Reality TV was made for her
Why did it take this long for the diva to have her own show?
The first person to directly address the camera in Mariah Carey’s new reality show isn’t Mariah Carey. Not exactly, anyway.
It’s Bianca Storm, the brunette alter ego Carey introduced in the music video for her 1999 single Heartbreaker. After an introductory montage, Carey appears as Bianca, lounging on a chaise and holding a glass of champagne.
“I’m here to introduce a documentary about Mariah Carey,” Bianca says, slightly mispronouncing the singer’s name in her posh, not-quite-British accent.
Mariah’s World, which premièred Sunday on E!, isn’t a reality show — because documentary sounds more grand. Carey’s fans (she calls them lambs) know the singer likes things to be grand. The opposite, in Mimi parlance, is bleak. Carey’s quirks — Bianca, spontaneous accents, a glam wardrobe and a shameless ban on fluorescent lighting — are on full display in Mariah’s World, but the strangest thing about the eight-episode docuseries (as E! has billed it) might be that we’ve had to wait so long for it. Carey has always been reality-TV gold.
Carey comes off as superficial to many while her devotees see something deeper. She has talked (and written songs) about her painful childhood and the struggle of growing up multiracial. Her rise to fame sounds like a fairy tale — she passed a demo tape to Tommy Mottola, then head of Sony, at a party in the late ’80s. She released her eponymous debut album in 1990. They married in 1993 and divorced four years later.
Butterfly, the 1997 album that followed the end of her marriage, marked a turning point in Carey’s life and career. Her wardrobe became sexier and more glamorous and she seemed to come into her own in terms of musical choices, veering more into R&B and hip hop.
Several critically acclaimed albums followed before her highly publicized “breakdown” as she promoted her 2001 film Glitter, a commercial flop. (Carey told MTV in 2002 she had merely been exhausted and overwhelmed by a packed schedule.)
Mariah’s World has all the trappings of a reality show. Carey prepares for a world tour after the most recent leg of her Las Vegas residency. Stella Bulochnikov, Carey’s manager, is cast as the villain who won’t hesitate to fire anyone. Bulochnikov hires her own assistant, Molly, and informs her she is not allowed to date in her first year on the job, or cry — ever. There is also Carey’s creative director, plus a slew of backup dancers, singers and other staffers, including the nanny to Carey’s five-year-old twins with ex-husband Nick Cannon.
Carey has had plenty of recent drama to stoke interest in Mariah’s World. The first episode finds the singer struggling to plan her wedding to Australian billionaire James Packer amid her impending tour. When their separation became public in October, People reported the E! series was a source of tension.
Rumours have also swirled around Carey’s relationship with her longtime backup dancer Bryan Tanaka, who is featured prominently on Mariah’s World.
Today show host Hoda Kotb asked Carey if she considered pulling the plug on Mariah’s World after ending her engagement to Packer.
“Oh, I can’t give somebody that much power,” Carey said.