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The diva years are over for Mariah Carey. These
days she insists on only two things - not being perfect, and under no circumstances
being 40.
In actual fact, she hit the big 4-0 four months
ago, but don't go congratulating her on reaching the milestone unless you
want to see the old Mariah bubbling to the surface.
She joked: "Read my bio again. Don't say the F-word
around me.We can't allow these lies to spread."
In truth, it seems the more mature Mariah has
mellowed to a certain extent. Just over a year ago she married 28-year-old
actor-producer Nick Cannon, and the pint-sized songstress has been walking
tall ever since.
Her reputation as the biggest-selling female recording
artist of all time is secure, so Mariah is using her positive outlook on
new projects. Her latest album, Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel, draws on
her colourful and dramatic past while reflecting on her current happiness
and married life.
And her performance in new movie Precious will
help dull memories of the mauling she received after her last big-screen
outing.
But does that mean we've seen the last of the
petulant diva, infamous for extravagant demands?
She laughed: "There was the odd exhaustion moment
which clearly now is a must in everybody's life - you can't be a celebrity
these days and not go through that.
"I went through a period of time when I was working
my butt off, and that will get to you. "Now I know how to say no to things.
I didn't know that before.
"Being in the limelight is not easy and being
around a lot of people all the time is also difficult. "People who do what
I do will know what I mean.When you're in front of the camera, people are
going to make their own opinions up about you and can say what they want
to say about you.
"All I want to do is make music, make movies,
live my life and enjoy things."
She was most recently seen at the Michael Jackson
memorial service, only to hit the headlines when she took to Twitter to
offer an apology for a wobbly performance.
"I regret sending that message but I was very
emotional and I wasn't happy with my performance," she said. "But we all
did our best to give Michael the send off he deserves. I just forgot the
world could read that.
"I thought I was just talking to my friends.I
shouldn't have done that because that was really only meant for Michael.
to appearance the leaves read That was about him.
"It was difficult just to get through the song
because I feel as if I have been listening to Michael Jackson's music my
whole life.
"When I was a little kid I used to sing all his
songs. The whole world suffered a huge loss. The whole world is going to
feel this forever.
"I consider myself blessed to have known him,
to have performed with him several times and to have sung at his memorial."
Now she's back with her 12th studio album, which
will hit the shelves in four weeks' time.
"Each song is a story," she explained. "It may
have come from my own personal experience. "It could have come from a friend
of mine who has told me a story or something way back in the past. So it
is an album that tells a story.
"People can listen to it and pick out certain
songs that mean something to them - women especially. It's about women's
empowerment and overcoming certain things.
"It's fun too though. It's got a little bit of
something for everybody." The video for current single Obsessed certainly
looked like fun. It saw Mariah taking to the streets of NewYork wearing
a hooded top and sporting a goatee beard rather than her usual high heels
and barely-there outfits.
She said: "I worked with Brett Ratner, who is
a jokester, a comedian and a director of comedies.
"We talked a bit about different comedians playing
the part of the stalker but at the end of the day we decided I would do
it. It was so bizarre but a lot of fun."
Indeed, Mariah seems to be spending more and more
time in front of the camera rather than in front of the microphone.
She'll next be seen in Precious, a film telling
the story of a teenage mum given the chance to enrol in an alternative
school in an effort to turn her life around.
Cast as a social worker, Mariah's latest screen
appearance is sure to raise a few eyebrows.
She said: "I was a huge fan of Push, the novel
the movie is based on.
A friend of mine passed me this book and said,
'You have to read this.'
"There is an intensity in this book that just
leaves you stunned.
It changed my life when I read it.
"Then, years later I became friends with Lee Daniels
and when I found out that he was doing the project I was so excited.
"Then it came together and he asked me to be a
part of it. He was like: 'Let's just create this MrsWeiss character and
make her into someone that we can all identify with'.
"She is a social worker and the complete opposite
of me."
And Mariah admits that made playing the character
a challenge.
She said: "It was like stripping away layers of
myself as a celebrity, artist - or whatever you want to call it - and just
becoming this person who has to actually reveal to the audience what's
going on.
"She is the audience in a way. In that end scene
where Mary tells her that Precious had been abused when she was three years
old, she was shocked as the audience
to But Mariah did have her own experiences to
draw on - herVenezuelan father walked out on the family when she was just
three and it was music that rescued her from what could have been a difficult
life.
She said: "I remember starting out and being at
a record company at 19 and having someone tell me, 'This is your good side
and this is your bad side. Don't ever let anyone take any pictures of you
from that side.You look terrible from that side', and so on.
"I created this whole complex, like I didn't already
have enough of a complex.
"I felt very different as a bi-racial person.
Growing up where I was, being half-black and half-white, was a weird and
difficult thing because I didn't quite fit in either place and I moved
around a lot.
"So when I went from that to this world it was
like, 'Let's create an inferiority complex before we make this person go
on TV and try to have confidence.' So it was all about building self-confidence.
"That's what I love about this story. I think
it's going to help a lot of people."
Source: DailyRecord
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Source : www.heroesofmariah.com
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