Mariah Carey’s POWERFUL Secrets | How She Made it Through Tough Times

And you know, you can't always be number one, you can't always be, you know, winning every award. But I think everything I ever went through made me who I am and motivated me more to be, you know, to strive for what I wanted to do. I want to be singing 20 years from now, 30 years from now, you know, that's always been my dream.

Hello, Believe Nation, it's Evan. My one word is believe, and I believe in people more than they believe in themselves, and my sincere My sincere hope is that if you see in yourself what I see in you, you'll be able to change the planet. So to help you on your journey today, we're gonna learn from singer-songwriter Mariah Carey and my take on her top 10 rules for success. Rule number 8 is my personal favorite, and I'd love to know which one you guys like the best. Also, as you're watching, if you hear something that really resonates with you, please leave it down in the comments below and put quotes around it so other people can be inspired by it as well. And if you leave it within the first couple hours of this video going live, you have a chance to win one of two daily prizes. Your voice is one of the more extraordinary things in modern music.

Thank you.

When in your life did you first realize there's something special that comes out of my throat?

The first time for me that I actually felt it was when I was 6 years old. I was walking down the street. With this little girl, and we're singing at the same time, and then she stopped singing and she started listening to me, and then I realized it and I stopped, and I was like, "What?" And she goes, "When you sing, it sounds like there's music with you." I never forgot that. That was something that made me feel special, because I didn't feel special as a kid. I felt different. I felt weird. I didn't feel pretty. I didn't feel like I fit in. I didn't feel a lot of the things that make kids develop their self-esteem. That moment stuck with me and made me feel like no matter what, that's in here and that's something that nobody can take. Every time I hear one of my songs on the radio, I sit there and say, "Okay, now I should have sang that line like this and done that line like that," or, "Oh, that's rancid," or whatever, 'cause I'm just never satisfied. With my work. I always feel like I could have done— I could have done it just a little bit differently. But, you know, I feel that for a first effort, I'm proud of it. And I'm just looking forward to completing the writing that I'm doing for my second album right now and make the best album that I can and just look ahead, not look behind.

You set this really substantial level of success for yourself already.

Do you feel like you have to always kind of stay at that level, or— I don't, because, I mean, I've been very, very fortunate to have what's happened to me have happened to me. And I mean, from now on, all I really want to do is continue to grow as an artist and to just continue to putting out music and hope people that have supported me will stay with me. And you know, you can't always be number one, you can't always be, you know, winning every award, but I mean, just to be putting music out there and to be having some level of success has always been my goal. What kind of student were you? I also read that your nickname was Mirage because you were a mirage in class. You were there sometimes, most of the time you weren't. Is that true? Well, I mean, I don't want to, like, encourage anybody not to go to school or anything, you know, far be it from me, but I liked school. I was, like, more social in school than I was a student, and, you know, I always knew I was going to be a singer. That's, like, my thing. I'm very lucky that I am, because right now, who knows what I'd be doing. But I don't know. I have trouble getting up in the morning, that's why. I couldn't take getting to first period on time. But I think everything I ever went through made me who I am and motivated me more to be, you know, to strive for what I wanted to do. Because sometimes if you're too comfortable when you're growing up, it's just like, yeah, well, I'll do this for a while and then I'll do that. But I knew that I had to go for it. You're under a lot of scrutiny. You've gone through a lot. Yeah. A lot in recent years. So you must feel particularly happy about the success of this CD. It's not just selling— what was it, 4 400,000 in the first week? Yeah. I mean, that's pretty incredible. That's a big comeback. So a lot of people are saying it was over for you. Yeah, you know, a lot of people were very ready to write me off completely. And it's like, you know, I never write off— and I'm not trying to whatever— but there's certain people who I'm friends with who people have written off, and they've come back to have stellar years. And I've never, you know, written them off, even if it was my big moment and they were not having necessarily such a huge moment, they were never written off in my book because you can't write off talent, right? So it's like when people do that, it's just not the right— it's not the right energy, it's not the right thing. But yes, it does feel good, and I have to thank my fans because they've stuck with me. And thank God it's my biggest bestie ever. You can't really fake it. You kind of have to love it that much to make something that lasts this long. People consider fantasy a pivotal, groundbreaking kind of a moment for pop music and for me. I had the idea to use the Tom Tom Club, "Genius of Love," when I was at an amusement park and I was listening to the radio and it came on. I was like, this is— this would be great. There were different versions of the song, and I think most people have the memory of the one featuring ODB. It was a classic. Nobody expected it. Dea Mariah, go back like babies with pacifiers. Old dirt dog, no liar. Kick the van and see you hot like— You know, it took a little bit of pushing and pressure from— to the record company because I don't think they understood why I wanted to do it. And it's 'cause I wanted to have a hot remix.

Old dirty bastard across the globe.

But I was glad I got away with doing it without the record company listening to ODB's album because it has certain topics on it that they may not have approved of for me. Apart from the Whitney Houston comparisons and continual surprise over her vocal range, many were initially surprised that her voice belong to a white woman? I don't know. Everybody likes to put categories on music and people, and this is black, this is white, you know. And I just really don't think there's a need to categorize everything. I mean, what I do is music, and music should be universal. It shouldn't be about this is too black, this is too white, whatever, you know. I think everybody can relate to music, and that's, you know, what it's all about.

You don't really get a lot of credit for being a great writer and having 18 number one singles.

I wrote 17 of them, that's the thing.

I mean—

But people don't talk about it because I think if you're not— if you're a female, there's an issue. And if you're not strumming a guitar or playing a freaking flute or a fiddle, suddenly, like, you're less of a writer because that's not your process. People don't realize it. Like, when I first started out, I made sure I hit a lot of high notes. If I just started out singing softly only, people wouldn't necessarily have taken notice.

Right.

It was just about the voice.

Do you consider yourself a writer first or a singer first?

I do sort of feel like I'm a writer first. Technically, I don't have to write the song in order to sing it. Somebody could write a song and present it to me. I don't feel fulfilled as an artist that way. You said your parents divorced when you were 3. What was it like not having a father around the house? Do you feel like you missed out on anything? I don't at all. I'm actually glad that I grew up with just a single parent, a single mom, because I think it made me more independent, you know. I mean, I'm not gonna sit here and say, oh, I wish I had the Brady Bunch family. You know, I used to when I was little. I used to want to have the perfect family, and I used to be envious of people that had like the perfect picture-perfect thing, but nothing's perfect. So, you know, I'm glad about everything that I ever went through, and I think that my mom is a major reason why I'm here today. I'm not trying to prove anything. I'm just really trying to have a long career as a singer-songwriter, and I want to be singing 20 years from now, 30 years from now, you know. That's— it's always been my dream, and it's incredible to be able to have this success, and I just want to continue going.

Thank you guys so much for watching. I made this video because Alicia Maria asked me to. If there's someone you'd like me to profile in a future top 10, please check out the link down in the description below and you can cast your vote on who we should do next. I also want to give a quick shout out to Katie Horrell. Katie, thank you so much for picking up a copy of my book, Your One Word, and working on the review for your channel as well. I really, really, really appreciate the support, and I'm so glad that you enjoyed the read. Thank you guys again for watching. I believe in you. I hope you continue to believe in yourself and whatever your one word is. Much love. I'll see you soon.

Everything that happens is like just a blessing and being so incredibly fortunate to have— be in the right place at the right time and have all those things and, and everything But in addition to that, if you don't believe in yourself, you won't get to that stage of even writing a song, you know, or, you know, saying, "I'm gonna do this," as opposed to just saying, "Well, I'd like to be a singer, but, you know, probably that won't happen because so many people want to do it, and, you know, why should I think I'm special?" You know, having someone telling you that you are special and that you can do it is a big thing.

How do you write a song? Are you starting with music? Are you starting with ideas for lyrics? Chorus first?

Verses first? It's always different. There are times when a melody and a lyric will come to me and they're attached. It'll happen, it'll be the inception of an idea, and then I'll continue it. "Hero" was— and we're going back, but they asked me to write a song for this movie. It was for Gloria Estefan supposedly to sing it. I don't know if Gloria knows that or not. <LYRICS>And then a hero comes along.</LYRICS> I left the room. I was with Walter Ray, who I used to collaborate with. I took a walk, came back, and I was like, "Oh, no, okay, here's how it goes." And then a hero comes along. And I started telling him, like, you know, "Play this, and here's what it is." So sometimes it'll be like that. Unplugged was really like the first concert, concert I'd ever done. And people were waiting to hear, like, "Can she do this?" So that's why there was that type of pressure. I was nervous 'cause I have so many high notes in it, and it really requires me to isolate myself and just be on vocal rest and not speak and be like in a well-humidified room and sleep as much as possible because people want to come hear me sound right. I'm not going to go out there and be a mess.