Emma's Mixtape

I know it's awfully late in life for me to realize I have an opinion about Mariah Carey. I always thought she was very pretty and had an opera singer's range. I'd even heard a sweet story from a journalist friend who had interviewed her on the phone and broken down in tears because her Grandma had died that week...at the end of the interview, the journalist's doorbell rang and it was a delivery of condolence flowers from Mariah (my friend never knew how she arranged it all while they were still speaking). But her music never engaged - too clean, none of Mary J Blige's grit or sorrow - so she's never really registered much for me. Then I saw 'Precious' and, I swear, as good as everybody is in that film, she is extraordinarily good and really, really does deserve a best supporting actress nod. "I like Mariah Carey", I decided, and then I remembered that she's a grown-up woman who named her album 'Charmbracelet' and I upgraded my opinion to "I love her". The deal was sealed by this mention in the NY Times review of her December 31st concert:

"The holiday happens when Mariah Carey says it happens, which is why, on Thursday night at Madison Square Garden, the New Year's Eve countdown was a minute after the fact".