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The meaning of mariah carey
- GenresNonfiction
368 pages, Paperback
Published November 9, 2021
20 people are currently reading
132 people want to read
About the author
Mariah Carey
88 books23.7k followersMariah Carey is an American artist of Black and Irish ancestry.
She is an award-winning singer, songwriter, producer, actress, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. She has recorded fifteen studio albums and holds numerous industry records, including the most number one singles of any solo artist in history.
She has received many accolades, honors, and distinctions throughout her career, including the Congressional Award for her charitable work with youth through the Fresh Air Fund's Camp Mariah. She is an inductee into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Carey remains forever thankful and fiercely loyal to her global family of fans.
Ms. Carey is the mother of two children, Moroccan and Monroe.
She is an award-winning singer, songwriter, producer, actress, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. She has recorded fifteen studio albums and holds numerous industry records, including the most number one singles of any solo artist in history.
She has received many accolades, honors, and distinctions throughout her career, including the Congressional Award for her charitable work with youth through the Fresh Air Fund's Camp Mariah. She is an inductee into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Carey remains forever thankful and fiercely loyal to her global family of fans.
Ms. Carey is the mother of two children, Moroccan and Monroe.
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
March 14, 2023
3.75 stars. Interesting book, especially to read about things that were in the media from her perspective. I had no idea that she had such a difficult upbringing and has had other big challenges since then.
April 4, 2023
I’ve always been a Mariah Carey fan. My mom would always tell me that I knew all of the lyrics to “Dream Lover” at age 3. It was my first favorite song. I also added quite a few Mariah Carey songs to my wedding playlist. I remember cutting my wedding cake with “Always Be My Baby” playing in the background. Mariah’s devotion to her fans and children are understood. She endured many hardships and I respect her entirely for that. I relate to Mariah in many ways, and it makes so much sense why I always turn to her music. Loved this book. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
March 16, 2022
I listened to this title on Audible, which I highly recommend since Mariah reads it and sings during the clips.
I’m not a huge Mariah fan but I have always admired her talent. You learn a lot about the hardships that this songbird went through and you’ll learn to appreciate her too. The books drags a bit at certain parts, but I was glad to be along for the ride.
NOTE: Used for the PopSugar reading challenge “A book about a band or a musical group”
I’m not a huge Mariah fan but I have always admired her talent. You learn a lot about the hardships that this songbird went through and you’ll learn to appreciate her too. The books drags a bit at certain parts, but I was glad to be along for the ride.
NOTE: Used for the PopSugar reading challenge “A book about a band or a musical group”
February 11, 2025
such a great read. it’s crazy how relatable celebrities can be once you actually learn about them.
January 19, 2022
Mariah’s story is intriguing. It is incredible that she made it with such a difficult upbringing. The book was slow for me. While it was interesting, I never felt like I couldn’t put it down.
June 7, 2022
I've been a Mariah Carey fan since I was a teen and this in depth look at her life makes me appreciate her journey all the more.
April 21, 2025
I wish this site gave out half stars, because I would give this about 3.5.
I read Jessica Simpson's book, and I felt Jessica told a far more honest, detailed story about her life and struggles. Jessica also didn't hold back about her past relationships, or current issues, the way that Mariah does here. It was a bit of a disappointment.
Funny enough, I initially thought this would be a better read than Jessica's book, but it wasn't IMO.
Mariah Carey is a celebrity that I'm not quite sure how I feel about. I loved her as a 10-year-old back in 1998 in the heydays of MTV, but as an adult I haven't really paid her or her music that much attention in the past few years.
However, I did catch an episode of her reality TV show a few years ago. I also have never really listened to her more recent music, so I cannot call myself a diehard fan. Perhaps her more loyal fans will enjoy this read more than I did.
The first part of the book was very interesting. I knew she'd had a difficult upbringing, and she did indeed go through a lot. Some of the stories she told here were truly disturbing, especially about her siblings and her mother.
Once she was past the marriage with Tommy Mottola is where the book began to go downhill. I don't doubt that Mottola was controlling and awful towards her (he's admitted as much), but I also believe she was just far too young to be married and maybe was looking for a father figure.
She had gone into so much detail about her earlier life, but following her divorce from Mottola, the book became somewhat tedious and confusing. The details became far vaguer, and a lot of things seemed to be glossed over. I felt she wasn't telling the entire story of what was going on in her life during her early 2000s struggles, well-documented in the media.
I know she had said she was diagnosed as bipolar, but she did not go into very much detail about her diagnosis, so I'm not really sure what happened there which is a shame. As a reader who knows many people who are diagnosed as bipolar, that could have been a great opportunity for her to shed more light on dealing with mental illness. Oh well.
As soon as she began to discuss her hospitalization in any kind of depth, that part abruptly ended and instead she started talking about performing after 9/11 happened.
I feel like most of the past 10 years of her life, including her marriage and divorce from Nick Cannon, were especially skimmed over. She didn't spend much time talking about Nick, other than how they met and how they then had children.
She also crammed a supposedly happy three-year relationship with Luis Miguel into about one and a half pages, while her miserable relationship with Mottola received over half the book!
Heck, she spent more time talking about her late 1990s fling with Derek Jeter than she did about her relationship with Miguel, who she broke up with just before her hospitalization happened in 2001. I'm sure that period in her life was painful to write about, but it certainly would have given readers even greater insight into what her life was like and that time.
I'm not exactly sure why she and Nick didn't work out, since she doesn't talk about what caused the divorce. Okay, I guess I understand that since he is the father of her children, but I do remember thinking that they seemed like a very happy couple, renewing their vows each year but who knows what goes on behind closed doors?
I'm not sure why she ever agreed to marry James Packham, especially given that in previous interviews and on her reality, TV show she didn't even seem to LIKE him. Did she just need money or companionship that badly at the time??? It made no sense to me why she ever would have been involved with him, but she explains nothing about that relationship at all!!!
I actually had to go back and look to be sure I didn't miss anything because the book seemed to end so abruptly.
At times, there was great depth to the book and at other times, it was completely shallow. I don't really care how many homes and cars she was able to buy, or what kind of shoes or clothes she wears. All in all, I had hoped for more than this book delivered.
I read Jessica Simpson's book, and I felt Jessica told a far more honest, detailed story about her life and struggles. Jessica also didn't hold back about her past relationships, or current issues, the way that Mariah does here. It was a bit of a disappointment.
Funny enough, I initially thought this would be a better read than Jessica's book, but it wasn't IMO.
Mariah Carey is a celebrity that I'm not quite sure how I feel about. I loved her as a 10-year-old back in 1998 in the heydays of MTV, but as an adult I haven't really paid her or her music that much attention in the past few years.
However, I did catch an episode of her reality TV show a few years ago. I also have never really listened to her more recent music, so I cannot call myself a diehard fan. Perhaps her more loyal fans will enjoy this read more than I did.
The first part of the book was very interesting. I knew she'd had a difficult upbringing, and she did indeed go through a lot. Some of the stories she told here were truly disturbing, especially about her siblings and her mother.
Once she was past the marriage with Tommy Mottola is where the book began to go downhill. I don't doubt that Mottola was controlling and awful towards her (he's admitted as much), but I also believe she was just far too young to be married and maybe was looking for a father figure.
She had gone into so much detail about her earlier life, but following her divorce from Mottola, the book became somewhat tedious and confusing. The details became far vaguer, and a lot of things seemed to be glossed over. I felt she wasn't telling the entire story of what was going on in her life during her early 2000s struggles, well-documented in the media.
I know she had said she was diagnosed as bipolar, but she did not go into very much detail about her diagnosis, so I'm not really sure what happened there which is a shame. As a reader who knows many people who are diagnosed as bipolar, that could have been a great opportunity for her to shed more light on dealing with mental illness. Oh well.
As soon as she began to discuss her hospitalization in any kind of depth, that part abruptly ended and instead she started talking about performing after 9/11 happened.
I feel like most of the past 10 years of her life, including her marriage and divorce from Nick Cannon, were especially skimmed over. She didn't spend much time talking about Nick, other than how they met and how they then had children.
She also crammed a supposedly happy three-year relationship with Luis Miguel into about one and a half pages, while her miserable relationship with Mottola received over half the book!
Heck, she spent more time talking about her late 1990s fling with Derek Jeter than she did about her relationship with Miguel, who she broke up with just before her hospitalization happened in 2001. I'm sure that period in her life was painful to write about, but it certainly would have given readers even greater insight into what her life was like and that time.
I'm not exactly sure why she and Nick didn't work out, since she doesn't talk about what caused the divorce. Okay, I guess I understand that since he is the father of her children, but I do remember thinking that they seemed like a very happy couple, renewing their vows each year but who knows what goes on behind closed doors?
I'm not sure why she ever agreed to marry James Packham, especially given that in previous interviews and on her reality, TV show she didn't even seem to LIKE him. Did she just need money or companionship that badly at the time??? It made no sense to me why she ever would have been involved with him, but she explains nothing about that relationship at all!!!
I actually had to go back and look to be sure I didn't miss anything because the book seemed to end so abruptly.
At times, there was great depth to the book and at other times, it was completely shallow. I don't really care how many homes and cars she was able to buy, or what kind of shoes or clothes she wears. All in all, I had hoped for more than this book delivered.
February 5, 2025
“Being Mariah Carey is a job–my job…It’s always a different story with me…I didn't think the world owed me anything. I simply believed I would conquer the world I was born into, in my own way.” The Meaning of Mariah Carey “is a story of betrayal and beauty. Of love and abandonment. Of sacrifice and survival…my journey…has been full of contradictions and competing realities. It’s never been only black-and-white–it’s been a whole rainbow of emotions…I survived. I survived the danger. I survived the hunger. I survived the uncertainty and instability, and now here I was, every day coming closer and closer to my destiny.”
“I went to that place of hope. This is hard right now, I told myself, it’s a struggle, but I’ll make it through, no matter what. And I was stronger than ever on the other side. And though darkness followed, it was in that darkness that I learned to build my own light…There is nothing more powerful than surviving a trip to hell and coming home covered in the light of restoration…Having a family in God brought me back to my life in the Light…Returning to God was the only way I made it out of all my trips to hell.” For better or worse, the Lambily are family!
“‘Don't ever write anyone off.’ You don't ever know where strength will come from. I always go to my main source for strength —faith in God, but also love from…the people who didn't give up on their faith in me…There is no ‘Dreamlover’ coming to rescue me and no Prince Charming or Joe DiMaggio to sweep me off my feet. I got swept away by a shortstop, but only God Almighty is my All.”
“This memoir is a collection of the moments that matter, the moments that most accurately tell the story of who I am, according to me. It [moves] back and forth, up and down, moment to moment, adding up to the meaning of me now.” Her life was a metamorphosis; her autobiography is a magnum opus! A must read!
“I went to that place of hope. This is hard right now, I told myself, it’s a struggle, but I’ll make it through, no matter what. And I was stronger than ever on the other side. And though darkness followed, it was in that darkness that I learned to build my own light…There is nothing more powerful than surviving a trip to hell and coming home covered in the light of restoration…Having a family in God brought me back to my life in the Light…Returning to God was the only way I made it out of all my trips to hell.” For better or worse, the Lambily are family!
“‘Don't ever write anyone off.’ You don't ever know where strength will come from. I always go to my main source for strength —faith in God, but also love from…the people who didn't give up on their faith in me…There is no ‘Dreamlover’ coming to rescue me and no Prince Charming or Joe DiMaggio to sweep me off my feet. I got swept away by a shortstop, but only God Almighty is my All.”
“This memoir is a collection of the moments that matter, the moments that most accurately tell the story of who I am, according to me. It [moves] back and forth, up and down, moment to moment, adding up to the meaning of me now.” Her life was a metamorphosis; her autobiography is a magnum opus! A must read!
January 6, 2025
I grew up listening to Mariah Carey obsessively and she influenced my singing for many years up to and past college. Even though I didn't really like the direction that she took during and after Sony, I still think some of her hits were pretty good afterwards. I really loved her dramatic ballads that she was so good at. But I also loved the album daydream that had a different feel but still peppered with great ballads. I learned a lot about her and how the music that I knew and loved wasn't what she really wanted to be doing. It's a weird dichotomy for me, the old imprisoned Mariah vs. the new "emancipated" Mariah, because I preferred the music of the old Mariah and wish I could say that I like her new stuff because it's more "her." The two styles are so different and if you read the book you will find out why. This book was excellent. She is an amazing storyteller with vivid descriptions of all of her recollections. I'm amazed that she can remember things like every piece to an outfit she wore so many years ago! I like how she would describe a story and tag it with song lyrics so you knew what event influenced those lyrics. Also her incredible descriptions of performances with other artists had me looking up each performance to see that the picture she painted was exactly as it happened. Such a good book if you are at all into her music, or interested in her life.
August 4, 2024
i loved reading mariah's memoir. she's someone i really like in all aspects. it's so interactive with her life(both before and after stardom) she talks about many detailed events of her life and connect it with popular events, performances & songs. so now when i see a pic from a certain event or watch a specific performance, i appreciate it more than before cause ik what she was thinking/going through at that moment & it makes it more special. and she doesn't make everything glitter & gay. she gets into traumatic and rough part of her life too. after reading the book, her songs has taken on a new sense of depth for me. art is obviously meant for us to interpret as we want but learning the artist's perspective when writing the song and how it connects to her makes it more beautiful. this book humanizes mariah carey. it help us see her for who she truly is, out of the cocoon of pop perfection that veiled us from seeing the beautiful butterfly 🦋 she truly is : flawed & hurt but well intentioned, extraordinarily & inhumanely talented but with humanly quirks and flaws.
August 23, 2023
have had this book in my possession for quite some time but decided to indulge into it while i was in new york this past month. i hadnt any idea how much this woman has and had gone through though it only exemplifies the perseverance and issues she’s meticulously imbedded within her lyricism. i will always love Mariah Carey and this book has brought that love to a height i myself hadnt ever expected. perfect memoir over an undeniably strong woman who has been able to showcase the trials throughout her life and career to her wonderful family of fans. this book has taught me to stay strong through any trivial situations, to trust my intuition, and to recollect myself in times of conflict and confusion because i myself am the only one who can do so. i cried reading this book a handful of times and recommend anyone to grab this if they have a chance to graze their eyes on the life that has been Mariah Carey’s.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 4, 2022
So this is definitely a book I only see being enjoyed by die hard fans of Mariah Carey. It is just a little over the top for me. She constantly uses metaphors and long flowy prose to describe how she was feeling in moments. I had lost all faith in her when she said: "As she spoke, a warm and loving current spread out from her hand to my leg, gently coursing through my body in waves and rising up and out the top of my head. Through the devastation a path had been washed clear; I knew there was light. And somehow I knew that light was mine and everlasting." At 3.....
For fans of Mariah Carey and divas only.
I received this book for free in a Goodreads giveaway.
For fans of Mariah Carey and divas only.
I received this book for free in a Goodreads giveaway.
January 12, 2025
As someone who is a singer and has loved Mariah Carey since I was a child, it was a pleasure to read her memoir. To hear her perspective behind the things I heard and saw over the years was eye opening. I felt for her so much as she spoke of her childhood, struggles, and accomplishments. Her voice really came through as I read the pages. I bet the audiobook is really good too. I also enjoyed her comedic tone and the subtle shade she threw at certain individuals. 👀 Overall, I’m really glad I decided to pick this up. She will always be an iconic Diva of music history.
January 22, 2024
I have always personally adored Mariah. You can see the survivor in her very fiber and can just tell that she is a girl’s girl.
I had always inwardly cringed at the people making memes about the beloved Christmas song. I really appreciate the insight and meaningful background to understanding this song. I will cherish it even more with every listen.
I had always inwardly cringed at the people making memes about the beloved Christmas song. I really appreciate the insight and meaningful background to understanding this song. I will cherish it even more with every listen.
December 5, 2024
I truly love this book. Definitely a fan of hers. I related to this book in so many ways. It definitely made me cry throughout the book. It is so hard to see everything that she’s been through, but one thing is she is very resilient And it is so amazing to see someone else who was brought into this world and didn’t have nothing, but made herself and didn’t let anything stop her.
May 13, 2024
I was a fan before but I think she’s a massively underrated musical genius now. Her whole life story and rise to fame is so fascinating. And she really has made getting back up from failure look both graceful and triumphant. She makes a lot of meaning from her toughest experiences.
September 8, 2024
i picked up this book after hearing of the loss of Mariah’s mother. It was eye opening to read about her struggles with her mother well into her adult life. one thing that resonates with me is how she has come out of every situation with a #1 hit. Vision of Love will always be my fave.
February 2, 2022
👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾 What an epic autobiography, and the audiobook is what all should choose, just to hear her raspy narration and light singing cords.
Emancipation of Mimi-Mariah Carey
Emancipation of Mimi-Mariah Carey
March 21, 2022
My Bestfriend, always there for me, always been there for me.
February 5, 2023
A little dramatic but that comes with diva territory, darling. Mariah is inspiring and entertaining, and her talking and SINGING throughout the audiobook make it a must listen/read.
September 15, 2023
I'm a Mariah Carey fan, so it was nice to tie all the memories together from her public life. I enjoyed learning more about her childhood and her path to stardom.
February 4, 2024
death to tm and jl
don’t make me call… roc nation
don’t make me call… roc nation
March 1, 2024
If you're going to read this you should definitely listen to the audiobook her voice is so beautiful and I love her faith in this book
July 2, 2024
Pretty big fan, so this was an incredible read for me. Highly recommended for pop enthusiasts.
March 30, 2022
This book desperately needed more editing.
October 15, 2023
This is a very touching memoir and (although forever a fan) it made me see MC in a different light. People like to underestimate her - I’ve never been sure why.
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews