{"id":254352,"date":"2025-09-25T19:44:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T19:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/254352\/"},"modified":"2025-09-25T19:44:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T19:44:10","slug":"qa-mariah-carey-enters-the-era-of-me-with-her-first-album-in-7-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/254352\/","title":{"rendered":"Q&A: Mariah Carey enters \u2018the era of me\u2019 with her first album in 7 years"},"content":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 Seven years after her last album and 35 years into a powerhouse career, Mariah Carey continues her reign<\/a> as the queen of pop and R&B with \u201cHere for It All.\u201d <\/p>\n

If good things come to those who wait, fans are about to audibly feast on Carey\u2019s evolution with this musically layered project.<\/p>\n

Carey\u2019s 16th studio album, out Friday, brings fans into what she\u2019s calling \u201cthe era of me\u201d \u2014 leaning into her now-familiar, unapologetically confident energy. \u201cI\u2019m D-I-V-A, that\u2019s MC \u2026 I ain\u2019t checked a price since Emancipation Mi \u2026 I\u2019m the movie and the muse\/and you couldn\u2019t walk a mile in my shoes,\u201d she sings on the first track, \u201cMi.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 11-track album includes singles \u201cType Dangerous,\u201d sampling Eric B. and Rakim, and \u201cSugar Sweet,\u201d featuring vocals from Kehlani and Shenseea. Anderson .Paak and the Clark Sisters join in the fun.<\/p>\n

Carey recently sat down with The Associated Press to discuss her collaborations, the spirituality woven into her music and her most liberating era. This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.<\/p>\n

AP: What comes first in the songwriting process for you? And has it become almost like a spiritual discipline in a way where whenever you need to enter a space of healing or process emotions, you immediately turn to songwriting?<\/p>\n

CAREY: It\u2019s really interesting. I have all different ways of going about it. Sometimes I\u2019ll just have to say this happened in the past and sometimes it happens again, you never know what it\u2019s going to be. But I\u2019ll suddenly be like \u2014 I hear a melody and a lyric at the same time, and I\u2019ll go, you know, put it in my notes and sing it into the notes and also just write down what I\u2019m hearing, what I am feeling. I think songwriting has definitely been my outlet for what I need when I\u2019m ever going through something, you know, whenever I\u2019m feeling like the need to express myself. It\u2019s definitely songwriting.<\/p>\n

AP: You get to work with The Clark Sisters on this project. I know in the past you\u2019ve listed them as an influence. What was it like to have this full circle moment where you\u2019re both collaborating on \u201cJesus I Do\u201d?<\/p>\n

CAREY: It was amazing. I was so thrilled to be able to work with the Clark Sisters. … I never could have imagined that it would have happened that I would be able to work with The Clark Sisters, but we did. So, it was major … definitely butterflies coming into it. And also just like, you know, shaking a little bit like, \u201cThis is really happening.\u201d<\/p>\n

AP: You\u2019ve mixed in your faith through different gospel tracks on different albums. We see it in this one as well with \u201cJesus I Do.\u201d Why is it important for you to say, \u201cI\u2019m not necessarily making a gospel album with this one, but I want to make sure that I bring my faith into this a little bit?\u201d <\/p>\n

CAREY: Well, it was interesting. Also, the title track, \u201cHere for It All,\u201d kind of has a spiritual tonality to it, and interestingly enough, I put \u201cJesus I Do\u201d right before that. … Since the past few albums that I\u2019ve done, I\u2019ve kind of had to put something spiritual in there because it\u2019s for me, it\u2019s not like a \u201cLet me impress this one or that one with this.\u201d That was, you know, always just for me to really feel like that spiritual side of who I am … it\u2019s definitely almost like a dedication to faith. <\/p>\n

AP: I feel like you\u2019re one of the few icons who is so connected to their fans and invites them in any chance that you get. What is it about that love that is so important to you and how much do they play into the decision-making of what goes into the album? <\/p>\n

CAREY: I love my fans, like we have this whole thing with the Lambily, it\u2019s a long story, but we love the Lambs. And I think the fact that they really study the albums, you know, like it\u2019s not just like, \u201cOh, I\u2019ll just throw this out.\u201d I know they\u2019re going to really be focused on what I\u2019ve written about, what type of musical selections I\u2019ve made, so, yeah, I don\u2019t know, we just have an incredible connection.<\/p>\n

AP: \u201cHere for It All\u201d so beautifully ties everything together. What led you to say this is the one that\u2019s gonna be representing the album, but it\u2019s also gonna be the one that really ties it all together at the end?<\/p>\n

CAREY: Well, I knew it was going to be the one that ties it all together at the end. But then I also, when listening to the album that I had sequenced, I said I have to put \u201cHere for It All\u201d at the end because I want people to take the time to listen to it. I want my fans to take time to listen it and just to know that it\u2019s, in a way, it\u2019s kind of for them. It\u2019s interesting. It\u2019s got a vibe to it that just happened.<\/p>\n

AP: You\u2019re embarking on a new creative chapter for this. I\u2019m curious, did the album unfold as you were organically making new music?<\/p>\n

CAREY: Yeah, I was working on this album for so long, and I didn\u2019t even know, like, was I going to put it out? What was it going to be? And it just became something that I then sort of focused on and said, I\u2019m going to make this my 16th album, which I can\u2019t even believe it is. But yeah, I am so thankful for where we are at with this album, and I can wait for people to hear it. We\u2019re calling it the era of me. <\/p>\n

AP: I know you\u2019ve mentioned that \u201cButterfly\u201d era was the first time that you felt free in your music. What does that mean to you to feel free, and how have you continued to feel free throughout all of these different eras that you\u2019ve gone through?<\/p>\n

CAREY: Well, the \u201cButterfly\u201d era was amazing and also a scary moment because I was going through like a breakup of a relationship that I really couldn\u2019t get out\u2014 it was a whole thing. I don\u2019t want to go into it because I hear people are saying that I won\u2019t let it go so I\u2019m like, \u201cIt\u2019s just one person, we don\u2019t care about them.\u201d But yeah, \u201cButterfly\u201d was definitely my first time feeling fully free and just, yeah, loving the moment. Even though I was a little bit stuck in a moment, I got through it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 Seven years after her last album and 35 years into a powerhouse career, Mariah…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":254353,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[134201,174,1576,171,53208,26514,975,103845,6651,134200,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-254352","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-anderson-paak","9":"tag-celebrity-interviews","10":"tag-classical-music","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-kehlani","13":"tag-mariah-carey","14":"tag-music","15":"tag-rakim","16":"tag-rb","17":"tag-shenseea","18":"tag-united-states","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115266654383499907","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=254352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254352\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/254353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}