Mariah Carey opens her glittering life to cameras
It’s dimly lit in here. Dimly lit and quiet.
Inside an unused dressing-room suite on the NBCUniversal lot in Universal City, things are mostly unremarkable until Mariah Carey, dressed in a plunging black jumpsuit, saunters in.
Two members of her team sit on a nearby sofa, toiling on their phones. Her 5-year-old twins are in the next room, rolling around on the floor with a bunch of Minion toys. It’s the tail end of a busy day of press, which included an appearance on “Ellen,” and Carey ever so delicately hunkers down in a plush armchair, placing her left foot under her right thigh.
“I just like to be comfortable,” Carey says matter-of-factly.
It’s what some might call one of the more peaceful moments in Mariah’s world. A stark contrast to much of what will be seen come Sunday.
It’s been more than two decades since Carey announced herself with “Vision of Love,” her first in a litany of pop smashes that has placed her behind only the Beatles in terms of hits and has made her one of the bestselling artists of all time.
Ever since, the 46-year-old singer-songwriter has remained a pop culture fixture and global superstar whose life has long played out in the spotlight — her romances are tabloid fodder, her supposed rivalries have made for delicious lore, her career decisions (e.g. a Vegas residency, acting roles, “American Idol,” an HSN line) have been nitpicked, and poor album sales have been scrutinized.
Now, on prime-time television, she’s about to make heads turn once more with the Sunday premiere of “Mariah’s World.” That’s right: Carey will be joining the fishbowl known as the E! network, alongside the Kardashians and the female wrestlers of “Total Divas,” with an eight-part documentary series — because in Carey’s world, it’s not called a reality show.
The series will follow Carey as she preps her global Sweet Sweet Fantasy Tour, which wrapped this year, and plans her now-canceled wedding to her then-fiance, billionaire James Packer.
“I haven’t been on tour in Europe in over 10 years, so it was, like, ’Let’s just capture it and see,’” Carey said of taking the reality plunge. “I had been toying with the idea of doing this. I was always, like, ’I really wish people could see this, my life.’ Now we have something.”
While much of the footage related to Packer is now irrelevant since the couple’s split, it will remain in the series. In fact, cameras are still following Carey to capture how she’s moving on since the breakup.
“Her life changed and evolved from when we first started production,” said Farnaz Farjam, executive producer and vice president of current programming at Bunim/Murray Productions, which produces “Mariah’s World,” says by telephone.
“We thought it would only be fair to share where she’s at now towards the end. She agreed to share herself and her life with the fans so that we give the audience her side of everything that they’re reading about.”
Carey puts it this way: “It is what it is, as my mom would say.”
Audiences have glimpsed Carey’s eccentric, opulent world before.