Carla
Everyone lets welcome Carla
I'm here because uhm
Well I didn't know what else to do and..
This is it
I'm strong now
Hello everybody my name is Kelis
(Hi Kelis)
The reason that I'm here is my problem got severe
My body would get sweaty whenever he came near
I haven't even hooked an entire year
I've got the fever
I'm a junkie
A junkie for your love
I'm a junkie
A junkie for your love
I'm a junkie
A junkie for your love
I'm a junkie
A junkie for your love
And I can't do my job right because this interferes
And I just want my life back I wanna see shit clear
I was strung out
For real since the first time we hung out
I never met a guy that was even half as fly
I've got the fever
I'm a junkie
A junkie for your love
I'm a junkie
A junkie for your love
I'm a junkie
A junkie for your love
I'm a junkie
A junkie for your love
All my relatives and neighbours would not get out my ear
I would tell them he was cool he just didn't need no beer
I was high n'
Stupid, yeah I was in denial
Every time he smiled at me my mouth would just go dry
I've got the fever
I'm a junkie
A junkie for your love
I'm a junkie
A junkie for your love
I'm a junkie
A junkie for your love
I'm a junkie
Yo, wake up, wake up
Ghetto children
Wake up, wake up
Ghetto children
Wake up, wake up
Ghetto children
Wake up, wake up
Ghetto children
Wake up, wake up
Hey, hey
You're a ghetto boy
You're my life
And there's so much for you to protect and to save
And baby boy don't hit your wife
Cause your kids may grow up someday to be this way, yeah
You don't know what you may be
To some boy in society
There's a secret to why
(There's a secret)
You must survive
So listen to what we say
Cause this type of shit happens every day
- [Kelis & Marc Dorsey]
Come for yours cause dreams come true
And this is the message that we bring through
Say hey now, hey now, now
Hey now, hey now
No matter what teachers say to you
Ghetto children are beautiful
Say hey now, hey now, now
Hey now, hey now
Baby girl you're my life
It's important that you smile
And never cry
(Don't never cry)
Study math and your sciences
Maybe you'll figure why we subtract and not multiply
You don't know what you may be
To some girl in society
There's a secret to why
We must survive
So listen to what we say
Cause this type of shit happens every day
Crack town ghetto in the city
Buildings are abandoned but the girls are still pretty
A child looks in the mirror
Yeah to see my life clearer
All I see is ghetto keys to this jet black coke gram
Nine eleven course
Of course 911 don't mean help
The only ones that need help is them sons without wealth
It's apparent that this nation they don't know what they facing
Young natural born killers and these street corner masons
You want that type of money that you see in the mob cliques
With your stashes in the drawers
Yes with the lumps under my carpet
Listen to your heart
Why should I listen to you?
I was here from the start
But you don't bring no money through
Look I only feel capes
And to get it I kill Jakes
By the time I'm 20 wanna be the ghetto Bill Gates
You a wannabe an angel
That was in my brain too
Now the only Star Spangle's coming out my Cango
Now that I'm out it's like the whole world flames you
Although the ghetto's nothing like the conclusion I came to
Your friends see you playing both sides
Now they don't claim you
Ghetto children change the world
Don't let the world change you, come on word
Little children wanna seem part of
The whole world wants to be apart of
A little ghetto things, a little ghetto things
Ay yo, ay yo
Little children wanna seem part of
The whole world wants to be apart of
Don't need no paper
Don't need no pencils
Don't need no love letters
'Cause I just wanna get along with you
No beeper
Don't need no cellular
Though Digital's better, listen
I just wanna get along with you
Try me 'cause I'd be
The one that makes you happy
But the part that I don't get is
Why me? You deny me
Now I'm forced to roam this planet
Sadly, lonely like some used briget
You took my heartbeat from me
This is the saddest story
What was wrong with my love?
You took my heartbeat from me
Was it I loved you poorly?
Whatever it was, I just wanna get along with you
Don't need no car
Don't need no truck
Don't need no vehicles
'Cause I just wanna get along with you
No planes
Don't need no trains
Don't need to be passenger
'Cause I just wanna get along with you
Try me 'cause I'd be
The one that makes you happy
But the part that I don't get is
Why me? You deny me
Now I'm forced to roam this planet
Sadly, lonely like some used briget
You took my heartbeat from me
This is the saddest story
What was wrong with my love?
You took my heartbeat from me
Was it I loved you poorly?
Whatever it was, I just wanna get along with you
Don't need these clothes
Don't need this house
Don't need this land or skies
'Cause I just wanna get along with you
These eyes
Don't need these thighs
As a matter of fact this damn life
'Cause I just wanna get along with you
Try me 'cause I'd be
The one that makes you happy
But the part that I don't get is
Why me? You deny me
Now I'm forced to roam this planet
Sadly, lonely like some used briget
You took my heartbeat from me
This is the saddest story
What was wrong with my love?
You took my heartbeat from me
Should have just stabbed it for me
From ashes to dust, I just wanna get along with you
Dear diary
I remember like it was yesterday
It was October 30th
I no longer have any need for these worldly things
I wanna go where he is
I'll follow the fire in the sky
And like that I'll be gone
You took my heartbeat from me
This is the saddest story
What was wrong with my love?
You took my heartbeat from me
Should have just stabbed it for me
From ashes to dust, I just wanna get along with you
You took my heartbeat from me
This is the saddest story
You took my heartbeat from me
Should have just stabbed it for me
I'm not ashamed of winning
But it wasn't that way in the beginning
It was this way
It was kiss me
Come kick me and diss me
I had to give it up
Now it's a way different feeling
You took my soul I had to steer it back
Now it's this way
Now it's with me
No mistake just listen
I had to give a **
All of this pain you had given
It's just a reminder of livin
It was crazy, had a baby
He's amazin, he saved me
And this time it's just us
You raised up, I can say that
I was too young, I'll never get that back
Now it's this way
Now it's flipped babe
I'm happy, just listen
I had to give a **
[Chorus]
I was super cool
But now I'm super strong
I had nothing to loose
But I was super wrong
It was the circumstance
I got the power from
I was super tough
But now I'm super strong
Super strong
I'm a braveheart
I'm a braveheart
I'm a braveheart
So come and pin my purple heart
Come and pin my purple heart
Come and pin my purple heart
I didn't run
Hey ya.
You don't have to love me
You don't even have to like me
But you will respect me
You know why?
Cuz I'm a boss!
Uh uh... watch the beat go...
Uh uh... watch the beat go...
Uh uh... watch the beat go...
Uh uh... watch that beat go...
I'm bossy
I'm the first girl to scream on a track
I switched up the beat of the drum
That's right, I brought all the boys to the yard
And that's right, I'm the one that's tattooed on his arm
I'm bossy
I'm the bitch you love to hate
I'm the chick that's raised the stake
I told young stunna he should switch to Bape
I'm back with an 808 'cause I'm bossy
Ooh, lemme slow it down for ya so you can catch the flow (catch the flow)
Screw it up make it go extra slow (extra slow)
Real girls get down on the flo' (on the flo' get down, on the flo')
Ooh, I gave you a taste you want some more (touch down)
On it like a pro
I ride the beat like a bicycle, I'm icy cold
Ooh, from the 6-4 hoppers up in crenshaw
The money making playas up in Harlem
Don't want no problem
We gon' keep it bumping while the 808 is jumping
Diamonds on my neck, di-diamonds on my grill
Diamonds on my neck, di-diamonds on my grill
Ooh, (I bet, I bet) I bet cha neva heard it like this before (this before)
My baby be cruising them phantom doors (phantom doors)
Got the bar popping this that you can't afford (can't afford)
Ooh, I'm drinking, blasting the crowds, it's all smoking
All the while I'm all open
Me and my girls we stay fly and we love to stay high
Ooh, from the 6-4 hoppers up in crenshaw
To the money making playas up in Harlem
Don't want no problems
We gon' keep it bumping while the 808 is jumping
Diamonds on my neck, di-diamonds on my grill
Diamonds on my neck, di-diamonds on my grill
It's 'bout time that she get with me
Can't stop staring, she's fine and she's pretty
Damn girl, don't hurt 'em
If niggas don't get back, you gon' work 'em
Put your mack down, I know your background
What chu want girl, you getting mad now
That's how you do it, huh?
Well I'm the coolest one
In fact, it's in the back bring 'em to the front (bitch)
Tell that man you's a boss, bitch
Make some noise, raise your hand if you's a boss, bitch
I don't think he understands you's a boss, bitch
Get some help if you can 'cause he lost it
Ain't no refunds, she spent the cash mayne
In your Benz with her friends in the fast lane
Flossing, you say "How much it cost me?"
About a million dollars playa, she's bossy
Uh uh... watch the beat go...
Uh uh... watch the beat go...
Uh uh... watch the beat go...
Uh uh... watch the beat go...
Uh uh... watch the beat go...
Uh uh... watch the beat go...
Uh uh... watch the beat go...
Uh uh... watch the beat go...
hot damn, boy i'll take you shopping
take you out to copping, things that you been wanting,
nice things, feels just like a nice dream
turn it up give me anything
i'll get you anything you want, i'll get you anything you want
i'll get anything, anything, anything, anything
everything you need, i'll get you everything you need
i'll get you everything, everything, everything, everything
tell me what you like, as long as i'm alive
i can do, i can do, i can do
tell me what you need, as long as i can bring
i can do, i can do, i can do, i can do
tell me what you like, tell me what you like
hot damn, this boy got me spending
my benjamin franklins, he ain't logic
so i bought him a computer
then took him to a
my baby super duper, i just love the way he do things, he do
i'll get you anything you want, i'll get you anything you want
i'll get anything, anything, anything, anything
everything you need, i'll get you everything you need
i'll get you everything, everything, everything, everything
tell me what you like, as long as i'm alive
i can do, i can do, i can do
tell me what you need, as long as i can bring
i can do, i can do, i can do, i can do
I was walking, was living
My melody was acapella
There’s a beat I was missing
No tune, or a scale, I could play
The sound in the distance
No orchestra playing together
Like a boat out to sea,
The silence was too deafening!
So come and revive me
I can’t feel my heartbeat
Just me surviving alone
(Chorus)
Before you,
My whole life was acapella!
Now a symphony’s
The only song to sing
Before you,
My whole life was acapella!
Now a symphony’s
The only song to sing
Everything was the same
One color was just like the others
An assembly routine
My memories were all black and white
Till I stopped over-thinking
Decided to draw back the curtains
And I cleared all the cobwebs
And began to let in the light
So come and revive me
I can’t feel my heartbeat
Just me surviving alone
(Chorus)
Before you,
My whole life was acapella!
Now a symphony’s
The only song to sing
Before you,
My whole life was acapella!
Now a symphony’s
The only song to sing
(Bridge – 3X)
You are the drum in my heart beat
Bass and guitar lead
Stuck on the notes you play
My heart that you play on
Grab like a crayon
I can’t walk away
(Chorus – 2X)
Before you,
My whole life was acapella!
Now a symphony’s
The only song to sing
Before you,
My whole life was acapella!
Now a symphony’s
When I first met you
You stood by my side
And when you asked me to be yours
You made me cry
And so I was prepared
To take all the blows at the chin
But you never mentioned cheating
Please tell me what happened
What makes you think?
You get away with that
Talking to my best friend
Behind my back
Look what you did to us
Look what you did to me
What a wonderful loss
Wouldn't you agree?
She introduced me to you
Said you were just friends
She assured me you were the one
For me until the end
Now I should have known
By the magic between you two
That angel faces like yours
Can lie too, can lie too
Look what you did to us
Look what you did to me
What a wonderful loss
Wouldn't you agree?
Wouldn't you agree?
(Na, na, na, na, na)
Wouldn't you agree?
(Na, na, na, na, na)
Wouldn't you agree?
(Na, na, na, na, na)
Wouldn't you agree?
(Na, na, na, na, na)
Wouldn't you agree?
(Na, na, na, na, na)
When I see my friends
They've got to know
I not only lost a friend
But now my heart's about to explode
Now there's something I'd like
To say before I make my outro
(Oh God) Oh God
(Do you see that?)
Did you see that?
(There they go)
There they go
Why would you do this to me? (Yeah)
You can't lie in my face
(I thought you were my best friend, yeah)
Behind my back
Look at what you've do to me
(How could you do this to me?)
Can't believe what you've done to me
(How could you do this to me?)
Wouldn't you agree, yeah
(This can not be, he was my friend)
(IT'S THE WEEKEND! IT'S THE WEEKEND!
IT'S THE WEEKEND! AND THEM FREAKS ARE COMIN'!
OH! THEM FREAKS ARE COMIN'!)
This is my song, this is my life, baby it's on
Somebody told me, the weekend's just for me
All through the week, I've been at work, doing my job
Then somebody told me, the weekend's just for me
Oooh-oooooh (The weekend's coming! And them freaks are coming)
Oooh-oooooh (The weekend's coming!)
Here come the beats, n****!
Boom!, and the beat go boom, boom!
And the beat go boom, and the beat go boom, boom!
And the beat go boom, and the beat go boom, boom!
And the beat go boom, and the beat go boom, boom!
I know what we can do on the weekend
Baby - We can party all night, yeah, baby
I know what we can do on the weekend
(IT'S THE WEEKEND!)
I just got paid, it's Friday night, and I feel alive
And somebody told me, this club was built for me
They're playing my song, it feels so right, I'm gonna dance in the night
And somebody told me, this beat was made for me
Oooh-oooooh (The weekend's coming! And the freaks are coming)
Oooh-oooooh (The weekend's coming!)
Here come the beats, n****!
Boom!, and the beat go boom, boom!
And the beat go boom, and the beat go boom, boom!
And the beat go boom, and the beat go boom, boom!
And the beat go boom, and the beat go boom, boom!
I know what we can do on the weekend
Baby - We can party all night, yeah, baby
I know what we can do on the weekend
Baby - We can party all night, yeah, baby
(IT'S THE WEEKEND! IT'S THE WEEKEND!
AND THEM FREAKS ARE COMIN'! OH! THEM FREAKS ARE COMIN'!
IT'S THE WEEKEND! IT'S THE WEEKEND!)
Oooh-oooooh (The weekend's coming! And the freaks are coming)
Oooh-oooooh (The weekend's coming!)
Here come the beats, n****!
Boom!, and the beat go boom, boom!
And the beat go boom, and the beat go boom, boom!
And the beat go boom, and the beat go boom, boom!
And the beat go boom, and the beat go boom, boom!
I know what we can do on the weekend
Baby - We can party all night, yeah, baby
I know what we can do on the weekend
I'm traveling off the cliff just to fall in love with you (I'm serious, i'm serious)
And we ain't got no plans on coming back soon, yeah (I'm serious, i'm serious)
I got my bags packed just to hit the road with you, cause (I'm serious, yeah, i'm serious)
And when it gets bumpy I'll be rollin' with you, cause (I'm serious, yeah, hey baby)
Till them wheels fall off
Till them wheels fall off
Till them wheels fall off
Till them wheels fall off
Till them wheels fall off
Till them wheels fall off
Till them wheels fall off
Till them wheels fall off
Oh baby, I'm runnin' on metal plates
Oh baby, I'm never gonna walk away
Even though we runnin' on metal plates
Oh baby, I'm runnin' on metal plates
My tank is all empty, but my heart is filled with fuel (I'm serious, oh, i'm serious)
I never run from nothing, but I'm running straight to you (I'm serious, i'm serious)
And I don't have no plans on coming back soon (I'm serious, i'm serious)
I know you scared, but they're coming on soon (It's serious, oh, serious)
Till them wheels fall off
Till them wheels fall off
Till them wheels fall off
Till them wheels fall off
Till them wheels fall off
Till them wheels fall off
Till them wheels fall off
Till them wheels fall off
Oh baby, I'm running on metal plates
Oh baby, someday we'll see better days
Oh, we'll be running on metal plates
Oh, we'll be running on metal plates
Ridin' shot gun baby
Keep on through
Emergency break off, pedal to the floor
We gonna move
Movin' fast hit the gas, crash
We gonna move
And remember the wheels fall off
Carry me through
Till them wheels fall off
Till them wheels fall off
Till them wheels fall off
Till them wheels fall off
Till them wheels fall off
Till them wheels fall off
Till them wheels fall off
I woke up this mornin' and seen somethin' bright
Was that you?
Then I heard a voice
Sound like birds outside
Was that you?
(Shu-sugar-sugar honey ice-ice-tea)
But I bet you didn't know
You're my sugar honey iced tea, baby
You're just as sweet as can be
Your momma must be made of sugar
Your daddy makes honey
And that's what makes sense to me, oh!
(Shu-sugar-sugar honey ice-ice-tea)
Not sure if I was dreamin' of you and I
Was that true? Oh, I don't know
Smilin' and squeezin' in the bluest sky
Wasn't that true?
(Shu-sugar-sugar honey ice-ice-tea)
But I bet you didn't know
You're my sugar honey iced tea, baby
You're just as sweet as can be
Your momma must be made of sugar
Your daddy makes honey
And that's what makes sense to me, oh!
(Shu-sugar-sugar honey ice-ice-tea)
Open my arms
See my love's a window, it's open for you
Not to hurt you
Actually reverse effects like that in a Tide commercial
We'll be blowin' free in the wind
It's a sunny day, I sip your love and grin
(Shu-sugar-sugar honey ice-ice-tea)
(Hold it now...Hold it now)
Two steps to my love, baby
Two steps to my love
(Hold it now)
But I bet you didn't know
You're my sugar honey iced tea, baby
You're just as sweet as can be
Your momma must be made of sugar
Your daddy makes honey
And that's what makes sense to me, oh!
Open my arms
See my love's a window, it's open for you
Not to hurt you
Actually reverse effects like that in a Tide commercial
We'll be blowin' free in the wind
It's a sunny day, I sip your love and grin
(Hold it now...H-Hold it now)
Your appearance turn me on
Your natural self its really coming off strong
There's not to many dudes that catch my eyes
But if you stick around I give you a slice of the pie
I dont just like you
I like you, like you
I dont just like you
I like you, like you
Can we come together
Can we come together
You can fluff my feathers
Fluff my feathers
Da da da daa
Dada da da
Dada da da dada
Da da da daa
Dada da da
Dada da da dada
Dada da da dada
Dada da da dada
Dada da da dada
Dada da da dada
First date its going real well
He's makin' me hott
Or is it his cock
(Awwwwwww damn)
No matter the case we got along swell
So whatever if we started tonight, we gonna
Da da da daa
Dada da da
Dada da da dada
Da da da daa
Dada da da
Dada da da dada
Dada da da dada
Dada da da dada
Dada da da dada
Dada da da dada
Uhh huh huh
Huh huh huhh
Uhh huh huh
Huh huh huhh-ehhh
Da da da daa
Dada da da
Dada da da dada
Dada da da dada
Dada da da dada
Dada da da dada
Somebody made me an offer and I accepted
Forever in debted to weapon
Love, honor, and respected
But his image was different than what his character reflected
Word is he's seven-thirty his hands never dirty
All I know this so called psycho never hurt me
Took me down to Tif's, shopping sprees on Fifth
With enough dough that could be carry out on forklifts
Earnt his trust, together till we turn to dust
Until his theory disintegrated and burnt to crust
What? What?
Death do us apart
That's what I vow to you
The vows I vow to you
Amazing how it's true
Talk goes on our phone
Just to remind you
That I'm behind you
The FEDS won't find you
- Relax my love
The love I have for you is like the Mafia
For you I'd testify
I'd lie for you of course
Since my love is like the Mafia
And for you I will fight
Mister and Misses, but I wonder where the bliss is
Sealed in blood and Cordion kisses
The shit I witnessed
Would give a bitch morning sickness
Decomposed bodies thrown in the ditches
As for snitches ain't nothing lower than that
Intentions to squeal on your fam make you low as a rat
Got cappos for flaming at those
Lame ass hoes, so you know next time keep your trap close
What would you doubt for?
I'd never lie to you
Of course I'd die for you
I'd be your eye for you
My love rest assured
I'll raise our sons for you
I'll save our ones for you
Load up your guns for you
Riches, tradition niggas once held dear
Let it be known that your name alone spell fear
Gun for gun, hundred to one forget about it
Petty shit, rise above and get up out it
Could give a shit about it
Time to focus a foe
Many lives bought and sold
Fortunes favor the bold
Connected like phone lines
To racketeering to known crimes
Winners turning long shots to gold mines
The high speed chases
I'll do them just like you
I'll give them dust like you
Turn around and bust like you
Then I'll disappear,
And return like Jedi
I'm young and living fun, huh
Sure look down and call it dumb, huh
I can still see the sun, huh
Do you remember 21, huh?
Can I stay the way, huh?
Grow up today, huh
Can you really blame, huh
Shit you can leave or stay, huh
When the world feels like its closin' in
And you don't know what you know
And you think about whats holdin' you
It's relatives and clothes
Just leave it all behind
You got to get away
You got to get away
Everybody
See the look in my eye, huh
I got to get it out, huh
I don't care if they stare, huh
I learn life's not fair, huh
I'm gonna play while I'm here, huh
I gotta get it out, huh
Just watch me run away now, huh
You know sometimes you just gotta
Hey
Run away from
Home
Run away from (Young, fresh n' new)
Home
Run away from
Home
Run away from
(Got to get)
I've got to get away (away)
Hey, hey hey hey...
(I've got)
I've got to get away (away)
Hey
Run away from
Home
Run away from (young, fresh n' new)
Home
Run away from
Home
Run away from
When the world feels like its closin' in
And you don't know what you know
And you think about whats holdin' you
It's relatives and clothes
Just leave it all behind
You got to get away
You got to get away
Everybody
(Got to get)
I've got to get away (away)
Hey hey hey hey...
(I've got)
Oh I've got to get away (away)
But I've got to be
Young, fresh n' new
Hey
Run away from
Home
Run away from (young, fresh n' new)
Home
Run away from
Home
Run away from
Hey
Love is this marathon, I'm running for you baby
And you don't know me yet but faith is all I have, see
And I'm gonnnaaaaa
Win this race
Since I were a little girl
My eyes were fixed on you
I knew that one day we'd meet
That you could set me free
Sure diamond ring, pretty things
A piece of mind, could be all mine
O this growing love affair
Has kept me on my feet
Love is this marathon, I'm running for you baby
And you don't know me yet but faith is all I have, see
And I'm gonnnaaaaa
Win this race
Yesterday I had a glimpse of you
You looked me in my face
And just the other day you brushed right by me
I felt you reeling in my space
Tell me, do you think of me
And can you see me from the start
I swear I said I'd wait for you
But fate might change the score
Love is this marathon, I'm running for you baby
And you don't know me yet but faith is all I have, see
And I'm gonnnaaaaa
This article appears to be written like an advertisement. Please help improve it by rewriting promotional content from a neutral point of view and removing any inappropriate external links. (January 2011) |
Type | Private |
---|---|
Industry | Diversified financials |
Founded | Hong Kong (1986) |
Headquarters | Hong Kong, China |
Key people | Jonathan Slone Chairman and CEO |
Products | Financial services |
Employees | 1,350 (2009) |
Website | www.clsa.com |
'CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets' is one of the region’s largest and most highly rated independent equity brokers and financial-services groups, focused on providing broking, investment banking and asset management to corporate and institutional clients around the world.[1][2]
Founded in 1986, CLSA has its headquarters in Hong Kong and offices or representatives in 15 cities across the Asia-Pacific region, as well as New York, London, San Francisco and Dubai. CLSA is majority owned (65%) by Crédit Agricole, France’s largest retail-banking group, with the remainder held by staff.
Unlike most of its competitors, CLSA is a research-driven agency broker.[3] It’s known for its annual investor forums (particularly the calibre of its keynote speakers and the star acts at its parties), as well as its unique reports, the hallmarks of which are colourful and sometimes irreverent “cartoon” covers[4] and analysis that goes beyond the numbers and ‘tells the story’ (a legacy of the journalism background of its founders). It has produced a number of seminal reports, including Billion Boomers and Mr & Mrs Asia.
Contents |
In 1986, Winfull Laing & Cruickshank Securities began operations in Hong Kong, with former business journalist Jim Walker as chairman. The small brokerage was a 50-50 joint venture between the Woo Hon Fai family and Alexander Laing & Cruickshank.
Walker was soon joined by two other former journalists: Gary Coull, as head of the dealing room; and Malcolm Surry, as head of research. All three had worked at the South China Morning Post; neither Coull nor Surry had any experience in brokering.
The following year, Crédit Lyonnais acquired Alexander Laing & Cruickshank and, after various iterations, Walker’s startup emerged in 1989 as Credit Lyonnais Securities (Asia). But relations with the French giant – which was about to be engulfed by a series of major financial scandals – soon became ‘impossible’, according to Coull, and he and Walker resigned. They were persuaded to return in exchange for a 35% stake in the company and guarantees of independence.
CLSA was founded by two former business journalists, Jim Walker (1949–2004) and Gary Coull (1954–2006). In September 2006, one month before he died, Coull was named one of the 50 most influential people in Asian financial history by FinanceAsia magazine.[citation needed]
CLSA Capital Partners is the firm’s alternative asset-management arm and comprises 10 funds with more than US$2.5bn under management. The strategy is simple, according to Executive Chairman Richard Pyvis: ‘We invest in businesses we understand that are driven by domestic demand.’[citation needed] The funds target growth companies, property and transport, buyout financing, mid-market buyouts and clean-tech opportunities.
Launched in 2006, China Reality Research independently monitors what is now the world's second-largest economy by collecting and analysing grassroots data from across the country. With a presence in about 100 cities, it tracks and reports on a vast range of activity, including core sectors such as banking, steel, real estate, resources, consumer goods and energy, as well as key macro trends such as food inflation, urbanisation and the rise of China’s middle class. CRR also conducts bespoke research for clients.[citation needed]
Launched in 2011, India Reality Research is formed on the same principle as China Reality Research.
A continually evolving executive-level education programme for the firm’s top clients, CLSA U provides unfiltered access to independent experts[who?] in a wide range of fields and specialities affecting investment decisions in the region. Over any 12 months, it offers some 75 courses in 22 locations around the world, attracting 4,500 enrolments. The syllabus focuses on the latest industry trends, investment theories and macro developments, but also includes personal-growth topics.
With headquarters in Hong Kong, CLSA has offices or representatives in 19 other cities around the world: Sydney (Australia), Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen (China), Mumbai and Pune (India), Jakarta (Indonesia), Tokyo (Japan), Seoul (Korea), Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), Port Louis (Mauritius), Manila (Philippines), Singapore (Singapore), Taipei (Taiwan), Bangkok (Thailand), Dubai (United Arab Emirates), London (United Kingdom), New York and San Francisco (United States of America). Its 1,850 staff include more than 150 analysts covering 1,200 Asian companies across 13 sectors.
CLSA is majority owned (65%) by Crédit Agricole, France’s largest retail-banking group, with the remainder held by staff.
Asia Maxima (Christopher Wood)
Bits & pieces (Damian Kestel)
Eye on Asian economies (Eric Fishwick)
GREED & fear (Christopher Wood)
Sinology (Andy Rothman)
Solid Ground (Russell Napier)
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer: Jonathan Slone
Christopher Wood
Described by London’s Telegraph newspaper as ‘the first to predict the US sub-prime meltdown’,[5] Christopher Wood is best known for his weekly GREED & fear newsletter. He’s been ranked No.1 Asian equities strategist every year since 2002 by either Asiamoney or Institutional Investor and usually by both. A former finance journalist with the Far Eastern Economic Review and The Economist, Wood is also the author of Boom & Bust, The Bubble Economy and The End of Japan Inc. He also wrote the CLSA milestone research report, The Real Pacific Century: Asia’s Billion Boomers.
Andy Rothman
China Macro Strategist Andy Rothman, a former American diplomat, joined CLSA in 2000. Under the Sinology label, he writes analysis of economic and political trends on the mainland, as well as assessments of China's impact on regional economies. Rothman first went to China in 1980 as a student; he returned four years later as a diplomat, and focused on China for most of his 17 years with the US Foreign Service. He served as director of the Macroeconomic and Domestic Policy Office of the US Embassy in Beijing, and helped negotiate the normalisation of relations between the USA and Vietnam.[6]
Eric Fishwick
One of only a handful of economists with first-hand experience of Japan’s deleveraging during the 1990s, plus the US Treasury and money markets, Eric Fishwick was named Asia’s top economist in 2009 by Asiamoney.[7] Although his focus is China, Fishwick is an expert on Asian economies, and has 17 years’ experience in financial markets. Before that, he was a permanent advisor to the UK House of Commons. He holds a masters' degree in economics and a master of philosophy in international relations from the University of Cambridge.[citation needed]
Russell Napier
London-based consultant Russell Napier writes about issues and themes affecting global equity markets, under the Solid Ground label. Napier played a key role in the development and scope of CLSA’s equity research in his role as equity strategist from 1995-1999. He was ranked No.1 by both the Asiamoney and Institutional Investor polls from 1997 to 1999. Napier’s book Anatomy of the Bear was named the ‘investment read of the year’ in 2006 by the Financial Times.[8]
Securities and Futures Commission reprimand (May 2004)[9]
Asiamoney “vote-rigging” email (2005)[10]
Allen Lam insider-trading conviction (July 2009)[11]
This section is empty. You can help by adding to it. |
20 Years in Asia: Two decades of commitment
Anatomy of the Bear: Lessons from Wall Street’s four great bottoms, Russell Napier ISBN 978-962-86067-9-5
Climb! The Pinstriped Backpack, Richard Pyvis ISBN 978-962-86067-1-9
The Corruption of Capitalism: A strategy to rebalance the global economy and restore sustainable growth, Richard Duncan ISBN 978-988-98942-4-5
Islam & Economics: A productive partnership?, Richard Pyvis & Phillip Braun ISBN 978-988-98942-2-1
Mr & Mrs Asia: An extraordinary survey of an extraordinary region ISBN 978-988-98942-0-7
New beginnings: After the tsunami: The rebuilding of Lamreh Village, Aceh, Isla Rogers-Winarto and Helen Vanwel
Tomorrow’s Gold: Asia’s age of discovery, Marc Faber ISBN 978-962-86067-2-6
CLSA Outward Bound Adventure Race
China Reality Research (requires subscription)
Katy Perry | |
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Katy Perry at the Logie Awards in 2011 |
|
Background information | |
Birth name | Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson |
Also known as | Katy Hudson |
Born | Santa Barbara, California, U.S. |
October 25, 1984
Genres | Pop, rock, dance, gospel |
Occupations | Singer-songwriter, actress |
Instruments | Vocals, guitar, piano |
Years active | 2001–present |
Labels | Red Hill, Island, Columbia, Capitol |
Associated acts | The Matrix |
Website | Katyperry.com |
Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson[1] (born October 25, 1984), known by her stage name Katy Perry, is an American singer, songwriter and actress. Perry grew up with gospel music, and during her first year of high school she pursued a music career as Katy Hudson, releasing her first studio album called Katy Hudson which failed to chart. She recorded a solo album later, which was never released. After signing with Capitol Music Group in 2007, her fourth record label in seven years, she adopted the stage name Katy Perry.
She first gained recognition with the release of her first mainstream album, One of the Boys in 2008, which spawned three Billboard Hot 100 top-ten songs—"I Kissed A Girl", "Hot n Cold" and "Waking Up In Vegas". Perry supported the album with her Hello Katy Tour. In 2010, her third studio album, Teenage Dream (2010), which topped the Billboard 200 chart, and spawned five number one singles—"California Gurls", "Teenage Dream", "Firework", "E.T." and "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)"—Teenage Dream was the only album (after Michael Jackson's Bad)—to do so, and the first female in history to achieve this milestone. She embarked on the California Dreams Tour, which grossed nearly $60 million worldwide.[2] Perry re-released the album under the name of Teenage Dream: The Complete Confection on March 26, 2012, and the re-release has already spawned the number-one single "Part of Me".
Perry is the only artist to spend over 52 consecutive weeks in the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100, and has since heightened this to 69 weeks.[3] As of 2012, Perry has been nominated for eight Grammy Awards. She was named 2011's "Artist of the Year" by MTV.[4] She has sold 37.6 million digital tracks in the United States and 11 million albums worldwide.[5] Perry was a guest judge on the seventh series of The X Factor UK and the ninth season of American Idol. She has released fragrances "Purr" and "Meow". She ventured into film, voicing Smurfette in the 2011 film The Smurfs. Perry was married to British comedian Russell Brand from 2010 to 2012.
Contents |
Perry was born Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson in Santa Barbara, California[6] to Keith, a West Coast scenester in the 1960s,[7] and Mary Hudson (née Perry), an evangelist who grew up in Southern California and had a "tempestuous" first marriage in Zimbabwe.[7] Perry has Portuguese, German, Irish, and English ancestry.[8][9][10] She is the second child of two pastors.[11] She has an older sister named Angela Hudson and younger brother named David Hudson.[12] Perry's mother's aunt and uncle were screenwriter Eleanor Perry and director Frank Perry.[7] Perry was incorporated into her parents' ministry[11] and sang in their church between the ages of 9 and 17.[13] She grew up listening to gospel music,[14] was not allowed to listen to what her mother called "secular music",[13][15] and attended Christian schools and camps.[11] As a child, Perry learned how to dance in a recreation building in Santa Barbara. She was taught by seasoned dancers and began with swing, Lindy Hop, and jitterbug.[16] She took her GED after her first year at Dos Pueblos High School and decided to leave school in the pursuit of a career in music.[17] Perry initially started singing "because [she] was at that point in [her] childhood where [she] was copycatting [her] sister and everything she [would do]."[17] Her sister practiced with cassette tapes, while Perry took the tapes herself when her sister was not around. She rehearsed the songs and performed them in front of her parents, who suggested she take vocal coaching. She grabbed the opportunity and began taking lessons at the age of nine and continued until she was sixteen. She later enrolled in at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, and studied Italian opera for a short period of time.[17]
When Perry was 15, her singing in church attracted the attention of rock veterans from Nashville, Tennessee, who brought her there to polish her writing skills.[18] In Nashville, Perry started recording demos and was taught by country music veterans how to craft songs and play guitar.[13][15] Perry signed to the Christian music label Red Hill, under which she recorded her first album at the age of 15.[19] Performing as Katy Hudson, she released a self-titled gospel rock album in 2001.[18] She supported this album with The Strangely Normal Tour, accompanied by Phil Joel, LaRue, Luna Halo, Earthsuit and V*Enna.[20] The album was unsuccessful as the label ceased operations at the end of 2001.[19] She later changed her surname to Perry, her mother's maiden name, because "Katy Hudson" was too close to film actress Kate Hudson.[18][21]
At the age of 17, Perry left her home for Los Angeles, where she worked with Glen Ballard on an album for Island Records.[22] Growing up listening to mostly gospel music, Perry had few references when she began recording songs.[13] Asked by the producer with whom she would like to collaborate, Perry had no idea. That night, she went with her mother to a hotel. Inside, she turned on VH1 and saw producer Glen Ballard talking about Alanis Morissette;[13] Ballard produced Morissette's Jagged Little Pill, which had a "huge influence" on Perry.[18] She expressed interest in working with Ballard to her initial collaborator, who arranged a meeting for her with Ballard in Los Angeles. Perry presented one of her songs to Ballard. Ballard then helped Perry develop her songwriting over the next few years.[13] The album was due for release in 2005,[18][19] but Billboard reported it also went nowhere.[19] Perry was dropped by The Island Def Jam Music Group.[7] Some of Perry and Ballard's collaborations included "Box", "Diamonds" and "Long Shot", were posted on her official MySpace page. "Simple", one of the songs she recorded with Ballard, was released on the soundtrack to the 2005 film The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.[23][24] "Long Shot" and "I Do Not Hook Up" was later recorded by Kelly Clarkson for her 2009 album All I Ever Wanted.[25]
Perry signed to Columbia Records in 2004. However, the label was not amenable with her vision, not putting her in the "driver's seat".[19] Instead, one of Columbia's ideas was to pair Perry with the record production team The Matrix, who was working on an album, to serve as its female vocalist. Although the album was later shelved,[26] she caught the attention of the music press: Her burgeoning music career led to her being named "The Next Big Thing" in October 2004 by Blender magazine.[19] With no album project ongoing, Perry began recording her own. Eighty percent completed, however, Columbia decided not to finish it and dropped her from the label.[19] While waiting to find another label, she worked in an independent A&R company called Taxi Music. In 2006, Perry was featured in the tail-end of the video to P.O.D.'s single "Goodbye for Now".[27] She made a cameo appearance in Carbon Leaf's video, "Learn to Fly".
While in the process of being dropped by Columbia in 2006, the company's publicity executive Angelica Cob-Baehler enthusiastically recommended Perry to Virgin Records chairman Jason Flom.[28] At the time Flom was leading a complete revival in fortunes at the label and looking to crown recent achievements by breaking a global pop act.[28] Despite mixed reactions from fellow Virgin executives, Flom became convinced that Perry could be that breakthrough star, and at the start of 2007 extended discussions with Columbia resulted in Perry signing to the newly created Capitol Music Group, a merger between Virgin and Capitol. As part of the deal, the label secured the masters to the unfinished album, recorded while at Columbia, that would go on to form a significant part of her official mainstream debut album, One of the Boys.[28]
The Columbia recordings were seen by Flom as being "very strong but lacking an undeniable smash or two that would work both at U.S. pop radio and internationally" and so one of the executive's first actions after completing the signing was to set up a collaboration between Perry and the writer-producer Dr. Luke.[28] The results were the songs "I Kissed a Girl" and "Hot n Cold". Establishing her image was one of the immediate concerns of her management.[19] A campaign was started in November 2007 with the release of the video to "Ur So Gay", aimed at introducing her to the music market. A digital EP led by "Ur So Gay" was later released to create online buzz and press story.[11][19][29] This was a successful move that resulted in bringing Perry to the attention of Madonna,[19] who mentioned her on KISS FM and KRQ's JohnJay & Rich morning show in Arizona. On March 10, 2008, she appeared as herself on the ABC Family television series, Wildfire, on the episode "Life's Too Short".[30]
In the next step of promoting the album, Perry undertook a two-month tour of radio stations. The album's official lead single, "I Kissed a Girl", was released on May 6, 2008. Perry's A&R, Chris Anokute, told HitQuarters the song and its controversial theme had met with strong resistance at the label: "People said, 'This is never going to get played on the radio. How do we sell this? How’s this going to be played in the bible belt?'"[29] Anokute said that they needed the support of one of the label's radio promoters to convince people to believe in the record; otherwise, Perry would have likely been dropped again. Capitol's SVP of Promotions, Dennis Reese, saw the vision and helped push the single on national radio. The first station to pick it up and take a chance was The River in Nashville. After playing it for three days they were innundated with enthusiastic calls.[29] With the song climbing atop the charts, Perry embarked on the annual Warped Tour music festival, which her management used to "establish her as a credible performer and make sure she wasn't seen as just a one-hit wonder."[19] The single was a commercial success, peaking at number one for seven weeks on the Billboard Hot 100.[19] It has since become a major worldwide hit, topping charts in 30 countries,[26] including Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom.[31] On June 12, 2008, Perry appeared as herself on the daytime soap opera The Young and the Restless,[30] posing for the cover to the June 2008 issue of the fictional magazine Restless Style.[32] Perry also performed backing vocals on the song, "Another Night in the Hills" from Gavin Rossdale's 2008 solo album Wanderlust.[33]
One of the Boys was released on June 17, 2008, to mixed critical reviews.[34] The album has reached number nine on the Billboard 200,[35] and has been certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America.[36] Perry released her second single, "Hot n Cold", which became her second top three single in dozens of countries around the world, including the United States where it reached number three on the Billboard Hot 100,[19] as well as topping the charts in Germany, Canada, and Denmark. After Perry wrapped up her appearance at the Warped Tour, she went on tours in Europe. She later launched her first headlining tour, the Hello Katy Tour, in January 2009.[19] "I Kissed a Girl" earned Perry a nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance at the 2009 Grammy Awards.[37] Perry was nominated in five categories at the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards, including Best New Artist and Best Female Video, but lost to Britney Spears.[38] She won Best New Act at the 2008 MTV Europe Music Awards, which she co-hosted,[39] and Best International Female Artist at the 2009 BRIT Awards.[40] On February 9, 2009, both "I Kissed a Girl" and "Hot n Cold" were certified three-time platinum by Recording Industry Association of America for individual digital sales of over three million.[41] The Guinness Book of World Records recognized Perry in its 2010 version as the "Best Start on the US Digital Chart by a Female Artist," for having her first two singles sell over two million digital copies.[42]
The Matrix's self-titled debut album, which features Perry, was later released via the team's label, Let's Hear It, during Perry's solo tour. When the release date was scheduled, "I Kissed a Girl" had been charting well. Matrix member Lauren Christy spoke to Perry about the decision, but she wanted to hold the release until the fourth single of One of the Boys had been dispatched. Despite their communication, The Matrix was released on January 27, 2009, via iTunes Store.[43]
In December 2008, Perry apologized to British singer Lily Allen for remarks in which she called herself a "skinnier version" of her, saying she meant it as a joke.[44] Allen retaliated and told a British radio station that she "happen[ed] to know for a fact that she [Perry] was an American version" of her because their record company needed "to find something controversial and 'kooky'" like her.[45] In January 2009, Perry embarked on her first headlining world tour, the Hello Katy Tour, visiting North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. Beginning on January 23, 2009, and ending on November 28, 2009, the tour consisted of 89 concerts. During that time, Perry also opened select concerts for the band No Doubt, on their Summer Tour 2009.
On May 16, 2009, Perry performed at the opening ceremony of the annual Life Ball in Vienna, Austria.[46] In June 2009, lawyers acting for Perry opposed the then-recent trademark of Australian fashion designer Katie Perry, who uses her own name to market loungewear.[47] Some media outlets reported this as a lawsuit, which Perry denied on her blog.[48] Katie Perry reported on her blog that at a hearing with IP Australia on July 10, 2009, the singer's lawyers withdrew their opposition to the trademark.[49] During the summer of 2009 Perry filmed a cameo appearance for Get Him to the Greek; her scene, in which she kisses her future fiancé Russell Brand was cut, and does not appear in the final film. Discussing the issue with MTV, Perry hypothesized there may have been some fear that seeing the two make out would have taken viewers out of the experience.[50] In 2009, Perry was featured on two singles: in August, a remix of Colorado-based band 3OH!3's song "Starstrukk" (the idea for the collaboration having come after Perry's tour that featured 3OH!3 as the supporting act, the song being released by iTunes on September 8, 2009); and, thereafter, in December, on "If We Ever Meet Again", the fourth single from Timbaland's album Shock Value II.[51] In October 2009, MTV Unplugged revealed that Perry was one of the artists to perform for them, and that she would be releasing a live album of the performance, including two new tracks, "Brick by Brick" and Fountains of Wayne cover "Hackensack".[52] The album, released on November 17, included both a CD and a DVD,[53] and debuted at No. 168 on the US Billboard 200 chart.
Perry appeared as a guest judge alongside Simon Cowell, Cheryl Cole and Louis Walsh during the Dublin audition stage of the seventh series of the British television show The X Factor on June 28, 2010.[54] She was one of the many celebrities chosen to fulfil the role of judge whilst Dannii Minogue was on maternity leave. In May 2010, Perry released the first single from her second studio album, Teenage Dream entitled, "California Gurls". The single peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 for six consecutive weeks.[55][56] "Teenage Dream" was released as the second single from her album, and it also topped the Billboard Hot 100, becoming her third number one and second from the album. Teenage Dream was released August 24, 2010 and debuted atop the Billboard 200 chart with sales of 192,000 copies in its first week.[57] The album as since sold over 2 million copies in the US, being certified Platinum by the RIAA. Following the album's release, the third single "Firework" was released and became the third consecutive single from Teenage Dream to top the Hot 100. With this, Perry became the first female in eleven years to have three consecutive number-ones from one album.[58] In February 2011, Perry released the fourth single, "E.T.", a remixed version featuring Kanye West, that peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 for five non-consecutive weeks.[59] The music video for "E.T." was directed by Floria Sigismondi and features Shaun Ross as the main love interest. With "E.T." at number one on the chart of May 12, 2011, Perry became the first artist to spend 52 consecutive weeks in the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100.[3] In June 2011, Perry released the fifth single, "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)". A remixed version featuring American rapper Missy Elliot was released in early August.[60] The song topped the Billboard Hot 100 on August 17, 2011, making Perry the first female and second artist (tied with Michael Jackson) ever to have five No. 1 singles from one album. Also, when the song reached number 1 in the Pop Songs airplay chart, "Teenage Dream" became the first album to have 5 number 1's from the same album on that chart. Additionally, when the song reached number one in the Adult Pop Songs airplay chart, the album become the first to have 4 number 1's from the same album on the chart.[61] In October 2011, Perry released the sixth single, "The One That Got Away". It reached No. 3 on Hot 100, becoming the third album in history to produce six top five hit singles,[62] and the seventh song from Teenage Dream to reach the top of the Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs, the most by any album and setting a new record in the chart.[63] Perry released a "The One That Got Away" remix featuring American rapper B.o.B. in December 2011. An acoustic version of the song was released in January 2012.[64]
From February 2011 to January 2012, Perry embarked on an extensive world tour in support of Teenage Dream, the California Dreams Tour, playing 124 shows in Europe, Australasia, Asia, North America and South America and earning over $59 million.[2] Perry made her perfume debut, releasing a fragrance named "Purr" in November. It is packaged in a cat-shaped bottle, and is available through Nordstrom stores.[65][66] She followed it up with the fragrance's first flanker, "Meow".[67][68]
In July 2011, Perry made her film debut in the 3D family film The Smurfs as Smurfette. The Smurfs earned $557,771,535 worldwide during its theatrical run. Perry appeared at the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards on August 28, 2011. She was nominated for ten awards, received the most nominations of the ceremony and was the first singer to have four different music videos shown in various categories, eventually winning three of those, Video of the Year for "Firework", Best Collaboration and Best Special Effects for "E.T.". On September 17, 2011, marked Perry' 69th consecutive week in the Top 10 with single "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)".[69][70] On September 23, 2011, she performed, along with Elton John, Brazilian Claudia Leitte and friend Rihanna, on the opening day of the 2011 Rock in Rio festival, which was extended to October 2.[71] Perry performed for 100 thousand people, a show that received high praise from critics and audience alike.[72]
On December 14, 2011, the annual list Forbes was elected the third singer who earned more than US$44 million, behind Lady Gaga (US$90 million) and Taylor Swift (US$45 million).[73] On December 15, 2011, Perry was elected the Artist of the Year by MTV, for their performance on the charts worldwide and won the record during the year.[4] On December 20, 2011, She released a Barbie doll that represents her style in 2012.[74] On January 8, 2012, Perry was named the sixth best-selling digital artist of all time in the United States, having sold 37,620,00 million singles and albums as of 2011, according to Nielsen SoundScan.[75]
In the week ending January 15, 2012, Perry became the first artist ever to have five songs sell over 5 million digital copies in the USA.[76] Perry was once again recruited by EA Games to promote their new expansion pack The Sims 3: Showtime for their The Sims game franchise. The game content was based on Perry.[77] Perry became the first person to have six songs top the Billboard Adult Pop Songs chart.[78] In March 27, 2012, she re-released Teenage Dream under the title Teenage Dream: The Complete Confection on March 27, 2012. The lead single from the re-release (and seventh single from the Teenage Dream era overall) was "Part of Me", which released in February, debuted atop the Billboard Hot 100 chart.[79] Perry has announced that she will release a part-biopic, part-concert film to be shown in 3D titled Katy Perry: Part of Me to be released on the 4th of July weekend of 2012 by Paramount Pictures.[80][81] In April 2012, Perry performed in India for the first time at the opening ceremony of 5th edition of Indian Premier League, cricket match, in Chennai along with Indian actors Amitabh Bachchan, Salman Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra and Prabhu Deva.[82][83][84] She performed her songs "Teenage Dream" and a remix version of "California Gurls".[85][83][86][87] In April 2012, Perry stated that she was working on new music and changing her musical style, "My music is about to get real f—ing dark. You'd never see my face because my hair would be in it."[88]
Perry has a contralto vocal range.[89] Perry's first album is of the Gospel music genre.[11][19] She related that her perspective in music was "a bit enclosed and very strict", and everything she did was church-related.[11] Her second album, One of the Boys, is described as "secular" and "rock," and reflects a departure from her religious musical roots.[11] Her next album Teenage Dream featured more pop songs in the vein of Boys.[16][90] In her childhood, Perry was introduced to the music of Alanis Morissette and Freddie Mercury, the late frontman of the British band Queen.[26] In her tribute to Mercury on what would have been his 65th birthday, Perry stated; "Without you I wouldn't be making music or doing what I do because your lyrics inspired me as a 15 year old girl."[91] Queen's song "Killer Queen" has inspired her to pursue a career in pop music after her first album.[11] She also described that Morissette's album Jagged Little Pill as having influenced her music profoundly; even going on to work with Morissette's collaborator on the album, Glen Ballard because of that.[18] Influence also came from a number of female pop rock singers, including Cyndi Lauper, Shirley Manson, Pat Benatar and Joan Jett, as "they came out with a vengeance."[92] Perry also cited Madonna as another big influence, saying "I want to evolve like Madonna."[93][94]
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A 22 second sample of Part of Me, a song with a pop rock influence, which is a common genre for Perry's songs.
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Perry is artistically involved in her projects, especially in the writing process. Since she could play guitar, she would start writing songs at home and present it to her producers. Perry is mostly inspired by specific moments of her life. She said it is easy for her to write songs about heartbreak.[13] Most of the themes in One of the Boys deal with heartbreak, teen adventure, and "puking into toilets".[18] Perry's mother reportedly told British tabloid Daily Mail that she dislikes her daughter's music, calling it "shameful and disgusting".[11][95] Perry said her mother was misquoted and told MTV that it was false information.[95] Her songs "Ur So Gay" and "I Kissed a Girl" have received negative reactions from both religious and gay sectors.[95] The songs have been respectively labeled as being homophobic and promoting homosexuality, as well as "lez ploitational".[11] Musicians Pink, Kathleen Hanna and Beth Ditto criticized "I Kissed A Girl" as offensive to the LGBT community.[96][97][98] MTV mentioned criticism suggesting that Perry is using "bi-curiosity" as a way to sell records.[95] Perry responded to the controversy surrounding "Ur So Gay": "It's not a negative connotation. It's not, 'you're so gay,' like, 'you're so lame,' but the fact of the matter is that this boy should've been gay. I totally understand how it could be misconstrued or whatever ... It wasn't stereotyping anyone in particular, I was talking about ex-boyfriends."[99] Perry has written several songs for other singers, including Ashley Tisdale ("Time's Up"), Selena Gomez & the Scene ("Rock God" and "That's More Like It"), Kelly Clarkson ("Long Shot" and "I Do Not Hook Up"), Jessica James ("Bullet" and "Girl Next Door"), Lesley Roy ("Slow Goodbye"), and Kady Malloy ("Wish You the Worst").
Perry is known for her unconventional style of dress.[16] It is often humorous, bright in color, and reminiscent of different decades, and she frequently uses fruit-shaped accessories, mainly watermelon, as part of her outfits.[92] Perry's transformation into an artist began with fashion, inspired by American film actress Dominique Swain's portrayal in the 1997 film Lolita.[18] She defines her fashion style as "a bit of a concoction of different things".[16] Her fashion has caught the attention of designers.[11][92] In June 2008, a publicity photo that showed Perry posing with a switchblade was criticized.[100] The picture was defended as only an effort to give Perry a "sexy, harder edge".[100] The criticism leveled at her was mocked by Perry who subsequently posed with a spoon instead.[101] She was ranked 7th in Rolling Stone's global Queen of Pop poll in July 2011.[102] Perry is also a gay activist. According to Dosomething.org, Perry had stated "I am a gay activist and I say that proudly. I voted no on Prop 8 (California’s Nov. 4, 2008, amendment declaring that marriage is defined as a union solely between a man and a woman), of course."[103]
Perry has had relationships with Gym Class Heroes frontman Travie McCoy, whom she met in a recording studio in New York,[21] breaking up in December 2008;[104] Relient K frontman Matt Thiessen, with whom she worked on her album Teenage Dream[105] and British comedian Russell Brand.
Perry first met Brand in the summer of 2009 when she filmed a cameo appearance for Brand's film Get Him to the Greek. Although the cameo ultimately did not make it into the final cut of the movie, Perry later noted that the "scene called for me to make out with him...And on the way down the stairs after the scene, I was hopping like a bunny. I hop like a bunny when I'm happy".[106][107] Perry and Brand began dating after meeting again several months later in September 2009 at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, where Brand, as host, remarked, "Katy Perry didn't win an award and she's staying at the same hotel as me, so she's gonna need a shoulder to cry on. So in a way, I'm the real winner tonight."[108] The couple became engaged in December 2009 while vacationing in India.[109][110][111] At the time, Perry stated that she had plans to take dual British citizenship. "One of the first things I'll do is apply for dual citizenship. I'm not too sure if I have to take a test as I've not had time to look into it. But England is like my second home".[112] In an August 2010 interview with Rolling Stone, Perry also noted that, "I am sensitive to Russell taking the Lord's name in vain and to Lady Gaga putting a rosary in her mouth. I think when you put sex and spirituality in the same bottle and shake it up, bad things happen."[113][114][115] Perry and Brand married on October 23, 2010, in a traditional Hindu ceremony near the Ranthambhore tiger sanctuary in Rajasthan, India, the same location where Brand proposed.[116][117]
After 14 months of marriage, Brand filed for divorce from Perry on December 30, 2011, in Los Angeles, citing irreconcilable differences.[118][119] The announcement of the divorce followed media speculation that the couple was having marital problems, including an Us Weekly report that they had got into a "massive fight" and spent Christmas 2011 on opposite sides of the globe, with Perry in Hawaii and Brand in London, both without their wedding rings.[120][121] After Perry and Brand reached an agreement on financial issues, a judge granted the divorce request in February 2012; however the divorce will not become effective until July 2012, as California law requires a six-month interval from the initial filing.[122]
Headlining
Co-headlining
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Opening act
Promotional
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Television | |||
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Year | Title | Role | Notes |
2008 | The Young and the Restless | Herself | Episode 8914 |
Wildfire | Herself | "Life's Too Short" (Season 4, episode 8) | |
2010 | American Idol | Guest judge | Season 9, episode 5 |
The X Factor | Guest judge | Series 7, episode 2 | |
Sesame Street | Herself | Online special (deleted from televised episode due to viewer controversy) | |
The Simpsons | Herself | 1 episode, "The Fight Before Christmas" | |
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition | Herself | "Boys Hope/Girls Hope" (Season 8, Episode 1) | |
2010–2011 | Saturday Night Live | Herself / Host / Musical Guest | "Amy Poehler/Katy Perry" (Season 36, episode 681) "Katy Perry/Robyn" (Season 37, episode 710) |
2011 | How I Met Your Mother | Honey | 1 episode, "Oh Honey" People's Choice Award for Favorite TV Guest Star |
America's Got Talent | Guest judge | July 27 (Season 6, Qtr Finals 3 results) | |
Perez Hilton Superfan | Herself | 1 episode, aired December 14, 2011 | |
2012 | Raising Hope | Rikki | 1 episode, "Single White Female Role Model" |
Film | |||
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
2010 | Get Him to the Greek | Herself | Deleted scene Uncredited |
Out in the Desert | Herself | Post-production | |
2011 | The Smurfs | Smurfette | Voice Nominated – People's Choice Award for Favorite Animated Movie Voice |
The Muppets | Herself | Deleted scene Cameo appearance |
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2012 | Katy Perry: Part of Me | Herself | Main Role 3D film |
2012 | The Smurfs 2 | Smurfette | Voice |
Awards and achievements | ||
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Preceded by Bedwetters |
MTV Europe Music Award for Best New Act 2008 |
Succeeded by Lady Gaga |
Preceded by Snoop Dogg |
MTV Europe Music Awards host 2008–2009 |
Succeeded by Eva Longoria |
Preceded by Jonas Brothers |
Teen Choice Awards host 2010 |
Succeeded by Kaley Cuoco |
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Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Katy Perry |
Christina Aguilera | |
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Aguilera attending the launch of the Montblanc John Lennon edition in September 2010. |
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Background information | |
Birth name | Christina María Aguilera |
Born | Staten Island, New York, U.S. |
December 18, 1980
Origin | Wexford, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
Genres | Pop, R&B, soul, dance-pop[1] |
Occupations | Singer-songwriter,[2][3][4] record producer, dancer, television personality,[5] actress |
Instruments | Vocals |
Years active | 1993–present |
Labels | RCA |
Website | christinaaguilera.com |
Christina María Aguilera (born December 18, 1980) is an American recording artist and actress. Aguilera first appeared on national television in 1990 as a contestant on the Star Search program, and went on to star in Disney Channel's television series The Mickey Mouse Club from 1993 to 1994. Aguilera signed to RCA Records after recording "Reflection",[6] the theme song for the animated film Mulan (1998).
In 1999, Aguilera came to prominence following her debut album Christina Aguilera, which was a commercial success spawning three number one singles on the Billboard Hot 100—"Genie in a Bottle", "What a Girl Wants", and "Come On Over Baby (All I Want Is You)."[7] Her sophomore and her debut Latin-pop album, Mi Reflejo (2000), a Christmas third studio album, My Kind of Christmas (2000), and several collaborations followed which garnered Aguilera worldwide success, though she was displeased with her lack of input in her music and image.[8] After parting from her management, Aguilera took creative control over her fourth studio album, Stripped (2002).[9] The album's second single, "Beautiful", was a commercial success and helped the album's commercial performance amidst controversy over Aguilera's image.[10][11][12] Aguilera followed up Stripped with the soul, jazz and blues inspired, Back to Basics (2006), released to positive critical acclaim.[13] The album produced three singles "Ain't No Other Man", "Hurt" and "Candyman". Four years later Aguilera released her sixth studio album, Bionic (2010), which incorporated aspects of R&B, electropop, and synthpop and was met with mixed reviews and low sales.[14][15][16][17] Aguilera's seventh studio album is set to be released in 2012.
Aside from being known for her vocal ability, music videos and image, musically, she includes themes of dealing with public scrutiny, her childhood, and female empowerment in her music.[18] Apart from her work in music, she has also dedicated much of her time as a philanthropist for charities, human rights and world issues which include her work as a UN ambassador for the World Food Programme.[19][20] She made her feature film debut in the musical Burlesque (2010), earning Aguilera a Golden Globe nomination for Best Original Song. Aguilera's work has earned her numerous awards and accolades, including a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, four Grammy Awards and one Latin Grammy Award, amongst seventeen and three nominations respectively. Rolling Stone ranked her number fifty-eight on their list of the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time, ranking as the youngest and only artist on the list under the age of thirty.[21] She was ranked the 20th Artist of the 2000–09 decade by Billboard[22] and is the second top selling single artist of the 2000s behind Madonna.[23] Aguilera's albums sales are estimated at over 50 million units worldwide, making her one of the best-selling music artists of all time.[24][25] Aguilera is currently a coach and judge on The Voice.
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Aguilera was born in Staten Island, New York, to Fausto Wagner Xavier Aguilera, a sergeant in the US Army at the time, and Shelly Loraine (née Fidler), a Spanish teacher. Aguilera's father was born in Guayaquil, Ecuador[26] and her mother, who is American, is of German, Irish, Welsh, and Dutch ancestry.[27] Her father was stationed at Earnest Harmon Air Force Base in Stephenville, Newfoundland and Labrador and Japan. Aguilera lived with both her father and mother, up until their divorce when she was seven years old. Aguilera then lived with her mother, and her younger sister Rachel, at her grandmother's home in Rochester, Pennsylvania, a town outside Pittsburgh. According to both Aguilera and her mother, her father was very controlling, as well as physically and emotionally abusive. In an interview with Rolling Stone Aguilera revealed, "there was so much domestic violence going on when I grew up with my dad travelling in the military. I think the reason that my drive was so strong and I was so passionate about music was because I grew up in an environment of domestic violence."[28] She later sang about her difficult childhood in the songs "I'm OK" on Stripped, and "Oh Mother" on Back to Basics. Even though he has made several attempts to reconnect with her, Aguilera ruled out any chance of a reunion.[29] Since then, her mother has married a paramedic named Jim Kearns, and has changed her name.[30]
As a child, Aguilera aspired to be a singer. She was known locally as "the little girl with the big voice",[29] singing in local talent shows and competitions. She attended Rochester Area School District, Marshall Middle School near Wexford and North Allegheny Intermediate High School. On March 15, 1990, she appeared on Star Search singing "A Sunday Kind of Love", but lost the competition at number 2. Soon after losing on Star Search, she returned home and appeared on Pittsburgh's KDKA-TV's Wake Up With Larry Richert to perform the same song. Throughout her youth in Pittsburgh, Aguilera sang "The Star-Spangled Banner" before Pittsburgh Penguins hockey, Pittsburgh Steelers football and Pittsburgh Pirates baseball games, including during the 1992 Stanley Cup Finals.[31] Her talent was kept a secret to avoid bullying of other children. Following her television appearances Aguilera experienced resentment and bullying including an incident in which her peers slashed the tires on her family's car.[32] Following several incidents Aguilera was later home schooled.[29] Aguilera recalls, "doing what I did and maybe being a little smaller, I was definitely picked on and bullied for the attention that I got. It was definitely unwanted attention and there was a lot of unfairness about it."[33]
In 1991, Aguilera auditioned for a role on The Mickey Mouse Club; however, she did not meet the age requirements. Two years later, she joined the cast, performing musical numbers and sketch comedy, until the show's cancellation in 1994.[34] Her co-stars included Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears, Ryan Gosling and Keri Russell where they nicknamed her "the Diva"[35] for her performance style and voice. At the age of fourteen, Aguilera recorded her first song, "All I Wanna Do", a hit duet with Japanese singer Keizo Nakanishi.[36] In 1997, she represented the United States at the international Golden Stag Festival with a two-song set.[37] Aguilera entered talent contests on "teen night" at the Pegasus Lounge, a gay and lesbian nightclub in Pittsburgh,[38] and later at Lilith Fair.[39] In 1998, Aguilera sent in a demo of her singing Whitney Houston's "Run to You" to Disney who were looking for a singer to record the song "Reflection" for their animated feature film Mulan (1998).[40] The demo caught the attention of producer and label executive Ron Fair who would later mentor her throughout her career and led to Aguilera earning a contract with RCA Records the same week.[9] "Reflection" peaked within the top twenty on the Adult Contemporary Singles Chart, and it was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song.
Under the exclusive representation of Steve Kurtz, Aguilera's self-titled debut album Christina Aguilera was released on August 24, 1999. It reached the top of the Billboard 200 and Canadian album charts, shipping eight million copies in the US[41] and over seventeen million copies worldwide.[42] The album is also included in the Top 100 Albums of All Time list of The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) based on US sales.[43] Released during the teen pop era of 1999 the album was well received by several critics, Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic writes that Aguilera's debut "remains firmly within the teen-oriented dance-pop genre, but done right." Concluding that the album is "lightweight in the best possible sense – breezy, fun, engaging, and enjoyable on each repeated listen. Out of the deluge of teen-pop albums in 1999, this feels like the best of the lot."[44] Her debut single, "Genie in a Bottle" was an instant hit reaching No.1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and in several countries worldwide. Her follow-up singles "What a Girl Wants" and "Come On Over Baby (All I Want Is You)" topped the Hot 100 as well during 1999 and 2000 while "I Turn to You" reached number three. She is one of the few artists to have multiple No.1 singles from a debut album in Billboard's history.[45] She made a cameo appearance on an episode of Beverly Hills, 90210, performed on MTV's New Year's Special as MTV's first artist of the millennium, and the Super Bowl XXXIV halftime show. Aguilera wanted to display the range and audacity in her voice during the promotion of the album, and performed acoustic sets and appeared on television shows accompanied only by a piano. At the 42nd Grammy Awards Aguilera received a Best Female Pop Vocal Performance Grammy nomination for "Genie in a Bottle" and despite earlier predictions, she won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist.[46]
In 2000, Aguilera began recording her first Spanish-language album with producer Rudy Pérez in Miami.[47][48] Later in 2000, Aguilera, first emphasized her Latin heritage by releasing her first Spanish album, Mi Reflejo on September 12, 2000. This album contained Spanish versions of songs from her English debut as well as new Spanish tracks. Though some criticized Aguilera for trying to cash in on the Latin music boom at the time. According to Pérez, Aguilera was only semi-fluent, while recording. She understood the language, because she has grown up with her father, who is a native of Ecuador. He added "Her Latin roots are undeniable".[47] The album peaked at number twenty-seven on the Billboard 200 and went No.1 on the Billboard Latin charts for a record 20 weeks. In 2001, it won Aguilera a Latin Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Album. The album was later certified 6× Platinum (Latin field) in the US Aguilera won the World Music Award and Billboard award as the best selling Latin artist that year. Aguilera also released a Christmas album, My Kind of Christmas, on October 24, 2000 and performed "The Christmas Song" at the White House that year.[41] The album's only single, "The Christmas Song" made Aguilera one of three artists to take the song into the top twenty on the Billboard Hot 100.[49] The single and My Kind of Christmas were both certified Platinum in the US[50][51] Aguilera was Billboard's top female artist for 2000.[52]
Aguilera's first concert tour, Christina Aguilera: In Concert (also known as "Sears & Levis Tour ") began in the summer of 2000 in the US and ended early 2001 where she toured South America and Asia. A concert special aired on ABC titled My Reflection which was released to DVD and certified Gold in the US.[53] Aguilera was rumored to have dated MTV VJ Carson Daly.[54] Rumors of their relationship were fueled after the release of Eminem's song, "The Real Slim Shady" in which he also insinuated a romance between her and rocker Fred Durst. Aguilera responded saying the lyrics were "disgusting, offensive and, above all, not true."[55] Their feud ended two years later backstage at the Video Music Awards after Aguilera presented the rapper an award onstage.[56] She dated Puerto Rican dancer Jorge Santos. Santos appeared on her tour and music videos throughout 2000. They dated for nearly two years until the relationship ended on September 11, 2001.[57] He remained her dancer well into 2002.[58]
Ricky Martin asked Aguilera to duet with him on the track "Nobody Wants to Be Lonely" from his album Sound Loaded; released in 2001 as the album's second single. The single reached No.1 on the World Chart and top ten in several countries. In 2001, Aguilera, Lil' Kim, Mýa, and Pink were chosen to remake Labelle's 1975 single "Lady Marmalade" for the film Moulin Rouge! and its soundtrack. The song peaked at No.1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for five weeks and was the most successful airplay-only single in history.[59] It also reached number one in eleven other countries and earned all four performers a Grammy Award for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals. Aguilera's appearance in the music video was compared to that of Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider.[60] The video won two MTV Video Music Awards including Video of the Year in 2001, where Aguilera accepted the award saying, "I guess the big hair paid off."[61]
That same year, the single "Just Be Free" emerged into record stores which was one of the demos Aguilera recorded when she was around fifteen years old. When RCA Records discovered the single, they advised fans not to purchase it.[62] Months later, Warlock Records was set to release Just Be Free, an album which contains the demo tracks. Aguilera filed a breach of contract and unfair competition suit against Warlock and the album's producers to block the release.[63] Instead, the two parties came to a settlement to release the album. Aguilera lent out her name, likeness and image for an unspecified amount of damages. Many of the details of the lawsuit remain confidential. When the album was released in August 2001, it had a photograph of Aguilera when she was fifteen years old.[64]
Although Aguilera's debut album was commercially successful, she was dissatisfied with the music and image her management had created for her. Aguilera was marketed as a bubblegum pop singer because of the genre's upward financial trend.[65] She mentioned plans of her next album to have much more depth, both musically and lyrically.[66] Aguilera's views of Steve Kurtz's influence in matters of the singer's creative direction, the role of being her exclusive personal manager and overscheduling had in part caused her to seek legal means of terminating their management contract. In October 2000, Aguilera filed a breach of fiduciary duty lawsuit against her manager Kurtz for improper, undue and inappropriate influence over her professional activities, as well as fraud. According to legal documents, Kurtz did not protect her rights and interests. Instead, he took action that was for his own interest, at the cost of hers. She petitioned the California State Labor Commission to nullify the contract. Aguilera revealed while recording her then upcoming album, "I was being overworked. You find out that someone you thought was a friend is stealing money behind your back, and it's heartbreaking. I put faith in the people around me, and unfortunately, it bit me in the butt."[67] After terminating Kurtz's services, Irving Azoff was hired as her new manager.
On October 26, 2002, Aguilera's fourth studio album, Stripped, was released. The album sold more than 330,000 copies in the first week and peaked at number two on the Billboard 200. Unlike her previous work, the album showcased Aguilera's raunchier side.[68] The majority of Stripped was co-written by Aguilera (who had recently signed a global music publishing contract with BMG Music Publishing), and was influenced by many different subjects and music styles, including contemporary R&B, gospel, soul, balladry, pop rock, and hip hop.[69] The majority of the album was produced by Scott Storch and singer-songwriter Linda Perry who produced her more personal records. Rockwilder and singer Alicia Keys also contributed a track each. Upon initial release, the album was very well received by critics, although Aguilera's vocals were overlooked as she began to cultivate a more sexually provocative image.[70] After the release of the album, she took part in photoshoots for magazines, many of these photographs featured her nude or semi-nude. Her cover for Rolling Stone,[71] featured the singer only wearing boots and a well-placed electric guitar. It was during this time Aguilera referred to herself as "Xtina", even getting a tattoo of her nickname on the back of her neck and several piercings.[72]
Initially, the raunchy image had a negative effect on Aguilera in the US, especially after the release of her controversial "Dirrty" music video.[11] She denied that this change was a matter of publicity, claiming that the image better reflected her true personality than did the image she cultivated back in 1999. Aguilera defended the video stating it was about power and control adding, "I'm also at the forefront. I'm in the power position, in complete command of everything around me."[41] While the video for "Dirrty" became very popular on MTV, it disappointed on the US singles chart. However, the single was a hit worldwide, reaching No.1 in the UK and Ireland. The second single, "Beautiful" received critical praise. The classically influenced ballad reached number one in several countries and peaked at No.2 in the US. "Beautiful" earned Aguilera the Grammy for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. Three more singles ("Fighter", "Can't Hold Us Down" featuring Lil' Kim, "The Voice Within") were released in the following two years and were hits that helped the album stay on the charts for the next two years. Stripped stayed on the U.S. and UK album charts well into 2004, and went on to be certified four-times platinum in the US with over thirteen million copies sold worldwide.[73] It appeared at number ten on Billboard's year-end album chart and Aguilera was the top female artist for 2003.[74] Kelly Clarkson's second single "Miss Independent" was co-written by Aguilera, having been half-finished for Stripped.
Aguilera joined Justin Timberlake that June on the final leg of his international Justified tour, held in the US. This portion of the tour became a co-headliner called the Justified/Stripped Tour. In August, an overhead lighting grid collapsed from the ceiling of the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey, causing major damage to the sound and video equipment below. Because the collapse occurred hours before the show, only a few stagehands were injured, but a few shows were cancelled or postponed. In the fourth quarter of that year, Aguilera continued to tour internationally without Timberlake, and changed the name of the tour to the Stripped World Tour. She also dyed her hair black. It was one of the top-grossing tours of that year, and sold out most of its venues. Rolling Stone readers named it the best tour of the year.[75] That same year she hosted the 2003 MTV Europe Music Awards and was a special guest performer with the Pussycat Dolls' dance troupe performing at the Roxy Theatre and Viper Room in Los Angeles. She also appeared on a Maxim spread alongside them, her second Maxim cover that year set record sales for the issue making it the top selling issue to date. By the end of the year she topped the annual Hot 100 list saying, "we had fun working with certain clothes, or the lack thereof."[76][77][78]
Aguilera's first DVD live-recording from a concert tour, Stripped Live in the U.K., was released in November 2004. In light of the tour's success, another U.S. tour was scheduled to begin in mid-2004 with a new theme. The tour however was scrapped because of the vocal cord injuries Aguilera suffered shortly before the tour's opening date. In a tribute to Madonna's performance at the inaugural MTV Video Music Awards, Aguilera performed a kiss with the singer-actress at the 2003 edition of the ceremony in August. The incident occurred during the opening performance of Madonna's songs "Like a Virgin" and "Hollywood" with fellow popstar Britney Spears.[41] Also in 2004, she hosted a Saturday Night Live episode which included a Sex & The City skit where she portrayed Samantha Jones revealing to everyone she was a man the entire time.[79]
Aguilera later decided to embrace a more mature image; this move was met with more praise than criticism, with articles using punch lines such as "From Crass to Class."[80] She eventually dyed her hair cherry blonde and recorded a jingle, "Hello", for a Mercedes-Benz ad. Shortly after, she dyed her hair flaxen blonde and cut it short, and took on a Marilyn Monroe look; she is one of the main proponents (along with Dita Von Teese, Gwen Stefani, and Ashley Judd) in bringing back the 1920s–1940s Hollywood glamour look.[81][82] In late summer 2004, Aguilera released two singles. The first, "Car Wash", was a remake of the Rose Royce disco song recorded as a collaboration with rapper Missy Elliott for the soundtrack to the film Shark Tale. She voiced a small singing part in the film playing a Rastafarian jellyfish in the film's closing musical number. The second song was also a collaboration, but this time as a second single from one of Nelly's double-release albums, Sweat, titled "Tilt Ya Head Back". Both singles failed commercially in the US, but did considerably better in other parts of the world. Aguilera collaborated with jazz artist Herbie Hancock on a cover of Leon Russell's "A Song for You" recorded for Hancock's album Possibilities, released in August 2005. Aguilera and Hancock were later nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals. She helped open the 50th Anniversary for Disneyland performing "When You Wish upon a Star", and she also collaborated with Andrea Bocelli on the song "Somos Novios" for his album Amore. Aguilera began dating music marketing executive Jordan Bratman in 2002. Their engagement was announced in February 2005,[83] and they married on November 19, 2005, in a Napa Valley estate.[84]
Aguilera's fifth studio album, Back to Basics was released August 15, 2006. The album debuted at No.1 in the US, the UK and eleven other countries. Aguilera described the double CD as "a throwback to the 20s, 30s, and 40s-style jazz, blues, and feel-good soul music, but with a modern twist."[85] The album received generally positive reviews, although many critics commented on the album's length saying, "At one disc, this would have been nothing short of masterful."[86] A review in AllMusic adds, "Back to Basics also makes clear that Stripped was a necessary artistic move for Christina: she needed to get that out of her system in order to create her own style, one that is self-consciously stylized, stylish, and sexy."[87] The critically acclaimed lead single "Ain't No Other Man" was a substantial success, reaching No. 2 on the World Chart, No.6 in the US, and No.2 in the UK. Producers on the album included DJ Premier, Kwamé, Linda Perry, and Mark Ronson. The follow-up singles did very well in different regions, "Hurt" in Europe and "Candyman" in the Pacific. She co-directed both music videos, the former with Floria Sigismondi who directed her "Fighter" video, and the latter, "Candyman", with director/photographer Matthew Rolston which was inspired by The Andrews Sisters.[88] Back to Basics has sold 4.5 million units worldwide,[89] with over 1.7 million sold in the US.[90]
In late 2006, Aguilera collaborated with Sean "Diddy" Combs on a track, titled "Tell Me", from his album Press Play. She also began the Back to Basics Tour in Europe[91] followed by a 41-date North American tour in early 2007.[92] After this, she toured Asia and Australia, where it was supposed to end on August 3, however she canceled her dates in Melbourne and her final two in Auckland due to an illness.[93] Her extravagant arena tour included cabaret, three-ring circus and juke joint sets and 10 piece costumes designed by Roberto Cavalli.[94] She released her concert DVD Back to Basics: Live and Down Under the following year. The tour grossed nearly 50 million by the end of the year in North America and an additional 40 million worldwide in her Europe and Australia dates, grossing almost 90 million by the end of the tour.[95][96] It was the most successful US tour by a female in 2007.[97]
At the 49th Grammy Awards, Aguilera again won the Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for "Ain't No Other Man". She made a noteworthy performance at the ceremony paying tribute to James Brown with her rendition of his song "It's a Man's Man's Man's World".[98] In January 2007, she was named the 19th richest woman in entertainment by Forbes, with a net worth of US$60 million.[99] Aguilera performed "Steppin' Out With My Baby" with Tony Bennett on his NBC special Tony Bennett: An American Classic and on Saturday Night Live. They performed at the 59th Primetime Emmy Awards where both specials received Emmys. "Steppin' Out" was nominated for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals at the 50th Annual Grammy Awards.
Aguilera confirmed she was pregnant on November 4, 2007,[100] though Paris Hilton accidentally revealed her pregnancy several weeks prior during a party Aguilera hosted.[101] She gave birth to her son, Max Liron Bratman, in Los Angeles on January 12, 2008 and held a bris for him with Bratman, who is of Jewish descent, where the baby was circumcised in accordance with Jewish practice.[102] Aguilera was reportedly paid $1.5 million by People for her son's baby pictures—the sixth most expensive celebrity baby photos ever taken.[103]
In 2008, Aguilera appeared in the Martin Scorsese documentary Shine a Light which chronicles a two day Rolling Stones concert in New York City's Beacon Theatre. The film features Aguilera performing "Live With Me" alongside Mick Jagger. Shine a Light premiered at the Berlin Film Festival and was released worldwide on April 4, 2008. She also had brief cameo in the comedy film Get Him to the Greek,[104] and appeared as a guest judge on the sixth season of Project Runway on Lifetime Television. She and designer Bob Mackie were the inspiration for the challenge in which they had to design a stage outfit for Aguilera. To commemorate Aguilera's ten years in the music industry, RCA Records released, Keeps Gettin' Better: A Decade of Hits on November 11, 2008, exclusively at Target stores in the US. The greatest hits included her first three number one singles, and other songs released from her previous three albums. "Lady Marmalade" and several Spanish singles from Mi Reflejo were included in the worldwide releases. The album's only single, "Keeps Gettin' Better", was premiered at the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards, which debuted and peaked at No.7 on the Billboard Hot 100, her highest debut on the chart. Following the greatest hits, Aguilera took over a year hiatus in 2009 working on her then upcoming album and film. She was one of Billboard's Top 20 Artists of the Decade in their year-end charts.[105]
Aguilera's sixth studio album Bionic was released on June 8, 2010. The album's producers included Tricky Stewart, Samuel Dixon, Polow da Don, Le Tigre, Switch, Ester Dean, songwriters Sam Endicott, Sia Furler, Claude Kelly, Linda Perry and collaborations with M.I.A., Santigold, Nicki Minaj, and Peaches. Bionic's material consisted of many mainstream and pop records along with electronic and dance music. Two of the album's three singles, "Not Myself Tonight" and "You Lost Me" peaked at No.1 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play Charts[106] but were unsuccessful elsewhere. "Woohoo", featuring rapper Nicki Minaj, was also released as the album's second single. The album was released to mixed reviews from music critics,[107][15] with Jon Pareles of The New York Times writing that the singer's new music direction "makes her sound as peer-pressured as a pop singer can be."[108] Allison Stewart of The Washington Post described the album as being "noisy, robotic and overstuffed" adding that the disc's "greatest disappointments" is its "virtual abandonment" of Aguilera's voice.[109] She concluded that Aguilera attempts "to do it all," which was to try to "revel in her newfound domesticity, to wrest her crown from Gaga and to reestablish her sex kitten bona fides."[109] Sales of Bionic were underwhelming in the US compared to her previous releases selling 110,000 copies in its first week landing at No.3.[110][111] It has since sold 295,000 copies in the US.[112] Shortly after the album's release, further promotion ended and a scheduled summer tour for the album was cancelled due to "inadequate rehearsal time".[113] "You Lost Me" was her first single to not chart the Hot 100 while Bionic was her first English studio album not to receive a Grammy nomination. Aguilera later responded in an interview saying, "I was really proud of that record. I think there was a lot of promotion issues, coming from a standpoint of how everything resulted. Nothing is ever a setback. If anything, it just motivates you for what’s next."[114]
Aguilera announced that she and Bratman had separated, saying in a statement, "Although Jordan and I are separated, our commitment to our son Max remains as strong as ever."[115][116] Aguilera filed for divorce from Bratman on October 14, 2010, seeking joint legal and physical custody of their son, and specifying September 11, 2010, as the date of separation.[117][118] They later reached a settlement agreement and custody deal, details of their agreement were private.[119] Their divorce was finalized on April 15, 2011.[120] The following month, Aguilera appeared as herself on the Entourage season seven finale as a client/friend of Ari Gold.[121] On November 15, 2010, Aguilera received a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.[122]
In November 2010, Aguilera appeared in her first feature film, the musical Burlesque. She portrayed a small town girl, Ali Rose, who finds love and success in a Los Angeles neo-burlesque club.[123] Aguilera performed eight of the musical numbers on the film's soundtrack released on November 22, 2010, and co-wrote a number of the tracks working with producers and writers including Tricky Stewart, Sia Furler, Samuel Dixon, Linda Perry, Claude Kelly, Danja, and Ron Fair. The remaining two tracks were sung by Cher, who co-starred alongside Aguilera. The soundtrack debuted in the top 20 in the US and was certified Gold.[124][125] The film was written and directed by Steve Antin who wrote the part of Ali specifically with Aguilera in mind.[126] Aguilera's co-stars also included Cam Gigandet, Eric Dane, Kristen Bell and Stanley Tucci. Several critics praised Aguilera's performance. A review in TIME states, "Aguilera might not be to your taste, or mine, but in terms of sheer power, she's impressive. If Ali were real, she'd have already been discovered on American Idol."[127] While Variety wrote, "Aguilera, while undeniably entertaining when her character is onstage, cannot spin the slight backstory into anything resembling a full-blooded person."[128] Though Burlesque was released to mixed reviews from critics,[129][130] the film received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Picture – Musical or Comedy and earned Aguilera, writer/producer Sia Furler and Samuel Dixon, a nomination for Best Original Song for the track "Bound to You". The soundtrack also earned Aguilera a Grammy nomination for Best Compilation Soundtrack. Burlesque has grossed over $90 million worldwide.[131]
Following the release of Burlesque, Aguilera collaborated with rapper T.I. on the track, "Castle Walls" from his album No Mercy. Aguilera performed the U.S. national anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner", during the Super Bowl XLV on February 6, 2011, and created embarrassment when she omitted a line of the anthem and messed up the song's lyrics.[132] She later apologized, telling CNN that "I got so caught up in the moment of the song that I lost my place. I can only hope that everyone could feel my love for this country and that the true spirit of its anthem still came through."[133] The following week, Aguilera, alongside Jennifer Hudson, Martina McBride, Yolanda Adams, and Florence Welch opened the 53rd Grammy Awards paying tribute to Aretha Franklin.
Aguilera began dating musician and production assistant, Matt Rutler whom she met during the filming of Burlesque. Her personal life was the subject of scrutiny;[19] and reports over out of control behavior, excessive drinking,[134][135] and a reported confrontation with her co-star Julianne Hough.[136][137] On March 1, 2011, Aguilera was arrested for public intoxication in West Hollywood as her boyfriend was arrested for DWI.[138] She was later released on bail and no charges were filed.[139][140] Although the L.A. Sheriff's office stated Aguilera's mug shot would not be released to the public, E! News obtained the mug shot which circulated social networks and the media shortly after her release.[141] Rutler's DWI charge was dismissed due to insufficient evidence, after his BAC was determined as below the legal limit.[142]
Aguilera signed to be a judge on The Voice, which debuted on NBC in April 2011. Aguilera, alongside other musicians Adam Levine, Blake Shelton and Cee Lo Green serve as judges and coaches, with Carson Daly as the show's host. The show's first episode was well-received, and delivered the strongest ratings for a series premiere on a major network since Undercover Boss debuted after the Super Bowl in February 2010.[143][144] The show's first season was a ratings success for NBC following its debut.[145][146] Aguilera performed "Moves Like Jagger" on The Voice – the single with Maroon 5 on which she is featured, from their album Hands All Over. The song was an instant hit reaching No.2 in the UK, No.1 on the World Chart and earned Aguilera her fifth No.1 single on the Billboard Hot 100, a decade after her last No.1, "Lady Marmalade".[147] The single became the first 4 million-seller for both artists and marks the first time two former Best New Artist Grammy Award winners have collaborated on a Hot 100 hit.[49] "Moves Like Jagger" was nominated for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance at the Grammy Awards and has since sold over 7 million copies worldwide, establishing itself among the best-selling singles of all time.[148].
The second season of The Voice premiered following Super Bowl XLVI. Aguilera performed a cover of "At Last" by Etta James at James' funeral on January 28, 2012.[149][150] Aguilera recorded her first Spanish-language track in over a decade titled "Casa de Mi Padre" which was released as the title song for the soundtrack and film of the same name.[151] In regards to her upcoming album, Aguilera stated that she is recording a new studio album in an interview with Live with Regis and Kelly.[152] No official date has been announced but the album is expected to be released in 2012.[153]
Aguilera possesses a soprano[154][155] vocal range and has been referred to as the "voice of her generation" and a blue eyed soul singer.[156][157] Aguilera also topped COVE's list of the 100 Best Pop Vocalists with a score of 50/50[158][159] and came fifth in MTV's 22 Greatest Voices in Music.[160] Her rendition of "It's A Man's Man's Man's World" at the 49th Grammy Awards ranked third in the Grammy's Greatest Moments List behind Celine Dion's performance of "My Heart Will Go On" and Green Day's performance of "American Idiot". In an interview, Dion described Aguilera as "probably the best vocalist in the world."[161] Rolling Stone ranked Aguilera at 58 on their list of the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time, the youngest singer on the list.[21]
Describing Aguilera's voice, singing teachers Phyllis Fulford and Michael Mailler said, "The low register is light and tired, the belting register is ample and full, but very scratchy because she screams; and head voice as well as whistle register are light, pure and bright. Her vocal range extends from G below middle C to C♯ one octave above soprano high C (G3 – C♯7). She can belt to F one octave and a third above middle C (F5). She possesses a good-sized technical arsenal. Her trill is solid, she has a big mastery of melismas, and can sustain very long notes."[162] Los Angeles Times writer Margaret Wappler adds Aguilera can deliver "a well-executed legato."[163]
Since her debut in 1999, Aguilera has been compared to the likes of Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston.[164] David Browne of The New York Times writes, "Aguilera has been one of the foremost practitioners of the overpowering, Category 5 vocal style known as melisma. Ms. Carey, Ms. Houston and Ms. Aguilera, to name its three main champions, are most associated with the period from the late ’80s through the late ’90s."[165] A review in the Los Angeles Times compared Aguilera's vocal stylings to Barbra Streisand, Gladys Knight, and Aretha Franklin adding, "Aguilera's Streisand-esque tendencies are a good thing; they're helping her figure out how to become the "great singer" she's been dubbed since she released her first single, the wise-beyond-its-years "Genie in a Bottle", at 18."[166] Although praised for her vocals, Aguilera has been labeled for oversinging in her songs and concerts.[167] Longtime producer and writer, Linda Perry, commented on working on the track "Beautiful", saying, "I tried to keep it straight. I told her to get rid of the finger waves. Every time she'd start going into "hoo-ha", I'd stop the tape. I'm like, 'You're doing it again.'" Perry ended up using the first take saying, "She had a hard time accepting that as the final track. It's not a perfect vocal – it's very raw. She knows her voice really well, and she knows what's going on. She can hear things that nobody else would catch."[168]
The constant theme in Aguilera's music and lyrics is love, although she has written on other subjects including spirituality, female empowerment, and grief. Aguilera has also written about her childhood in two of her records which dealt with domestic abuse. In an interview Aguilera admitted she feels responsible to reveal her most vulnerable feelings and to share the darker sides of her life adding "People that can relate might not feel as alone in the circumstance."[169] She has been noted to constantly changing her sound in her music and lyrical content. Originally marketed as a bubblegum pop singer during the late 90s pop scene, she quickly departed into a broad range of musical genres for her follow-up album Stripped. A review states, "Clearly afflicted with Premature Serious Artist Syndrome, Aguilera wants to demonstrate the range of her interests – vampy soul, quasi-metal, piano-bar intimacy, quiet-storm R&B, bounce-bounce hip-hop, and semi-exotic rock, all of it dutifully accomplished."[69]
The majority of the songs are characterized by Aguilera's loud vocals, though she has used breathy and soft vocals.[170] Her 2006 release, Back to Basics included producer DJ Premier. The New York Times exclaims, "Her decision to work with the low-key DJ Premier was also a decision to snub some of the big-name producers on whom pop stars often rely."[171] Aguilera has often cited that she prefers working with producers that are not in popular demand, saying "I don't necessarily go to the main people that are the No.1 chart-toppers in music."[172] The album included live instrumentation and samples of past jazz and soul records. Some tracks on the album included non-traditional forms of pop music such as swing jazz and big band, drawing comparisons to Madonna's I'm Breathless and the musical film Cabaret.[173] Her first feature film, Burlesque, influenced by Cabaret, featured mainstream producers Tricky Stewart and Danja on the soundtrack where several established songs were updated and worked into dance numbers, a style similar to 2001's Moulin Rouge! "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" was performed by Aguilera in the film, a musical number also performed by Nicole Kidman in Moulin Rouge!
One of Aguilera's major influences and idol is blues singer Etta James, whose classic song "At Last" has been covered by Aguilera throughout her career. Aguilera says, "Etta is my all-time favorite singer. I've said it for the last seven years – since I had my first debut record out – in every interview. I mean, all of Etta's old songs, countless songs I could name, I grew up listening to."[174] Following James' death in 2012, Aguilera was asked to perform "At Last" at her funeral.[149] Prior to performing Aguilera stated, "There's a line in this song that says 'I found a dream that I could speak to.' And for me that dream, all my life, has been Etta James."[175] The majority of her album, Back to Basics, pays tribute to James and other pop standard singers who many originated from the 1950s. In her early years she listened to vintage jazz, blues, and soul music.[176] The album included an unreleased song, "Slow Down Baby", which sampled a Gladys Knight & the Pips song. A review in The Guardian declared, "Practically everything recorded before Aguilera was born blurs into one amorphous genre, which she categorises, somewhat inadequately, as "fun music".[177] Aguilera has also named Madonna and Janet Jackson as two of her biggest influences "for being re-inventive and being brave as strong females, to explore whatever, even if they do get bad press. It's just like they were fearless."[178] Her other musical influences include Aretha Franklin,[179] Whitney Houston,[180] and Nina Simone.[181]
Aguilera cites the musical The Sound of Music and its lead actress, Julie Andrews as an early inspiration for singing and performing.[182] She mentioned the "Golden age of Hollywood" as another inspiration in which she says, "I'm referencing Marlene Dietrich, Marilyn Monroe, Carole Lombard, Greta Garbo, Veronica Lake".[183] Ironically, her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is located near Julie Andrews and is next to Greta Garbo.[184] In her music video for "Ain't No Other Man" she plays her alter ego, "Baby Jane" in reference to the film Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?.[185] The film's stars included actresses Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. The third single off Back to Basics, "Candyman" was inspired by the 1941 song, "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" by The Andrews Sisters which was played during World War II. She was also inspired by pin-up girls and several paintings by Alberto Vargas. Aguilera has expressed interest in cultural icons Nico, Blondie and artists Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol.[186] She has often worked with photographer and close friend, David LaChapelle who once worked with Warhol. Chapelle has shot many of Aguilera's music videos, magazine shoots and advertisements. She is also a fan of graffiti artist Banksy. In 2006, she purchased three of Banksy's works during a private art exhibition; one of them included a pornographic picture of Queen Victoria in a lesbian pose with a prostitute.[187] She has mentioned in several interviews that she is a fan of actress Angelina Jolie,[188] and her Burlesque co-star, Cher.[114] Fashion has also been a part of Aguilera's music career and image which she has used as a form of expression during performances and music videos. In 2003, she became the muse and inspiration for Donatella Versace's 2003 fall line. Versace also designed pieces her tour the following year. Aguilera is also a fan of Roberto Cavalli, John Galliano, Marc Jacobs, and Alexander McQueen whose designs she has worn throughout her career.[189][190]
In 2000, Aguilera was the face for make-up line Fetish where she worked in choosing colors and packaging for the line. She ended her contract the following year.[191] Throughout her career Aguilera has endorsed several brands, including Skechers, Mercedes-Benz, Verizon Wireless, and soft drink giants Coca-Cola in 2001, and Pepsi in 2006.[192] She became the muse and model for fashion house Versace appearing in a campaign for the 2003 fall line.[193] In 2004, Aguilera earned £200,000GBP (about $300,000USD)[194] for opening the summer sale at London's Harrods store which took in record breaking profits during the four week period.[195] In 2005, she was reportedly paid $3.6 million[196] to sing a three song set for Russian billionaire Andrey Melnichenko's wedding. Aguilera signed a contract with European cell phone operator Orange to promote the new Sony Ericsson Walkman phone during the 2006 World Cup. In 2010, Aguilera was paid $1 million by investor Charles Brandes to perform at a private party.[197]
In 2008, jewelry designer Stephen Webster and close friend of Aguilera released "Shattered", a collection of sterling silver pieces, through Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman. Aguilera, who inspired the collection, was featured as a Hitchcock heroine saying, "Working together on this campaign and collection has been an incredible experience. I am honored to be a part of it all."[198][199] They reprised their work together for Webster's 2009 spring line.[200] In 2011, Aguilera attended São Paulo Fashion Week to premiere her new line of clothing for Brazilian department store C&A which launched in April.[201]
Aguilera released two fragrances throughout Europe, the first one Xpose, was released in late 2004 and sold relatively well.[202][203] Through Procter and Gamble Aguilera released her signature fragrance, Simply Christina in 2007.[204] In Christmas 2007, the fragrance became the number one perfume in the UK,[205] and later in 2009 it became the 4th best selling perfume in the UK,[206] and Germany where it topped sales for the year.[207] The perfume won as the people's choice for favorite celebrity fragrance at the annual UK Fifi Awards 2008.[208] She released her third fragrance, Inspire, accompanied with a body care collection, on September 1, 2008.[209][210] The perfume hit shelves in the US, Canada, Latin America, Asia and Northern and Eastern Europe. It was Aguilera's first fragrance released outside of Europe.[211] Her worldwide ad campaign included a television ad shot by David LaChapelle and was released in the US through Macy's department stores. The release coincided with Macy's 150th anniversary which featured Aguilera in commemorative photos.[212] She released her fourth fragrance By Night in October,[213] which became the third best selling fragrance in the UK in 2009.[206] Both “By Day“ and “By Night“ were nominated for Best Perfume of the Year at the FIFI Awards 2011.[214] The range was further augmented by Royal Desire in 2010,[215] and Secret Potion the following year.[216]
Throughout her career, Aguilera has been involved with several charities. She signed a letter from PETA to the South Korean government asking that the country stop its alleged killing of dogs for food.[217] During her 2007 tour she unknowingly wore a fur stole during the beginning of her tour, which designer Roberto Cavalli provided without informing Aguilera. After receiving a video from PETA Vice President Dan Mathews on the treatment of foxes, she replaced the stole with faux fur for the remainder of her tour. Aguilera was reportedly upset adding, "I only ever wear fake fur".[218] In 2010 Aguilera auctioned off tickets for her upcoming tour for Christie's A Bid to Save the Earth. Proceeds benefit nonprofit environmental groups Conservation International, Oceana, Natural Resources Defense Council, and The Central Park Conservancy.[219] Aguilera also supports Defenders of Wildlife, Missing Kids, National Alliance of Breast Cancer Organizations,[220] Women's Cancer Research Fund,[221] and Cedars-Sinai Women's Cancer Research Institute.[222] She has also worked alongside nonprofit organization Do Something saying, "Every individual has the power to inspire young people across the country."[223]
In 2010, Aguilera was nominated for a VH1 Do Something Award for her work with the organization and her efforts in the response to the 2010 Haiti earthquake. She was featured in the campaign for photographer, Brie Childers with the goal of helping women of all ages, races and lifestyles feel beautiful and confident about themselves and the body and skin they were born with. Proceeds from benefit several women's charities nationwide.[224] Aguilera is still a major contributor in her hometown of Pittsburgh contributing regularly to the Women's Center & Shelter of Greater Pittsburgh. According to her official website, she toured the center and donated $200,000 to the shelter. She also has auctioned off front row seats and back stage passes for the Pittsburgh-based charity.[225] She has continued her donations and visits to the shelter, and plans to open an additional one.[226] She also supports the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Refuge UK.[220] Since then she has worked with Lifetime Television's 'End violence against women' campaign. Her work there included a public service announcement which aired on the network and during her 2007 tour.[227]
Aguilera is a supporter of the LGBT community and is considered a gay icon by many[who?]. She was honored at the GLAAD Awards for using gay and transgender images in her music video for "Beautiful". When accepting the award Aguilera said, "My video captures the reality that gay and transgender people are beautiful, even though prejudice and discrimination against them still exists."[228] In 2005, she appeared on a compilation album titled, Love Rocks, proceeds benefit the Human Rights Campaign, an organization dedicated to fighting for equal rights for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people. In 2008, she publicly spoke out against California's Proposition 8 which eliminates same-sex marriage in California saying, "Why you would put so much money behind something [aimed at] stopping people from loving each other and bonding together? I just don't understand it. It's hard for me to grasp. But I would've been out there with my rally sign as well."[229] In 2011 Aguilera was honored at The Abbey, a gay club in West Hollywood, for her contributions to the gay community as the first honoree on their Gay Walk of Fame joining Dame Elizabeth Taylor in being immortalized forever.[230]
Aguilera contributes in the fight against AIDS, by participating in AIDS Project Los Angeles' Artists Against AIDS "What's Going On?" cover project. In 2004, Aguilera became the new face for cosmetic company M·A·C and spokesperson for M·A·C AIDS Fund. Aguilera appeared in advertisements of the M·A·C's Viva Glam V lipstick and lipgloss, and was featured on Vanity Fair in recognition of her campaign work. In addition, Aguilera contributed to YouthAIDS by posing for a joint YouthAIDS and Aldo Shoes campaign for "Empowerment Tags" in Canada, the U.S. and the UK. She was featured with one of three ubiquitous slogans, "Speak No Evil?" and stated, "HIV is something that people don’t want to talk about, hear about, or face."[231][232] Singer Elton John featured Aguilera in his charity book titled "Four Inches" benefiting the Elton John AIDS Foundation.[233] Elton also hand-picked Aguilera, for his annual "Fashion Rocks" charity concert which accompanies music and fashion to benefit the fight against AIDS/HIV.[234]
In the run-up to the 2004 United States presidential election, Aguilera was featured on billboards for the "Only You Can Silence Yourself" online voter registration drive run by the nonpartisan, non-profit campaign "Declare Yourself". In these political advertisements, shot by David LaChapelle, Aguilera was shown with her mouth sewn shut, to symbolize the effects of not voting. She appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show to discuss the importance of voting. In late 2007 Aguilera became the spokesperson for "Rock the Vote" where she urged young people to vote in the 2008 presidential election.[235] In partnership with "Rock the Vote", she appeared in a public service announcement which aired in summer 2008. The advert showed Aguilera with her son, Max Bratman, wrapped in an American flag, while singing "America the Beautiful".
In November 2005, all of her wedding gifts were submitted to various charities around the nation in support of Hurricane Katrina victims.[236] That year she also performed at "Unite of the Stars" concert in aid of Unite Against Hunger in Johannesburg, South Africa and at the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund at the Coca-Cola Dome.[237] In March 2007 Aguilera took part in a charity album (remaking Lennon's "Mother"), proceeds benefit Amnesty International's efforts to end genocide in Darfur. The album titled, Instant Karma: The Amnesty International Campaign to Save Darfur, was released June 12, 2007, and featured various artists.[238] In 2008, she headlined London's Africa Rising charity concert at Royal Albert Hall which raises awareness for finding substantial issues facing the continent.[239] Later that year she appeared on the Turkish version of Deal or No Deal "Var mısın? Yok musun?", where proceeds were donated to a charity program for orphans.[240]
In 2009, Aguilera became the global spokesperson for World Hunger Relief appearing in advertisements, online campaigns and a public service announcement.[241] Aguilera and her then-husband traveled to Guatemala with the World Food Programme to bring awareness to issues such as the high malnutrition rate in that country. She met with families of the villages and some of the beneficiaries of WFP's nutrition programs. Aguilera adds, "The people of WFP do such a great job helping hungry children and mothers. I'm thankful for the opportunity to be part of such a wonderful project."[242] Since becoming a global spokeswoman Aguilera has helped raise over $22 million which helped provide over 90 million meals.[243] She was honored at Variety's annual "Power of Women" luncheon in late 2009 alongside other women in entertainment for her contribution to philanthropic and charitable causes.[244] In response to the 2010 Haiti earthquake, Aguilera donated a signed Chrysler 300 which was auctioned for relief efforts.[245] She was one of the many artists who appeared on the Hope for Haiti telethon on January 22, 2010, donations directly benefited Oxfam America, Partners In Health, Red Cross and UNICEF. She later appeared on a second public service announcement alongside sports icon Muhammad Ali to raise funds for the World Food Programme's efforts to bring food to survivors of the earthquake.[246] Later that year Aguilera made her first visit to Haiti as an ambassador against hunger where she visited two schools in the town of Léogâne. During her time there she assisted in the ongoing efforts to help the badly damaged town where she served meals and highlighted reconstruction efforts in the country.[247] That year, Aguilera was appointed UN ambassador for the WFP.[19]
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
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1993—1995 | The Mickey Mouse Club | Herself/Various Roles | Season 6–7 |
1999 | Beverly Hills, 90210 | Herself | "Let's Eat Cake" (Season 10, Episode 2) |
2000 | Al salir de clase | Herself | "El día que no existe" (Season 5, Episode 42) "Augurios" (Season 8, Episode 72) |
2000—2006 | Saturday Night Live | Herself/Various Roles/Host/Musical Guest | "Christopher Walken/Christina Aguilera" (Season 25, Episode 16) "Salma Hayek/Christina Aguilera" (Season 28, Episode 15) "Christina Aguilera/Maroon 5" (Season 29, Episode 13) "Alec Baldwin/Christina Aguilera" (Season 32, Episode 5) |
2003 | Player$ | Herself | "Hulk" (Season 2, Episode 10) |
2003 | Punk'd | Herself | "Ryan Pinkston – VH1 Big in 2002 Awards" (Season 1, Episode 1) |
2004 | Shark Tale | Herself/Christina (voice) | Uncredited |
2008 | Shine a Light | Herself | Documentary |
2009 | Project Runway | Herself / Guest Judge | "Sequins, Feathers and Fur, Oh My!" (Season 6, Episode 9) |
2010 | Entourage | Herself | "A Prayer for Dick Butkus" (Season 1, Episode 9) |
2010 | Entourage | Herself | "Lose Yourself" (Season 7, Episode 10) |
2010 | Get Him to the Greek | Herself | Cameo appearance |
2010 | Burlesque | Alice Marilyn "Ali" Rose | Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song |
2011—present | The Voice | Herself (Coach and judge) | Season 1—present |
Book: Christina Aguilera | |
Wikipedia books are collections of articles that can be downloaded or ordered in print. |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Christina Aguilera |
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Christina Aguilera |
Awards and achievements | ||
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Preceded by Lauryn Hill |
Grammy Award for Best New Artist 2000 |
Succeeded by Shelby Lynne |
Preceded by none |
Latin Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Album, Female 2001 for Mi Reflejo |
Succeeded by Rosario Flores for Muchas Flores |
Preceded by B. B. King & Dr. John for "Is You Is, or Is You Ain't (My Baby)" |
Grammy Award for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals 2002 for "Lady Marmalade" |
Succeeded by Santana & Michelle Branch for "The Game of Love" |
Preceded by Norah Jones for "Don't Know Why" |
Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance 2004 for "Beautiful" |
Succeeded by Norah Jones for "Sunrise" |
Preceded by Kelly Clarkson for "Since U Been Gone" |
Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance 2007 for "Ain't No Other Man" |
Succeeded by Amy Winehouse for "Rehab" |
Preceded by Sean "Diddy" Combs |
MTV Europe Music Awards host 2003 |
Succeeded by Xzibit |
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Mariah Carey | |
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Carey at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival |
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Background information | |
Born | Huntington, New York, United States |
March 27, 1970
Genres | R&B, pop, hip hop, soul, dance |
Occupations | Singer-songwriter, record producer, actress |
Years active | 1988–present |
Labels | Columbia (1990—2000) Virgin (2001) Island (2002—present) |
Website | mariahcarey.com |
Mariah Carey[1] (born March 27, 1970) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress. She made her recording debut in 1990 under the guidance of Columbia Records executive Tommy Mottola, and released her self-titled debut studio album, Mariah Carey. The album went multi-platinum and spawned four consecutive number one singles, on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart. Following her marriage to Mottola in 1993, a series of hit records, including Emotions (1991), Music Box (1993) and Merry Christmas (1994), established her position as Columbia's highest-selling act. Daydream (1995), made music history when the second single, "One Sweet Day" a duet with Boyz II Men, spent a record sixteen weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100, and remains the longest running number one song in US chart history. During the recording of the album Carey began to deviate from her pop background, and slowly traversed into R&B and Hip-hop. After her separation from Mottola, this musical change was evident with the release of Butterfly (1997).
Carey left Columbia in 2000, and signed a record-breaking $100 million recording contract with Virgin Records. In 2001, Carey ventured into film with Glitter (2001). Before the film's release she suffered a physical and emotional breakdown and was hospitalized for severe exhaustion. Following the film's poor reception, she was bought out of her recording contract for $50 million, which led to a decline in her career. She signed a multi-million dollar contract deal with Island Records in 2002, and after an unsuccessful period, returned to the top of music charts with The Emancipation of Mimi (2005). Its second single "We Belong Together", which became her most successful single of the 2000's, and was later named "Song of the Decade" by Billboard. Carey once again ventured into film, and starred in Precious (2009). Her role in the film was well-received, and she was awarded the "Breakthrough Performance Award" at the Palm Springs International Film Festival, and a NAACP Image Award nomination.
In a career spanning over two decades, Carey has sold more than 200 million records worldwide, making her one of the best-selling music artists of all time. In 1998, she was honored as the world's best-selling recording artist of the 1990s at the World Music Awards. Carey was also named the best-selling female artist of the millennium in 2000. According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), she is the third best-selling female artist in the United States, with 63 million certified albums. With the release of "Touch My Body" (2008), Carey gained her eighteenth number one single in the United States, more than any other solo artist. Aside from her commercial accomplishments, Carey has won five Grammy Awards, and is famed for her five-octave vocal range, power, melismatic style and signature use of the whistle register.
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Mariah Carey was born in Huntington, New York, on March 27, 1970.[2] The singer's father, Alfred Roy, was of African American and Venezuelan descent, while her mother, Patricia (née Hickey), is an Irish American.[3] Patricia's father had died while she was young; however, she inherited his passion for music.[3] She developed a career as an occasional opera singer and vocal coach, and met Alfred in 1960.[2] As he began earning a living as an aeronautical engineer, the couple wed later that year, and moved into a small suburb in New York.[3] After the pair's elopement, Patricia's family disowned her, due to marrying a man of color. Carey later explained that growing up, she felt a notion of neglect from her maternal family, a mark that affected her greatly: "So later I was like, 'Well, where does this leave me? Am I a bad person?' You know. It's still not that common to be a multi-racial person, but I'm happy with the combination of things that I am."[3] During the interval of years in between Carey's older sister Allison and the singer's birth, the Carey family experienced personal struggles within the community due to their ethnicity.[3] Carey's name was derived from the song "They Call the Wind Mariah", originally from the 1951 Broadway musical Paint Your Wagon.[4][5] When Carey was three years old, her parents divorced due to the increasingly strenuous nature of their marriage.[6]
"It's been difficult for me, moving around so much, having to grow up by myself... my parents divorced. And I always felt kind of different from everybody 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 what I am'."
After their separation, Allison moved in with her father, while the other two children remained with Patricia.[6] As the years passed, Carey would grow apart from her father, and would later stop seeing him altogether.[6][8] By the age of four, Carey recalled that she had begun to sneak the radio under her covers at night, and just sing from her heart, and try and find peace within the music.[8] During elementary school, she would excel in subjects that she enjoyed, such as literature, art and music, while not finding interest in others.[9] After several years of financial struggling, Patricia earned enough money to move her family into a stable and more affluent sector in New York.[9] Carey had begun writing poems and adding melodies to them, thus starting as a singer-songwriter while attending Harborfields High School in Greenlawn, New York.[10][10] Even from a young age, Carey excelled in her music, and demonstrated usage of the whistle register, though only beginning to master and control it through her training with her mother.[10] Though opening her daughter to the world of classical opera, Patricia never pressured Carey to pursue a career in that type of genre, as she never seemed interested in that world of music.[10] Carey recalled that she kept her singer-songwriter works a secret and noted that Patricia had "never been a pushy mom. She never said, 'Give it more of an operatic feel'. I respect opera like crazy, but it didn't influence me."[10][11]
Towards the end of her high school Carey developed a relationship with Gavin Christopher, with whom she shared musical aspirations. The song-writing duo, however, needed an assistant who could play the keyboard; "We called someone and he couldn't come, so by accident we stumbled upon Ben [Margulies]. Ben came to the studio, and he really couldn't play the keyboards very well - her was really more of a drummer - but after that day, we kept in touch, and we sort of clicked as writers."[11] The two began writing and composing songs in his father's store basement, during Carey's senior year. After composing their first song together, "Here We Go Round Again", which Carey described as having a Motown-vibe, they continued writing material for a full length demo.[12] After Carey's graduation her mother wed once more, which ultimately prompted her to move out from Patricia's apartment, and into a one bedroom studio in Manhattan, which she shared with four other female students.[13][14] During this period, Carey worked several jobs as a waitress, usually getting fired after two week intervals.[15] While requiring work to pay for her rent, Carey's mind and effort still remained with her musical ambitions, as she continued working late into the night with Margulies, in hopes of completing a demo take that could be passed on to record executives.[15] After completing her four song demo tape, Carey tried to pass it to music labels, but was met with failure each time.[16] It was then she was introduced to rising pop singer of Puerto Rican descent, Brenda K. Starr.[16][17]
As Carey's friendship with Starr grew, so did her interest in helping Carey succeed in the industry.[18] On a Friday night in November 1987, Carey accompanied Starr to a record executives gala, where she handed her demo tape to Tommy Mottola, head of Columbia Records, who listened to it on his way back home.[18][19] After the first two songs, he became so enamored at the sound and quality of Carey's voice that he turned around returned to the event, only to find that she had left.[19] In what has been widely described by critics as a modern day Cinderella-like tale,[20][21] after searching Carey for two weeks, and eventually contacting her through Starr's management, he immediately signed her and began mapping out her debut into mainstream music.[18] While she maintained that she wanted to continue working with Margulies, Mottola enlisted top producers of the time, including Ric Wake, Narada Michael Walden and Rhett Lawrence.[18] Mottola and the staff at Columbia had planned to market Carey as the main female pop artist on their roster, competing with the likes of Whitney Houston and Madonna, who were signed to Arista and Sire Records respectively.[22] After the completion of the album, titled Mariah Carey, Columbia spent an upward of $1 million to promote it.[23] Though opening with weak sales, the album eventually reached the top of the Billboard 200, after Carey's exposure at the 33rd annual Grammy Awards.[24] Mariah Carey stayed atop the charts for eleven consecutive weeks,[25] and she won the Best New Artist, and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance trophies for her single "Vision of Love".[26] The album yielded an additional three number one singles on the Billboard Hot 100, following the four week number-one run of "Vision of Love". Carey became the first artist since The Jackson 5 to have their first four singles reach number one.[27] Mariah Carey finished as the best-selling album in the United States of 1991,[28] while totaling sales of over 15 million copies.[29]
Only months after the Mariah Carey began its descent on the charts, Carey already began working on her second studio effort, eventually titled Emotions (1991).[30][31] The album, as Carey described it, paid homage to Motown soul music, as she felt the need to pay tribute to the type of music and genre that truly influenced her as a struggling child.[31] For the project, Carey worked with Walter Afanasieff, who only had a small role on her debut, as well as Clivillés and Cole, from the dance group C+C Music Factory.[32] However, Carey's relationship with Margulies deteriorated[31] over a contract Carey had signed prior to her signing with Columbia, agreeing to split not only the songwriting royalties from the songs, but half of her earnings as well.[31] However, when the time came to write music for Emotions, Sony officials made it clear he would only be paid the fair amount given to co-writers on an album.[31] Subsequently, Margulies filed a lawsuit against Sony which ultimately led to their parting of ways.[31] On September 17, 1991, Emotions was released around the world, and was accepted by critics as a more mature album than its predecessor.[33] While praised for Carey's improved songwriting, production and new sound, the album was criticized for its material, which many felt was noticeably weaker than her debut.[34] Though the album managed sales of over eight million copies globally, Emotions failed to reach the commercial and critical heights of its predecessor.[35]
As they had done after the release of her debut, critics once again questioned whether Carey would embark on a world tour, in promotion for her material.[36] Although Carey explained that due to her stage fright, and the general strenuous nature of her songs, a tour sounded very daunting, speculation grew that Carey was a "studio worm", and that she wasn't capable of producing the perfect pitch and 5-octave vocal range for which she was known.[20][37] In hopes of putting any claims of her being a manufactured artist to rest, Carey and Walter Afanasieff decided to book an appearance on MTV Unplugged, a television program aired by MTV.[38] The show's purpose was to present name artists, and feature them "unplugged" or stripped of studio equipment.[38][39] While Carey felt strongly of her more soulful and powerful songs, it was decided that her most popular content to that point would be included.[39] Days prior to the show's taping, Carey and Afanasieff thought of adding a cover version of an older song, in order to provide something different and unexpected.[39] They chose "I'll Be There", a song made popular by The Jackson 5 in 1970, rehearsing it few times before the night of the show. On March 16, 1992, Carey recorded a seven-piece set-list at Kaufman Astoria Studios in Queens, New York.[40] The revue was met with critical acclaim, leading to it being aired over three times as often as an average episode would.[41] The revue's success tempted Sony officials to use it as some form of an album.[42] Sony decided to release it as an EP, selling for a reduced price due to its shorter length.[43] The EP proved to be a success, shunning critics and speculations that Carey was just a studio artist,[43] and was given a triple-Platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA),[44] and managed Gold and Platinum certifications in several European markets.[42]
"The writing partnership that her and I had and I can't speak for her other songwriting partners, but if you could see us in the room I would hit a chord and play a little melody on the piano and she would say, 'Oh, that's nice,' and she would sing that melody and then she adds a little bit to it. I would then play it back and then she would say, 'Yea, that's good' so it instantly becomes this partnership where eventually she'll have a melody and then the melody would prompt her to start thinking about this feeling she wants to put into words. This would eventually become the theme of the song."
During early 1993, Carey began working on her third studio album, Music Box.[46] After Emotions failed to achieve the commercial heights of her debut album, Carey and Columbia came to the agreement that the next album would contain a more pop influenced sound, in order to appeal to a wider audience.[46] During Carey's writing sessions, she began working mostly with Afanasieff, with whom she co-wrote and produced most of Music Box.[45] During the album's recording, Carey and Mottola became romantically involved.[47] They wed in a lavish ceremony on June 5, 1993, with several high profile guests including Barbra Streisand, Billy Joel, Gloria Estefan and Ozzy Osbourne.[48] One month later, on August 31, Music Box was released around the world, debuting at number-one on the Billboard 200.[49] The album was met with mixed reception from music critics; while many praised the album's pop influence and strong content, others felt that Carey made less usage of her acclaimed vocal range.[50] Ron Wynn from Allmusic described Carey's different form of singing on the album: "It was wise for Carey to display other elements of her approach, but sometimes excessive spirit is preferable to an absence of passion."[51] The album's second single, "Hero", would eventually come to be one of Carey's most popular and inspirational songs of her career.[52] The song became Carey's eighth chart topper in the United States,[52] and began expanding Carey's popularity throughout Europe. With the release of the album's third single, Carey achieved several career milestones. Her cover of Badfinger's "Without You" became her first number one single in several European countries, including Austria, Germany,[53] the Netherlands, Ireland,[54] Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.[55] Due to the song's success, Music Box spent prolonged periods at number one on the album charts of several countries,[56] and eventually became one of the best-selling albums of all time, with worldwide sales of over 32 million copies.[45] After declining to tour for her past two albums, Carey agreed to embark on a short stateside string of concerts, titled the Music Box Tour.[57] Spanning only six dates across North America,[57] the short but successful tour was a large step for Carey, who dreaded the hassle of touring.[58]
Following Music Box, Carey took a relatively large period of time away from the public eye, and began working on an unknown project throughout 1994.[59] The project was kept very secretive until Billboard announced on their October issue, that Carey would release a holiday album later that year.[59] In late 1994, Carey recorded a duet with Luther Vandross; a cover of Lionel Richie and Diana Ross's "Endless Love".[60] By that point, Columbia felt Carey had already established herself as a pop singer, and vocalist, but wanted to try and feature her as more of an entertainer.[61] Through the release of Merry Christmas, Columbia hoped that audiences would buy Carey's material solely for her name and reputation, and squash fears of her being a typical pop singer.[61] The album was released on November 1, 1994, on the same day that the album's first single, "All I Want for Christmas Is You", was released.[61] The album eventually became the best-selling Christmas album of all time, with global sales reaching over 15 million copies.[62][63][64] Additionally, "All I Want for Christmas Is You" was critically lauded, and is considered "one of the few worthy modern additions to the holiday canon."[62] Rolling Stone described it as a "holiday standard", and ranked it fourth on its Greatest Rock and Roll Christmas Songs list.[65] Commercially, it became the best-selling holiday ringtone of all time,[66] and the best-selling single by a non-Asian artist in Japan,[67] selling over 2.1 million units (both ringtone and digital download).[68][69] By the end of the holiday season of 1994, Carey and Afanasieff had already begun writing material for her next studio album, which would be released in the fall of the following year.[70]
Released on October 3, 1995, Daydream combined the pop sensibilities of Music Box with downbeat R&B and hip hop influences.[71] The album's second single, "One Sweet Day" was inspired by the death of Cole, as well as her sister Allison, who had contracted AIDS.[72] The song remained atop the Hot 100 for a record-breaking sixteen weeks, and became the longest running number one song in history.[73] Daydream became her biggest-selling album in the United States,[74] and became her second album to be certified Diamond by the RIAA, following Music Box.[44] The album again was the best-seller by an international artist in Japan, shifting over 2.2 million copies,[75] and eventually reaching global sales of over 25 million units.[29] Critically, the album was heralded as Carey's best to date; The New York Times named it as one of 1995's best albums, and wrote, "best cuts bring R&B candy-making to a new peak of textural refinement [...] Carey's songwriting has taken a leap forward and become more relaxed, sexier and less reliant on thudding clichés."[76] Carey once again opted to embark on a short world tour titled Daydream World Tour. It had seven dates, three in Japan and four throughout Europe.[77] When tickets went on sale, Carey set records when all 150,000 tickets for her three shows at Japan's largest stadium, Tokyo Dome sold out in under three hours, breaking the previous record help by The Rolling Stones.[77] Due to the album's success, Carey won two awards at the American Music Awards for her solo efforts: Favorite Pop/Rock Female Artist and Favorite Soul/R&B Female Artist.[78] Daydream and its singles were respectively nominated in six categories at the 38th Grammy Awards.[79] Carey, along with Boyz II Men, opened the event with a performance of "One Sweet Day".[80] However, Carey did not receive any award, prompting her to comment "What can you do? I will never be disappointed again. After I sat through the whole show and didn't win once, I can handle anything."[80] In 1995, due to Daydream's enormous Japanese sales, Billboard declared Carey the "Overseas Artist of the Year" in Japan.[81]
"It was '97 and I was leaving my marriage [to Tommy Mottola], which encompassed my life. I was writing the song 'Butterfly' wishing that that's what he would say to me. There's a part that goes, 'I have learned that beauty/has to flourish in the light/wild horses run unbridled/or their spirit dies/you have given me the courage/to be all that I can/and I truly feel ...[sings] and I truly feel your heart will lead you back to me when you're ready to land.' At that point I really believed that I was going to go back to the marriage – I didn't think I was going to leave forever. But then the things that happened to me during that time caused me to not go back. Had it been, 'Go be yourself, you've been with me since you were a kid, let's separate for a while,' I probably would've."
After the release of Daydream and the success that followed, Carey began focusing on her personal life, which was a constant struggle at the time.[83] Carey's relationship with Mottola began to deteriorate, due to their growing creative differences in terms of her albums, as well as his controlling nature.[83] With each following album, and her continual established fame and popularity, Carey began to take more initiative and control with her music, and started infusing more genres into her work.[84] During mid-1997, Carey was well underway, writing and recording material for her next album, Butterfly (1997).[85] She sought to work with other producers and writers other than Afansieff, such as Sean Combs, Kamaal Fareed, Missy Elliott and Jean Claude Oliver and Samuel Barnes from Trackmasters.[85] During the album's recording, Carey and Mottola separated, with Carey citing is as her way of achieving freedom, and a new lease on life.[86] Aside from the album's different approach, critics took notice of Carey's altered style of singing, which she describe as breathy vocals.[87] Her new-found style of singing was met with mixed reception; some critics felt is was a sign of maturity, that she didn't feel the need to always show off her upper range,[88] while others felt it was a sign of her weakening and waning voice.[89][90] The album's lead single, "Honey", and its accompanying music video, introduced a more overtly sexual image than Carey had ever demonstrated, and furthered reports of her freedom from Mottola.[91] Carey stated that Butterfly marked the point when she attained full creative control over her music.[92] However, she added, "I don't think that it's that much of a departure from what I've done in the past [...] It's not like I went psycho and thought I would be a rapper. Personally, this album is about doing whatever the hell I wanted to do."[91] Growing creative differences with producer Afanasieff continued, and eventually ended their working relationship, after collaborating on most of Carey's material.[93] Reviews for Butterfly were generally positive: Rolling Stone wrote, "It's not as if Carey has totally dispensed with her old saccharine, Houston-style balladry [...] but the predominant mood of 'Butterfly' is one of coolly erotic reverie. [... Except "Outside" the album sounds] very 1997. [...] Carey has spread her wings and she's ready to fly",[94] Allmusic editor, Stephen Thomas Erlewine described Carey's vocals as "sultrier and more controlled than ever", and heralded Butterfly as her "best record and illustrates that Carey continues to improve and refine her music, which makes her a rarity among her '90s peers."[95] The album was a commercial success, although not to the degree of her previous three albums.[93]
Toward the turn of the millennium, Carey began developing other projects, many of which she wasn't able to during her marriage.[96] On April 14, 1998, Carey partook in the VH1 Divas benefit concert, where she sang alongside Aretha Franklin, Celine Dion, Shania Twain, Gloria Estefan and Carole King.[97] Carey had begun developing a film project All That Glitters, later re-titled to simply Glitter,[98] and intended her songwriting to other projects, such as Men in Black (1997) and How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000).[96] After Glitter fell into developmental hell, Carey postponed the project, and began writing material for a new album.[96] The executives at Sony Music, the parent company of Carey's label Columbia, wanted her to prepare a greatest hits collection in time for the commercially favorable holiday season.[99] However, they disagreed as to what content and singles should constitute the album.[100] Sony wanted to release an album that featured her number one singles in the United States, and her international chart toppers on the European versions, void of any new material, while Carey felt that a compilation album should reflect on her most personal songs, not just her most commercial.[100] She felt that not including any new material would result in cheating her fans, therefore including four new songs that she had recorded.[100] While compromised, Carey often expressed distaste towards the album's song selection, expressing her disappointment in the omission of her "favorite songs".[101] The album titled, #1's (1998), featured a duet with Whitney Houston, "When You Believe", and was included on the soundtrack for The Prince of Egypt (1998).[100] During the development of All That Glitters, Carey had been introduced to DreamWorks producer Jeffrey Katzenberg, who asked her if she would record the song "When You Believe" for the soundtrack to the animated film The Prince of Egypt.[102] In an interview with Ebony, Houston described working with Carey, as well as their growing friendship: "Mariah and I got along very great. We had never talked and never sang together before. We just had a chance for camaraderie, singer-to-singer, artist-to-artist, that kind of thing. We just laughed and talked and laughed and talked and sang in between that ... It's good to know that two ladies of soul and music can still be friends."[103] #1's became a phenomenon in Japan, selling over one million copies in its opening week, and placing as the only international artist to accomplish this feat.[104] When describing Carey's popularity in Japan throughout the 1990s, author Chris Nickson compared it to Beatlemania in the 1960s.[77] The album sold over 3.25 million copies in Japan after only the first three months, and holds the record as the best-selling album by a non-Asian artist,[104] while amassing global sales of over 17 million copies.[105]
During the spring of 1999, Carey began working on the final album of her record contract with Sony, her ex-husband's label.[106] During this time, Carey's strained relationship with Sony affected her work with writing partner Afanasieff, who had worked extensively with Carey throughout the first half of her career.[106] She felt Mottola was trying to separate her from Afanasieff, in hopes of keeping their relationship permanently strained.[107] Due to the pressure and the awkward relationship Carey had now developed with Sony, she completed the album in a period of three months in the summer of 1999, quicker than any of her other albums.[48] The album, titled Rainbow (1999), found Carey once again working with a new array of music producers and songwriters, such as Jay-Z and DJ Clue.[108] Carey also wrote two ballads with David Foster and Diane Warren, whom she seemingly used to replace Afanasieff.[108] Rainbow was released on November 2, 1999, to the highest first week sales of her career at the time, however debuting at number two on the Billboard 200.[109] Throughout early-2000, Carey's troubled relationship with Columbia grew, as they halted promotion after the album's first two singles.[109] They felt Rainbow didn't have any strong single to be released, whereas Carey wanted a ballad regarding personal and inner strength released.[109] The difference in opinion led to a very public feud, as Carey began posting messages on her webpage in early and mid-2000, telling fans inside information on the dispute, as well as instructing them to request "Can't Take That Away (Mariah's Theme)" on radio stations.[110] One of the messages Carey left on her page read: "Basically, a lot of you know the political situation in my professional career is not positive. It's been really, really hard. I don't even know if this message is going to get to you because I don't know if they want you to hear this. I'm getting a lot of negative feedback from certain corporate people. But I am not willing to give up."[111] Fearing to lose their label's highest seller, Sony chose to release the song.[111] Carey, initially content with the agreement, soon found out that the song had only been given a very limited and low-promotion release, which made charting extremely difficult and unlikely.[111] Critical reception of Rainbow was generally enthusiastic, with the Sunday Herald saying that the album "sees her impressively tottering between soul ballads and collaborations with R&B heavyweights like Snoop Doggy Dogg and Usher [...] It's a polished collection of pop-soul."[112] Vibe magazine expressed similar sentiments, writing, "She pulls out all stops [...] Rainbow will garner even more adoration".[113] Though a commercial success, Rainbow became Carey's lowest selling album to that point in her career.[92]
After she received Billboard's Artist of the Decade Award and the World Music Award for Best-Selling Female Artist of the Millennium,[114] Carey parted from Columbia and signed a record-breaking $100 million five-album recording contract with Virgin Records (EMI Records), Carey was given full conceptual and creative control over the project.[115] She opted to record an album partly mixed with 1980s influenced disco and other similar genres, in order to go hand-in-hand with the film's setting.[116] She often stated that Columbia had regarded her as a commodity, with her separation from Mottola exacerbating her relations with label executives. Just a few months later, in July 2001, it was widely reported that Carey had suffered a physical and emotional breakdown. She had left messages on her website that complained of being overworked,[117] and her relationship with the Latin icon Luis Miguel ended.[118] In an interview the following year, she said, "I was with people who didn't really know me and I had no personal assistant. I'd do interviews all day long and get two hours of sleep a night, if that."[119] Due to the pressure from the media, her heavy work schedule and the split from Miguel, Carey began posting a series of disturbing messages on her official website, and displayed erratic behavior on several live promotional outings.[120] On July 19, 2001, Carey made a surprise appearance on the MTV program Total Request Live (TRL).[121] As the show's host Carson Daly began taping following a commercial break, Carey came out pushing an ice cream cart while wearing a large men's shirt, and began a striptease, in which she shed her shirt to reveal a tight yellow and green ensemble.[121] While she later revealed that Daly was aware of her presence in the building prior to her appearance, Carey's appearance on TRL garnered strong media attention.[120] Only days later, Carey began posting irregular voice notes and messages on her official website: "I'm trying to understand things in life right now and so I really don't feel that I should be doing music right now. What I'd like to do is just a take a little break or at least get one night of sleep without someone popping up about a video. All I really want is [to] just be me and that's what I should have done in the first place ... I don't say this much but guess what, I don't take care of myself."[121] Following the quick removal of the messages, Berger commented that Carey had been "obviously exhausted and not thinking clearly" when she posted the letters.[122]
On July 26, she was suddenly hospitalized, citing "extreme exhaustion" and a "physical and emotional breakdown".[123] Carey was inducted at an un-disclosed hospital in Connecticut, and remained hospitalized and under doctor's care for two weeks, followed by an extended absence from the public.[123] Following the heavy media coverage surrounding Carey's publicized breakdown and hospitalization, Virgin Records and 20th Century Fox delayed the release of both Glitter, as well as its soundtrack of the same name.[124] Consequently, critics suggested that in delaying Glitter, hype for the project would have largely subsided, and would possibly hurt both ticket and album sales.[125] When discussing the project's weak commercial reaction, Carey blamed both her frame of mind during the time of its release, its postponement, as well as the soundtrack having been released on September 11.[126] Critics panned Glitter, as well as its accompanying soundtrack; both were unsuccessful commercially.[127] The accompanying soundtrack album, Glitter, became Carey's lowest-selling album to that point. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch dismissed it as "an absolute mess that'll go down as an annoying blemish on a career that, while not always critically heralded, was at least nearly consistently successful."[128] Following the negative cloud that was ensuing Carey's personal life at the time, as well as the project's poor reception, her unprecedented $100 million five-album record deal with Virgin Records (EMI Records) was bought out for $50 million.[115][129] Soon after, Carey flew to Capri, Italy for a period of five months, in which she began writing material for her new album, stemming from all the personal experiences she had endured throughout the past year.[120] Carey later said that her time at Virgin was "a complete and total stress-fest [...] I made a total snap decision which was based on money and I never make decisions based on money. I learned a big lesson from that."[130] Later that year, she signed a contract with Island Records, valued at more than $24 million,[131] and launched the record label MonarC. To add further to Carey's emotional burdens, her father, with whom she had little contact since childhood, died of cancer that year.[132]
In 2002, Carey was cast in the independent film, WiseGirls, alongside Mira Sorvino and Melora Walters, who co-starred as waitresses at a mobster-operated restaurant. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, and received generally negative critical response, though Carey's portrayal of the character was praised; Roger Friedman of Fox News referred to her as "a Thelma Ritter for the new millennium", and wrote, "Her line delivery is sharp and she manages to get the right laughs".[133] Later that year, Carey performed the American national anthem to rave reviews at the Super Bowl XXXVI at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana.[134] Towards the end of 2002, Carey released her next studio album Charmbracelet, which she said marked "a new lease on life" for her.[119] Though released in the wake of Glitter and Carey's return to the music scene, sales of Charmbracelet were moderate and the quality of Carey's vocals came under criticism. Joan Anderson from The Boston Globe declared the album "the worst of her career, and revealed a voice [that is] no longer capable of either gravity-defying gymnastics or soft coos",[135] while Allmusic editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine expressed similar sentiments and wrote, "What is a greater problem is that Mariah's voice is shot, sounding in tatters throughout the record. She can no longer coo or softly croon nor can she perform her trademark gravity-defying vocal runs."[136] In an attempt to "relaunch" her career following the poor reception to Glitter, as well as her breakdown, Carey announced a world tour in April 2003.[137] Lasting over eight months, the Charmbracelet World Tour: An Intimate Evening with Mariah Carey, became her most extensive tour to date, spanning sixty-nine shows around the world.[138] Throughout the United States, the shows were done in smaller theaters, and something more Broadway-influenced, "It's much more intimate so you'll feel like you had an experience. You experience a night with me."[137] However, while smaller productions were booked throughout the tour's stateside leg, Carey performed at stadiums in Asia and Europe, performing for a crowd of over 35,000 in Manila, 50,000 in Malaysia, and to over 70,000 people in China.[139] In the United Kingdom, it became Carey's first tour to feature shows outside of London, booking arena stops in Glasgow, Birmingham and Manchester.[140] Charmbracelet World Tour: An Intimate Evening with Mariah Carey garnered generally positive reviews from music critics and concert goers, with many complimenting the quality of Carey's live vocals, as well as the production as a whole.[141]
Throughout 2004, Carey focused on composing material for her tenth studio album, The Emancipation of Mimi (2005). The album found Carey working predominantly with Jermaine Dupri, as well as Bryan-Michael Cox, Manuel Seal, The Neptunes, Kanye West and Carey's longtime collaborator, Jermaine Dupri.[142] The album debuted atop the charts in several countries, and was warmly accepted by critics. Caroline Sullivan of The Guardian defined it as "cool, focused and urban [... some of] the first Mariah Carey tunes in years which I wouldn't have to be paid to listen to again",[143] while USA Today's Elysa Gardner wrote, "The ballads and midtempo numbers that truly reflect the renewed confidence of a songbird who has taken her shots and kept on flying."[144] The album's second single, "We Belong Together", became a "career re-defining"[145] song for Carey, at a point when many critics had considered her career over.[146] music critics heralded the song as her "return to form",[147] as well as the "return of The Voice",[147] while many felt it would revive "faith" in Carey's potential as a balladeer.[142] "We Belong Together" broke several records in the United States and became Carey's sixteenth chart topper on the Billboard Hot 100.[148] After staying at number one for fourteen non-consecutive weeks, the song became the second longest running number one song in US chart history, behind Carey's 1996 collaboration with Boyz II Men, "One Sweet Day".[148] Billboard listed it as the "song of the decade" and the ninth most popular song of all time.[149] Besides its chart success, the song broke several airplay records, and according to Nielsen BDS, gathered both the largest one-day and one-week audiences in history.[150]
During the week of September 25, 2005, Carey set another record, becoming the first female to occupy the first two spots atop the Hot 100, as "We Belong Together" remained at number one, and her next single, "Shake It Off" moved into the number two spot.[148] (Ashanti had topped the chart in 2002 while being a "featured" signer on the #2 single.) On the Billboard Hot 100 Year-end Chart of 2005, the song was declared the number one song, a career first for Carey.[151] Billboard listed "We Belong Together" ninth on The Billboard Hot 100 All-Time Top Songs and was declared the most popular song of the 2000s decade by Billboard.[152] The album earned ten Grammy Award nominations in 2006–07: eight in 2006 for the original release (the most received by Carey in a single year),[153] and two in 2007 for the Ultra Platinum Edition. In 2006 Carey won Best Contemporary R&B Album for The Emancipation of Mimi, as well as Best Female R&B Vocal Performance and Best R&B Song for "We Belong Together".[153] The Emancipation of Mimi was the best-selling album in the United States in 2005, with nearly five million units sold. It was the first album by a solo female artist to become the year's best-selling album since Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill in 1996.[154] At the end of 2005, the IFPI reported that The Emancipation of Mimi had sold more than 7.7 million copies globally, and was the second best-selling album of the year after Coldplay's X&Y. It was the best-selling album worldwide by a solo and female artist.[155][156][157] To date, The Emancipation of Mimi has sold over 12 million copies worldwide.[158] At the 48th Grammy Awards, Carey performed a medley of "We Belong Together" and "Fly Like a Bird".[159] The performance earned the night's only standing ovation, prompting Teri Hatcher, who was presenting the next award, to exclaim, "It's like we've all just been saved!"[159]
In support of the album, Carey embarked on her first headlining tour in three years, named The Adventures of Mimi: The Voice, The Hits, The Tour after a "Carey-centric fan's" music diary.[160] The tour spanned forty stops, with thirty-two in the United States and Canada, two in Africa, and six in Japan.[161] Tickets for the tour went on sale on June 2, 2006, with prices ranging from $95 to $150 USD, and featured Carey's long-time friend Randy Jackson as the tour's musical director.[162][163] Carey's performances consisted of old songs from her catalog as well as her newest singles.[164] The tour received warm critical reaction from music critics and concert goers, many of which celebrated the quality of Carey's live vocals, as well as the show as a whole.[165][166] However, critics felt the show's excesses, such as Carey's often costume changes and pre-filmed clips, were unnecessary distractions.[165] The tour proved successful, with Carey playing to over 60,000 fans in the two stop in Tunis alone.[167] Midway through the tour, Carey booked a two-night concert engagement in Hong Kong, which was scheduled to take place following her Japanese shows.[168] The shows were cancelled, however, after tickets went on sale. According to Carey's then-manager Benny Medina, the cancellation was due to the concert promoter's refusal to pay Carey her agreed-upon compensation.[168] The promoter instead blamed poor ticket sales (allegedly, only 4,000 tickets had sold) and "Carey's outrageous demands".[169] Carey ultimately sued the promoter, claiming $1 million in damages due to the concert's abrupt cancellation.[170]
By spring 2007, Carey had begun to work on her eleventh studio album, E=MC², in a private villa in Anguilla.[171] When asked regarding the album title's meaning, Carey said "Einstein's theory? Physics? Me? Hello! ...Of course I'm poking fun."[172] She characterized it as "Emancipation of Mimi to the second power", and said that she was "freer" on this album than any other.[172] Although E=MC² was well received by most critics,[173] some of them criticized it for being very similar to the formula used on The Emancipation of Mimi.[174] Two weeks before the album's release, "Touch My Body", the record's lead single reached the top position on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Carey's eighteenth number one and making her the solo artist with the most number one singles in United States history, pushing her past Elvis Presley into second place according to the magazine's revised methodology.[175] Carey is now second only to The Beatles, who have twenty number-one singles. Additionally, it gave Carey her 79th week atop the Hot 100, tying her with Presley as the artist with the most weeks at number one in the Billboard chart history."[176] Carey has also had notable success on international charts, though not to the same degree as in the United States. Thus far, she has had two #1 singles in Britain, two in Australia, and six in Canada. Her highest-charting single in Japan peaked at number two.
E=MC² debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 with 463,000 copies sold, the biggest opening week sales of her career.[177] With six number one albums, Carey is now tied with Britney Spears and Janet Jackson in the United States for the third most number one albums for a female artist, behind Madonna with seven and Barbra Streisand's nine chart toppers.[35] In 2008, Billboard magazine ranked her at number six on the "Billboard Hot 100 All-Time Top Artists", making Carey the second most successful female artist in the history of the Billboard Hot 100 chart.[178] Carey and actor/comedian Nick Cannon met while they shot her music video for her second single, "Bye Bye", on an island off the coast of Antigua.[179] On April 30, 2008, Carey married Cannon at her private estate on Windermere Island in The Bahamas.[180][181] Carey had a cameo appearance in Adam Sandler's 2008 film You Don't Mess with the Zohan, playing herself.[182] On January 20, 2009, Carey performed "Hero" at the Neighborhood Inaugural Ball after Barack Obama was sworn as America's first African-American president.[183] On July 7, 2009, Carey – alongside Trey Lorenz – performed her version of The Jackson 5 song "I'll Be There" at the memorial service for Michael Jackson.[184] At the sight of Jackson's casket, Carey's voice, overwhelmed with emotion, cracked in the opening line of the song.[185] She later apologized on The Today Show, explaining how she did her best effort despite the circumstances.[185]
In 2009, she appeared as a social worker in Precious, the movie adaptation of the 1996 novel Push by Sapphire. The film garnered mostly positive reviews from critics, as has Carey's performance.[186] Variety described her acting as "pitch-perfect".[187] Precious won awards at both the Sundance Film Festival and the Toronto Film Festival, receiving top honors there.[188][189] In January 2010, Carey won the Breakthrough Actress Performance Award for her role in Precious at the Palm Springs International Film Festival.[190] September 25, 2009, Carey's twelfth studio album, Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel, was released. Reception for the album was generally positive, but mixed in certain aspects; Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic called it "her most interesting album in a decade",[191] while Jon Caramanica from The New York Times criticized Carey's vocal performances, decrying her overuse of her softer vocal registers at the expense of her more powerful lower and upper registers.[192] Commercially, the album debuted at number three on the Billboard 200, and became the lowest-selling studio album of her career.[193] The album's lead single, "Obsessed", became her 40th entry on the Billboard Hot 100 and her highest debut on the chart since "My All" in 1998.[194] The song debuted at number eleven and peaked at number seven on the chart, and became Carey's 27th US top-ten hit, tying her with Elton John and Janet Jackson as the fifth most top-ten hits.[194] Within hours after the song's release, various outlets speculated that its target was rapper Eminem, in response to his song "Bagpipes from Baghdad", in which he taunted Carey's husband, Nick Cannon.[195] According to MTV, Carey alludes to drug problems in "Obsessed", which Eminem opened up about on his sixth studio album, Relapse.[196] The album's follow-up single, a cover of Foreigner's "I Want to Know What Love Is", failed to achieve any significant chart success in the United States, or much throughout Europe, but managed to break airplay records in Brazil. The song spent 27 weeks atop the Brasil Hot 100 Airplay, making it the longest running song in the chart's history.[197] On December 31, 2009, Carey embarked her seventh concert tour, Angels Advocate Tour, which visited the United States and Canada.[198] Though stateside, the tour spanned few international dates, such as in Brazil and Singapore, where Carey played to over 100,000 spectators.[199] On January 30, 2010, it was announced that Carey would release a remix album of Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel; titled Angels Advocate (an R&B remix album featuring a collection of newly remixed duets with some of Carey's favorite artists).[200] The album was slated for a March 30, 2010 release, but was eventually cancelled.[201]
Following the cancellation of the Angels Advocate, it was announced that Carey would return to the studio to start work on her thirteenth studio album.[202] It was later revealed that it would be her second Christmas album, the follow-up to Merry Christmas (1994), which became the best-selling Holiday album of all time.[63] Long time collaborators for the project include Jermaine Dupri, Johntá Austin, Bryan-Michael Cox and Randy Jackson, as well as new collaborators such as Marc Shaiman.[203] Dupri stated that a single would be released alongside the album before the year's end.[203] During a press conference in Seoul, South Korea, in August 2010, Island Def Jam executive Matt Voss announced that the album would be out on November 2, 2010.[204] and would include six new songs and a remix of her classic hit "All I Want for Christmas Is You".[205] The album, titled Merry Christmas II You, was released alongside an accompanying DVD, and was sent to retailers on November 2, 2010.[206] Merry Christmas II You debuted at number four on the Billboard 200 with sales of 56,000 copies, surpassing the opening week sales of Carey's previous holiday album of 45,000 copies 16 years prior.[207] It also became Carey's 16th top ten album in the United States.[207] The album debuted at number one on the R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, making it only the second Christmas album to top this chart.[208]
In May 2010, Carey dropped out of her planned appearance in For Colored Girls, the film adaptation of the play For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf, citing medical reasons.[209] After much media speculation, Carey confirmed on October 28, 2010, that she and Cannon were expecting their first child.[210] Carey also revealed that she had been pregnant shortly after her wedding with Cannon, but she miscarried.[211] On April 30, 2011, the couple's third wedding anniversary, Carey gave birth to fraternal twins via C-section.[212] The twins were named Monroe, after Marilyn Monroe, and Moroccan Scott, after Cannon proposed to Carey in her Moroccan-style room; Scott is Cannon's middle name and his grandmother's maiden name.[213] On February 11, 2011, Carey announced on HSN, that she recorded a duet with Tony Bennett for his upcoming "Duets" album, titled "When Do The Bells Ring For Me".[214] Following the birth of their children, Cannon revealed during an interview with Billboard that Carey had already begun working on a new record.[215] Cannon said "She's been working away, and we have a studio in the crib, and [the pregnancy] has totally inspired her on so many different levels. You're definitely gonna see some new phenomenal music from Mariah" and assured Carey would plan on releasing it by the end of the year.[216] In October 2011, Carey announced that she re-recorded her song "All I Want for Christmas Is You" with Justin Bieber as a duet for his Christmas album, Under the Mistletoe.[217][218] On November 5, 2011, Carey and Bieber filmed a music video for the duet at the Macy's in New York City.[219] On October 21, 2011, a pre-taped interview with Barbara Walters aired on ABC's 20/20, during the interview Carey and Cannon allowed the cameras to photograph/film twins Moroccan and Monroe for the first time ever.[220] In November 2011, Carey was included in the remix to the mixtape single "Warning" by Uncle Murda, the remix also features 50 Cent and Young Jeezy.[221] That same month, Carey announced that she and John Legend collaborated on a duet, "When Christmas Comes", which was originally part of Carey's 2010 holiday album Merry Christmas II You.[222] On March 1, 2012, Carey took the stage at New York City's Gotham Hall for a show, where only 50 tickets were made available to the public, as part of the Plot Your Escape concert series.[223] The 40-minute set included many of Carey's hits such as "Always Be My Baby", "Hero", "Obsessed", "We Belong Together", and a cover of Michael Jackson's "I'll Be There".[224]
Love is the subject of the majority of Carey's lyrics, although she has written about themes such as racism, social alienation, death, world hunger, and spirituality. She has said that much of her work is partly autobiographical, but Time magazine wrote: "If only Mariah Carey's music had the drama of her life. Her songs are often sugary and artificial—NutraSweet soul. But her life has passion and conflict," applying it to the first stages of her career. He commented that as her album's progressed, so too her songwriting and music blossomed into more mature and meaningful material.[225] Jim Faber of the New York Daily News, made similar comments, "For Carey, vocalizing is all about the performance, not the emotions that inspired it. Singing, to her, represents a physical challenge, not an emotional unburdening."[226] While reviewing Music Box, Stephen Holden from Rolling Stone commented that Carey sang with "sustained passion", while Entertainment Weekly's Arion Berger wrote that during some vocal moments, Carey becomes "too overwhelmed to put her passion into words."[227] In 2001, The Village Voice wrote in regards to what they considered Carey's "centerless ballads", writing, "Carey's Strawberry Shortcake soul still provides the template with which teen-pop cuties draw curlicues around those centerless [Diane] Warren ballads [...] it's largely because of [Blige] that the new R&B demands a greater range of emotional expression, smarter poetry, more from-the-gut testifying, and less unnecessary notes than the squeaky-clean and just plain squeaky Mariah era. Nowadays it's the Christina Aguileras and Jessica Simpsons who awkwardly oversing, while the women with roof-raising lung power keep it in check when tune or lyric demands."[228]
Carey's output makes use of electronic instruments such as drum machines,[142] keyboards and synthesizers.[229] Many of her songs contain piano-driven melodies,[230] as she was given piano lessons when she was six years old.[6] Carey said that she cannot read sheet music and prefers to collaborate with a pianist when composing her material, but feels that it is easier to experiment with faster and less conventional melodies and chord progressions using this technique.[6] While Carey learned to play the piano at a young age, and incorporates several ranges of production and instrumentation into her music, she has maintained that her voice has always been her most important asset: "My voice is my instrument; it always has been."[93] Carey began commissioning remixes of her material early in her career and helped to spearhead the practice of recording entirely new vocals for remixes.[231] Disc jockey David Morales has collaborated with Carey on several occasions, starting with "Dreamlover" (1993), which popularized the tradition of remixing R&B songs into house records, and which Slant magazine named one of the greatest dance songs of all time.[232] From "Fantasy" (1995) onward, Carey enlisted both hip-hop and house producers to re-structure her album compositions.[80] Entertainment Weekly included two remixes of "Fantasy" on a list of Carey's greatest recordings compiled in 2005: a National Dance Music Award-winning remix produced by Morales, and a Sean Combs production featuring rapper Ol' Dirty Bastard.[233] The latter has been credited with popularizing the R&B/hip-hop collaboration trend that has continued into the 2000s, through artists such as Ashanti and Beyoncé.[231] Combs said that Carey "knows the importance of mixes, so you feel like you're with an artist who appreciates your work—an artist who wants to come up with something with you".[234]
"I have nodules on my vocal cords. My mother says I've had them since I was a kid. That's why I have the high register and the belting register and I can still be husky. A lot of people couldn't sing through the nodules the way I do; I've learned to sing through my vocal cords. The only thing that really affects my voice is sleep. Sometimes if I'm exhausted, I can't hit the really high notes. My doctors showed me my vocal cords and why I can hit those high notes. It's a certain part of the cord that not many people use—the very top. My natural voice is low. I have a raspy voice. I'm really more of an alto. But my airy voice can be high if I'm rested. [...] When I was little, I'd talk in this really high whisper, and my mom would be like, 'You're being ridiculous'. I thought if I can talk like that I can sing like that. So I started [she goes higher and higher and higher] just messing around with it. I'd practice and practice, and she'd be like, "You're gonna hurt yourself." I'd tell her, It doesn't hurt. If I were to try and belt two octaves lower than that, that would be a strain."
Mariah Carey possesses a five-octave vocal range,[236][237][238] and has the ability to reach notes beyond the 7th octave.[239][240] She was ranked first in a 2003 MTV and Blender magazine countdown of the 22 Greatest Voices in Music, as voted by fans and readers in an online poll. Carey said of the poll, "What it really means is voice of the MTV generation. Of course, it's an enormous compliment, but I don't feel that way about myself."[241] She also placed second in Cove magazine's list of "The 100 Outstanding Pop Vocalists".[242]
Regarding her voice type, Carey said that she is an alto. However, within contemporary forms of music, singers are classified by the style of music they sing. There is currently no authoritative voice classification system within non-classical music.[243] Attempts have been made to adopt classical voice type terms to other forms of singing, but they are controversial,[243] because the development of classic voice categorizations were made with the understanding that the singer would amplify his or her voice with their natural resonators, without a microphone.[244]
Jon Pareles of The New York Times describes Carey's lower register as a "rich, husky alto" that extends to "dog-whistle high notes"[245]. Carey also possesses a "whisper register". In an interview with the singer, Ron Givens of Entertainment Weekly described it this way, "In one brief swoop, she seems to squeal and roar at the same time: whisper register."[246] Additionally, towards the late 1990s, Carey began incorporating breathy vocals into her material, usually beginning the song and then building up to a "full throated" climax.[247] Tim Levell from the BBC News described her vocals as "sultry close-to-the-mic breathiness",[247] while USA Today's Elysa Gardner wrote "it's impossible to deny the impact her vocal style, a florid blend of breathy riffing and resonant belting, has had on today's young pop and R&B stars."[248]
Her sense of pitch is admired[245] and Jon Pareles adds "she can linger over sensual turns, growl with playful confidence, syncopate like a scat singer... with startlingly exact pitch."[245]
Carey has said that from childhood she has been influenced by R&B and soul musicians such as Billie Holiday and Sarah Vaughan.[249] Her music contains strong influences of gospel music, and she credits The Clark Sisters, Shirley Caesar and Edwin Hawkins as the most influential in her early years.[249] When Carey incorporated hip-hop into her sound, speculation arose that she was making an attempt to take advantage of the genre's popularity, but she told Newsweek, "People just don't understand. I grew up with this music".[250] She has expressed appreciation for rappers such as The Sugarhill Gang, Eric B. & Rakim, the Wu-Tang Clan, The Notorious B.I.G. and Mobb Deep, with whom she collaborated on the single "The Roof (Back in Time)" (1998).[101] Carey was heavily influenced by Minnie Riperton, and began experimenting with the whistle register due to her original practice of the range.[101]
During Carey's career, her vocal and musical style, along with her level of success, has been compared to Whitney Houston, who she has also cited as an influence,[251] and Celine Dion. Carey and her peers, according to Garry Mulholland, are "the princesses of wails [...] virtuoso vocalists who blend chart-oriented pop with mature MOR torch song".[252] Author and writer Lucy O'Brien attributed the comeback of Barbra Streisand's "old-fashioned showgirl" to Carey and Dion, and described them and Houston as "groomed, airbrushed and overblown to perfection".[252] Carey's musical transition and use of more revealing clothing during the late 1990s were, in part, initiated to distance herself from this image, and she subsequently said that most of her early work was "schmaltzy MOR".[252] Some have noted that unlike Houston and Dion, Carey co-writes her own songs, and the Guinness Rockopedia (1998) classified her as the "songbird supreme".[253]
Carey's vocal style and singing ability have significantly impacted popular and contemporary music. As music critic G. Brown from The Denver Post wrote, "For better or worse, Mariah Carey's five-octave range and melismatic style have influenced a generation of pop singers."[254] According to Rolling Stone, "Her mastery of melisma, the fluttering strings of notes that decorate songs like "Vision of Love", inspired the entire American Idol vocal school, for better or worse, and virtually every other female R&B singer since the Nineties."[255] Jody Rosen of Slate Magazine wrote of Carey's influence in modern music, calling her the most influential vocal stylist of the last two decades, the person who made rococo melismatic singing.[256] Rosen further exemplified Carey's influence by drawing parallel with American Idol, which to her, "often played out as a clash of melisma-mad Mariah wannabes. And, today, nearly 20 years after Carey's debut, major labels continue to bet the farm on young stars such as the winner of Britain's X Factor show, Leona Lewis, with her Generation Next gloss on Mariah's big voice and big hair."[256] Sean Daly of St. Petersburg Times wrote, "Depending on how you feel about public humiliation, the best/worst parts of American Idol are the audition shows, which normally break down into three distinct parts:(1) The Talented Kids.(2) The Weird Kids.(3) The Mariahs." Daly further commented, "The Mariahs are the hardest ones to watch, mainly because most of them think they're reeeaaally good. The poor, disillusioned hopefuls plant themselves in front of judges Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson – then proceed to stretch, break and mutilate every note of a song, often Mariah's Hero, a tune that has ruined more throats than smoker's cough."[257] New York Magazine's editor Roger Deckker said that in regarding Carey as an influential artist in music, he commented that "Whitney Houston may have introduced melisma (the vocally acrobatic style of lending a word an extra syllable or twenty) to the charts, but it was Mariah—with her jaw-dropping range—who made it into America's default sound."[258] Deckker also added that "Every time you turn on American Idol, you are watching her children".[258] Despite her vocal prowess, Carey's vocal technique particularly with the use of melisma and belting, has been subject to public scrutiny mainly because of young singers such as from talent shows have been overly imitating her singing technique in which critics commented "Mariah Carey is, without a doubt, the worst thing to happen to amateur singing since the karaoke machine".[257] As Professor Katherine L. Meizel noted in her book, The Mediation of Identity Politics in American Idol, "Carey's influence not just stops in the emulation of melisma or her singing amongst the wannabe's, it's also her persona, her diva, her stardom which inspires them.... a pre-fame conic look."[259]
The problem, however, is that for all her talent, the 36-year-old is first and foremost a STAR, the very epitome of pop opulence in today's celebrity-dependent culture. And thus, millions of young women and men wake up every morning and figure that, simply by imitating Carey's vocal derring-do, they too can wind up on the cover of People or on MTV Cribs or on the arm of record mogul Tommy Mottola.
Carey's influence is notable in numerous hip hop, pop and R&B artists, including Beyoncé,[62] Christina Aguilera,[261] Jessica Simpson,[248] Rihanna,[262] Kelly Clarkson,[263] Nelly Furtado,[264] Leona Lewis,[265] Brandy Norwood,[255] Pink,[266] Mary J. Blige,[267] and Missy Elliott, among others.[62] Knowles credits Carey's singing and her song "Vision of Love" as influencing her to begin practicing vocal "runs" as a child, as well as helping her pursue a career as a musician.[62] Rihanna has stated that Carey is one of her major influences and idol.[262] Christina Aguilera has cited in her early stages of her career that Carey is a big influence in her singing career and being one of her idols.[261] According to Pier Dominguez, author of Christina Aguilera: a star is made : the unauthorized biography, Aguilera has stated how she loved listening to Whitney Houston, but it was Carey who had the biggest influence on her vocal styling. Carey's carefully choreographed image of a grown woman struck a chord on Aguilera. Her influence on Aguilera also grew from the fact that both were of mixed heritage.[268] Philip Brasor, editor of The Japan Times, expressed how Carey's vocal and melismatic style even influenced Asian singers. He wrote regarding Japanese superstar Utada Hikaru, "Utada sang what she heard, from the diaphragm and with her own take on the kind of melisma that became de rigueur in American pop after the ascendance of Mariah Carey."[269] In an article called "Out With Mariah's Melisma, In With Kesha's Kick", writer David Browne of The New York Times discusses how the ubiquitous melisma pop style has suddenly fallen down from pop culture in favor of young stars who uses the now ubiquitous autotune in which the first mentioned was heavily popularized into mainstream pop culture with the likes of Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston.[270] Browne had commented "But beginning two decades ago, melisma overtook pop in a way it hadn't before. Mariah Carey's debut hit from 1990, "Vision of Love," followed two years later by Whitney Houston's version of "I Will Always Love You," set the bar insanely high for notes stretched louder, longer and knottier than most pop fans had ever heard."[270] Browne further added "A subsequent generation of singers, including Ms. Aguilera, Jennifer Hudson and Beyoncé, built their careers around melisma. (Men like Brian McKnight and Tyrese also indulged in it, but women tended to dominate the form.)"[270]
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Carey's usage of Melisma throughout the song was credited with inspiring several vocalists and performers throughout the turn or the century, and is considered to have brought the usage of the vocal technique to modern day singers and talent competitions around the world to date.
Since its release in 1994, the song has re-entered the charts around the world, and is the best-selling holiday ringtone and song in the United States. Additionally, it was listed as the number one Christmas standard in the United Kingdom, while being branded the "last addition to the holiday collection of classics." The song has been covered by several artists, attesting to its continued popularity.[271][272]
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Carey is also credited for introducing R&B and hip hop into mainstream pop culture, and for popularizing rap as a featuring act through her post-1995 songs.[62] Sasha Frere-Jones, editor of The New Yorker commented, "It became standard for R&B/hip-hop stars like Missy Elliott and Beyoncé, to combine melodies with rapped verses. And young white pop stars—including Britney Spears, Jessica Simpson, Christina Aguilera, and 'N Sync—have spent much of the past ten years making pop music that is unmistakably R&B."[62] Moreover Jones concludes that "[Carey's] idea of pairing a female songbird with the leading male MCs of hip-hop changed R&B and, eventually, all of pop. Although now anyone is free to use this idea, the success of "The Emancipation of Mimi" suggests that it still belongs to Carey."[62] Judnick Mayard, writer of The Fader, wrote that in regarding of R&B and hip hop collaboration, "The champion of this movement is Mariah Carey."[273] Mayard also expressed that "To this day ODB and Mariah may still be the best and most random hip hop collaboration of all time", citing that due to the record "Fantasy", "R&B and Hip Hop were the best of step siblings."[273] Kelfa Sanneh of The New York Times wrote, "In the mid-1990s Ms. Carey pioneered a subgenre that some people call the thug-love duet. Nowadays clean-cut pop stars are expected to collaborate with roughneck rappers, but when Ms. Carey teamed up with Ol' Dirty Bastard, of the Wu-Tang Clan, for the 1995 hit "Fantasy (Remix)", it was a surprise, and a smash."[274] Aside from her pop culture and musical influence, Carey is credited for releasing a classic Christmas song called "All I Want For Christmas Is You".[272] In a retrospective look at Carey's career, Sasha Frere-Jones of The New Yorker said, the "charming" song was one of Carey's biggest accomplishments, calling it "one of the few worthy modern additions to the holiday canon".[62] Rolling Stone ranked "All I Want for Christmas Is You" fourth on its Greatest Rock and Roll Christmas Songs list, calling it a "holiday standard."[275] Following the release of her Greatest Hits album, Devon Powers of Popmatters has said in his review that "She has influenced countless female vocalists after her. At 32, she is already a living legend—even if she never sings another note."[276] Carey's business ventures include the launch of her perfumes, her clothing line, and books.[277] She has portrayed the true nature of being a superstar, according to sociologist Naomi Hirahara, and is a classic example of the word "diva". Carey is never seen without her large entourage, whether it be award shows, performances or as guests on late night specials. Hirahara says, "her demands are sporadic, her looks are glamorous, she is hardly of her age, but she is still ruling. Nowadays people emulate the idea of being a diva, but Carey was the original one in true sense of the term."[277]
Throughout Carey's career, she has collected many honors and awards, including the World Music Awards' Best Selling Female Artist of the Millennium, the Grammy's Best New Artist in 1991, Billboard's Special Achievement Award for the Artist of the Decade during the 1990s.[278] In a career spanning over 20 years, Carey has sold over 200 million albums, singles, and videos worldwide, making her one of the biggest-selling artists in music history. Carey is ranked as the best-selling female artist of the Nielsen SoundScan era, with over 52 million copies sold.[279][280][281][282] Possessing a five-octave vocal range, Carey was ranked first in MTV and Blender magazine's 2003 countdown of the 22 Greatest Voices in Music, and was placed second in Cove magazine's list of "The 100 Outstanding Pop Vocalists".[242][283] Aside from her voice, she has become known for her songwriting. Yahoo Music editor Jason Ankeny wrote, "She earned frequent comparison to rivals Whitney Houston and Celine Dion, but did them both one better by composing all of her own material."[284] According to Billboard magazine, she was the most successful artist of the 1990s in the United States.[285] At the 2000 World Music Awards, Carey was given a Legend Award for being the "best-selling female pop artist of the millennium", as well as the "Best-selling artist of the 90s" in the United States, after releasing a series of albums of multi-platinum status in Asia and Europe, such as Music Box and Number 1's.[283][286] She is also a recipient of the Chopard Diamond Award in 2003, recognizing sales of over 100 million albums worldwide.[287] Additionally, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) lists Carey as the third-best-selling female artist, with shipments of over 63 million units in the US.[288][289] In Japan, Carey has the top four highest-selling albums of all time by a non-Asian artist.[290][291]
Carey has spent a record 79 weeks at the number-one position on Billboard Hot 100, becoming the artist with the most weeks at number-one in US chart history.[292] On that same chart, she has accumulated 18 number-one singles, which ties her with Elvis Presley for the second most number-one singles in the chart's history (after only The Beatles).[293] In 1994, Carey released her holiday album Merry Christmas has sold over 15 million copies worldwide, and is the best-selling Christmas album of all time.[63][64][294][295] It also produced the successful single "All I Want for Christmas Is You", which became the only holiday song and ringtone to reach multi-platinum status in the US.[296] In Japan, Number 1's has sold over 3,250,000 copies and is the best-selling album of all time in Japan by a non-Asian artist.[297] Her hit single "One Sweet Day", which featured Boyz II Men, spent sixteen consecutive weeks at the top of Billboard's Hot 100 chart in 1996, setting the record for the most weeks atop the Hot 100 chart in history.[282] After Carey's success in Asia with Merry Christmas, Billboard estimated Carey as the all-time best-selling international artist in Japan.[298] In 2008, Billboard listed "We Belong Together" ninth on The Billboard Hot 100 All-Time Top Songs[299] and second on Top Billboard Hot 100 R&B/Hip-Hop Songs.[300] The song was also declared the most popular song of the 2000s decade by Billboard.[152] In 2009, Carey's cover of Foreigner's song "I Want to Know What Love Is" became the longest-running number-one song in Brazilian singles chart history, spending 27 consecutive weeks at number-one.[301] Additionally, Carey has had three songs debut at number-one on the Billboard Hot 100: "Fantasy", "One Sweet Day" and "Honey", making her the artist with the most number-one debuts in the chart's 52-year history.[302] Also, she is the first female artist to debut at number 1 in the U.S. with "Fantasy".[283] In 2010, Carey's 13th album and second Christmas album, Merry Christmas II You, debuted at No.1 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, making it only the second Christmas album to top that chart. On November 19, 2010, Billboard magazine named Carey in their "Top 50 R&B/Hip-Hop Artists of the Past 25 Years" chart at number four.[303]
Carey is a philanthropist who has donated time and money to organizations such as the Fresh Air Fund.[304] She became associated with the Fund in the early 1990s, and is the co-founder of a camp located in Fishkill, New York, that enables inner-city youth to embrace the arts and introduces them to career opportunities.[304] The camp was called Camp Mariah "for her generous support and dedication to Fresh Air children", and she received a Congressional Horizon Award for her youth-related charity work.[305] She is well-known nationally for her work with the Make-A-Wish Foundation in granting the wishes of children with life-threatening illnesses, and in November 2006 she was awarded the Foundation's Wish Idol for her "extraordinary generosity and her many wish granting achievements".[306][307] Carey has volunteered for the New York City Police Athletic League and contributed to the obstetrics department of New York Presbyterian Hospital Cornell Medical Center.[308] A percentage of the sales of MTV Unplugged was donated to various other charities.[308] In 2008, Carey was named Hunger Ambassador of the World Hunger Relief Movement.[309] In February 2010, the song, "100%", which was originally written and recorded for the film, Precious,[310] was used as one of the theme songs for the 2010 Winter Olympics, with all money proceeds going to Team USA.[311]
One of Carey's most high-profile benefit concert appearances was on VH1's 1998 Divas Live special, during which she performed alongside other female singers in support of the Save the Music Foundation.[97] The concert was a ratings success, and Carey participated in the Divas 2000 special.[97] In 2007, the Save the Music Foundation honored Carey at their tenth gala event for her support towards the foundation since its inception.[312][313] She appeared at the America: A Tribute to Heroes nationally televised fundraiser in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, and in December 2001, she performed before peacekeeping troops in Kosovo.[314] Carey hosted the CBS television special At Home for the Holidays, which documented real-life stories of adopted children and foster families, from the Wayback Machine on October 22, 2001.[315] In 2005, Carey performed for Live 8 in London[316] and at the Hurricane Katrina relief telethon "Shelter from the Storm".[317] In August 2008, Carey and other singers recorded the charity single, "Just Stand Up" produced by Babyface and L. A. Reid, to support "Stand Up to Cancer".[318]
Declining offers to appear in commercials in the United States during her early career, Carey was not involved in brand marketing initiatives until 2006, when she participated in endorsements for Intel Centrino personal computers and launched a jewelry and accessories line for teenagers, Glamorized, in American Claire's and Icing stores.[319] During this period, as part of a partnership with Pepsi and Motorola, Carey recorded and promoted a series of exclusive ringtones, including "Time of Your Life".[320] She signed a licensing deal with the cosmetics company Elizabeth Arden, and in 2007, she released her own fragrance, "M".[321] In 2007, Forbes named her as the fifth richest woman in entertainment, with an estimated net worth of US $270 million.[322][323] In November 2011, it was reported that Carey's net worth was valued at more than $500 million.[324] On November 29, 2010, she debuted a collection on HSN, the collection range included jewelry, shoes and fragrances.[325] In November 2011, Carey was announced as the new global ambassador for Jenny Craig, following her weight loss with the program after giving birth to fraternal twins in April. Carey claims she lost 70-pound (32 kg) on the program.[326]
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
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1999 | The Bachelor | Ilana | |
2001 | Glitter | Billie Frank | 2001 Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actress |
2002 | WiseGirls | Raychel | |
2003 | Death of a Dynasty | Herself | Cameo appearance |
2005 | State Property 2 | Dame's Wifey | |
2008 | You Don't Mess with the Zohan | Herself | Cameo appearance |
2009 | Tennessee | Krystal | |
2009 | Precious | Mrs. Weiss |
Palm Springs International Film Festival Breakthrough Performance Award |
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
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2002 | Ally McBeal | Candy Cushnip | "Playing with Matches" (Season 5, episode 8) |
2003 | The Proud Family | Herself | Voice role |
Book: Mariah Carey | |
Wikipedia books are collections of articles that can be downloaded or ordered in print. |
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Mariah Carey |
Media related to Mariah Carey at Wikimedia Commons
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