DECEMBER 19, 2003 1:25PM

It was third-grade girls I remember being most infatuated by Mariah Carey as she started the steep climb that, by the end of the 90s, had earned her the title of Billboard Magazine's Artist of the Decade.

Her Charmbracelet Tour brings her to the Tucson Convention Center tomorrow for the singers first concert in the Old Pueblo.

One picture is forever fixed in my memory during the early Mariah Carey era: 17 little 8-year-old girls from my daughters school in sleeping bags strewn haphazardly wall to wall in the living room and our dog PJ gingerly making his way across the room, not stepping on anyones head. There were lots of giggles and chattering - and Mariah singing in the background.

Those little girls, mine included, graduated from high school last year. They're young women now, having survived the trials and tribulations of those teens years and come out stronger for them. And it occurs to me that Mariah's career so far has mirrored their growing-up years.

Back in those innocent years, the girls - and Mariah - just made you smile. They were so creative at that age, so willing to please. And so was she.

"Mariah Carey writes all her own songs, really?" I asked my daughter, Sara, who was the one who introduced me to the singers five-octave voice and songs including "Love Takes Time," "Hero" and "Make It Happen."

"Wow, see what girls can do when they work hard for something?" I told Sara. Mariah was an influence and an inspiration.

Years passed, and those little girls hit their teens and everything that went with it: boys, overwhelming temptations, boys, bad choices, boys and emotions they hardly were old enough to understand.

You could be there for them, give them guidance and always empathize. Who hasn't been through that period?

And as my daughter's radio blared the emotional troubles of Mariah, I found myself empathizing with her. Even though she was well past those teenager years, wasn't Mariah paralleling them with her young fans?

I sympathized with her emotional state. I shook my head as the DJs and the tabloids talked about how she felt competitive with Jennifer Lopez. Lopez's movie, "The Wedding Planner," was a hit; Mariah's "Glitter" wasn't sparkling. (Too bad she couldn't look into the future to "Gigli.") I wondered, if only for a split second, how much of that silliness was true and how much was just hype.

Then came the breakdown, the not-so-role-model-type antics and finally I just exclaimed what every mother of a teenage girl had on her mind: "Girl, what are you thinking?"

But that was a couple of years ago. And it doesn't negate these facts: The singer is the top-selling female artist in history and has 15 No. 1 singles, two Grammy Awards and eight American Music Awards. She even rushed past the Beatles as the artist with the most weeks in a row at the top of Billboard's Hot 100 Singles chart.

Since her breakdown, she has formed her own label, MonarC Music. And her often biographical music shows an emergence from her depression.

In "Through the Rain," the first single from Charmbracelet, she sings: "I can make it through the rain/ I can stand up once again on my own/ And I know that Im strong enough to mend/ And every time I feel afraid I hold tighter to my faith/ And I live one more day and I make it through the rain."

Mariah seems to have survived her period of trials and tribulations - and come out stronger for them.

Some of those former little second-grade fans are planning to be in the audience at Mariah's show tonight.

Source: Tucson Citizen

Dueling vocals: Pop star showdown

Two of pop music's ultimate divas are gracing Arizona stages Friday night, and neither was available for an interview.

So we decided that rather than rehash old biographies, we'd compare the pair, hit for hit, tryst for tryst, tantrum for tantrum to determine which of them - girl-gone-wild Mariah Carey or north country twanger Shania Twain - is the ultimate Diva Divine.

Call it the diva donnybrook. Battle of the bellybuttons. Superstar smack-down. Let's begin.

I write the songs: Shania pens all her tunes with producer hubby Robert John "Mutt" Lange. The pair's golden formula has earned Shania almost 20 hit singles, including several No. 1 country songs and 22 BMI Songwriting Awards. Mariah has similar mojo in her pen, although she doesn't record only her own tunes. She's racked up 15 No. 1s and displaced the Beatles as the artist with the most cumulative weeks at the top of Billboard's Hot 100 Singles chart.
-- Advantage: Let's call this one a big pop draw.

Midriff: Both ladies have enviable midsections and know how to show them off. We'll give Mariah the edge, since she shows us more of her belly more often. But kudos to Shania, who maintained her quarter-bouncing abs after the birth of her son two years ago.
-- Advantage: Mariah, but we wonder how that hot gut will look when she's 38.

Visions of love: Shania and Lange aren't ever seen smooching in public, but don't be stupid; you know she loves him. The couple are about to celebrate their 10th anniversary - a milestone considering rumors of marital doom have haunted them since they said "I do." Mariah, after divorcing Tommy Mottola (who traded up for Latin songstress Thalía), has been linked with several dream lovers - and some who were not so dreamy. It's an exclusive club, though: Yankee Derek Jeter, Lat-pop heartthrob Luis Miguel (payback for Thalía?) and Eminem - sort of the "Glitter" of her romantic life. For more on her rumored hookup with Mr. Mathers, listen to his song "Superman." Her stage show reportedly includes a couple of dudes dressed up like the rapper.
-- Advantage: Shania

The buck stops here: If you skim down to the bottom line, Mariah wins with sales of albums and singles exceeding 150 million. That don't impress Shania much. If you look closely at the numbers, you have to give her cha-CHING! kudos. Her four albums have sold in excess of 60 million copies, including the history-making, 34-million-selling "Come on Over." It's the biggest-selling album ever by a female artist and the sixth-biggest-selling album of all time, equaling AC/DC's "Back in Black" and the Beatles' "With the Beatles." Her latest album, "Up," has sold more than 9 million copies.
-- Advantage: Reluctantly, Mariah

Blowing off steam: Amid speculation that her marriage to Lange was on the fritz, Shania quietly slipped off to Switzerland in 1999, rekindled her romance and had a baby. Meanwhile, Stateside, Mariah flipped on MTV's "TRL," rock-starred her hotel room and holed up in a psych ward.
-- Advantage: Shania

Fashion faux pas: Even though it's been several years, the image of Shania in fuchsia shorts, matching tube top, boots, tuxedo-cut coat, gloves and broad-rimmed cowboy hat still haunts us. Mariah used to do the whole cutoff-jean-shorts, curly-hair, good-girl thing. Then she went sort of bad girl. And once you go bad, you never go back. Her only clothing crimes are not wearing enough. Which we like.
-- Advantage: Definitely Shania - and that's not a compliment.

I wanna be a star: Someone slipped Sony top dog Mottola Mariah's demo tape at a party. He listened to it in his limo, then ordered his driver to go back to the party so he could meet the then-backup singer. Mottola signed, then married Mariah. In a less-exciting legend, Shania's manager slipped a demo tape to Mercury Records, which signed the Canadian to a contract.
-- Advantage: Mariah

Movie madness: Mariah made "Glitter." Shania did not.
-- Advantage: Shania

Who loves you, baby? Shania is making her fans travel 200 miles round trip to see her in Phoenix Friday night. Mariah's fans just have to drive Downtown.
-- Advantage: Mariah

So who wins Diva Divine? You decide.

Source: Arizona Starnet | Gabe

Don't call it a comeback: Mariah's show relies on hits

With Mariah Carey's recent album "Charmbracelet" ditching the ghetto-fabulous/hoochie-mama look that led to the personal and professional breakdown of "Glitter," one would have expected a subdued performance on Monday night. What the Arlington Theatre audience of Carey devotees got was pure Vegas, baby.

Looking a bit like coochie-coochie girl Charo -- in glittering silver bra and miniskirt, showing off a toned six-pack of abs -- Carey entered the Arlington from the lobby, coming down the aisle like a prize fighter.

In a way, Carey is a fighter. On this night, she was battling a cold, "doing the best with what I got" as she told us. Professionally, she is defending herself against critics who are saying she's lost the one thing that's made her famous -- her five-octave range voice.

Cold or not, it was disappointing that instead of making a stand and demonstrating that voice in a setting not unlike her "Unplugged" appearance, the Mariah Carey Show was a glossy and often tacky parade of costume changes, projected video interludes and an atrociously dressed gaggle of backup dancers on loan from an MC Hammer video.

The audience, of course, ate it up, but it often seemed that we were all paying good money (more than $100 for the front 20 rows, really socking it to the average working people who make up her core audience) for a whole lot of padding.

Carey's songs usually fall into two categories: light, fluffy hip-hop with the occasional rap star cameo, or power ballads where she really belts it out (or would do, if she weren't so low -- intentionally? -- in the mix). Here is Carey's bread and butter, with lyrics about holding onto dreams and "finding the will to carry on."

These are phrases that creep into her songs whether or not she writes them herself. If early R&B took the spiritual longing of gospel and turned it into tales of earthly lust, modern worship music has taken the catchphrases of self-help gurus and turned them into quasi-Christian platitudes, a point where Carey's odes to the power of self and of the Lord converge.

This meeting of the pop-sacred and the new age-profane resulted in one of the worst moments of the night, the unbelievable self-aggrandizement of "My Saving Grace."

Meant as her post-trauma, soul-searching song, the moment could have be played as an intimate exchange between the diva and her fans. Instead, the large video monitor played a photo montage of Mariah's career from childhood to fame, up to breakdown and through to recovery, like an episode of "Behind the Music."

Photos were one thing, but we also saw clippings from the press about the her nervous breakdown, a few glowing record reviews of "Charmbracelet" and what looked like a People magazine article on her "comeback."

All that was missing were shots of her most recent tax returns. This was confession turned ego trip turned commodity.

At one point Carey was up for another costume change and gave the stage over to her four backup singers, but not before introducing them. Carey was at her most laid-back here, carefree and improvising on her fellow performers' names over a soulful vamp. This and the subsequent number "Friend of Mine" by the quartet (leader Trey Lorenz vocally sparring with the three ladies) were two of the most honest and enjoyable performances of the night.

Carey returned in a neon blue and pink rollergirl outfit to sing "Fantasy," her perky palimpsest of Tom Tom Club's "Genius of Love," and then closed with her two most popular self-help ballads, "Make It Happen" and "Hero."

If "Charmbracelet" is seen as some sort of comeback (at least by her own accounts), then it is mysterious that she only focused on two of the album's tracks, and did so earlier in the show to get them out of the way: the slow, bland "Through the Rain" and the above-mentioned "My Saving Grace."

Of course, if you are only going to sing 11 songs, then give the people what they want -- all the hits. But for an artist who is still trying to maintain a viable career, it's dispiriting to see her falling back on her earlier material. Residency on the Las Vegas strip may be coming sooner in Mariah Carey's career than her fans might think.

Source: Santa Barbara News-Press | Robert Blessing

All in Vain: 'Diva' label being examined as Mariah Carey and Shania Twain visit Las Vegas

Few words in the English language have been redefined as radically over the past several years as the term "diva."

In 1999 Webster's New World College Dictionary provided two meanings: "a leading woman singer, especially in a grand opera" or a "goddess."

The 2003 version of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary also presents a pair of definitions. The first resembles its '99 counterpart: "a usually glamorous and successful female performer or personality, especially a popular female singer."

But in place of "goddess," the second now reads "prima donna," a term associated with vanity and ostentation.

It's a sure sign that the diva tag has evolved from a term of respect in the opera world to a label with negative connotations in the popular-music era.

Saturday night two women frequently associated with the diva designation hit Las Vegas for separate shows on the Strip. Country luminary Shania Twain plays the Mandalay Bay Events Center at 7:30 p.m., while pop superstar Mariah Carey holds court at the Aladdin Theatre for the Performing Arts at 8 p.m.

No one denies the vocal prowess of either singer. But veteran vocalist Lezlie Anders says that when it comes to attitude, the divas of yesteryear had a far different approach from their contemporary counterparts.

"The term doesn't hold the respectful meaning it used to," said Anders, who has enjoyed a long career in the spotlight and still performs as a headliner. She and husband Buddy Greco - the legendary jazz singer, composer and pianist - reside in Las Vegas.

"It has taken on a different connotation because it's being applied to a different category and class of performer," Anders said. "It's too bad that all the current divas are little snippy brats. They've changed the whole meaning of the word."

Large entourages, severe photography restrictions and bizarre dressing room requirements have become more and more commonplace in the world of the modern diva.

www.thesmokinggun.com, a popular website run by the staff at Court TV, collects concert riders - contracts between performers and venues - from some of music's most popular figures.

Carey has been known to request lemon zinger honey tea, one box of bendy straws and 12 bath-size towels per night, and that only covers the vocalist's own extensive dressing-room needs. Her backing singers' requirements are addressed separately.

Carey's rider (a written agreement between an entertainer and venue) also declares that "16-oz plastic bottles of Evian are the only acceptable bottles of water for the dressing rooms" and that Poland Springs Water - a somewhat obscure product bottled in Maine - must also be provided for use in tea service.

Twain's 1999 tour rider made provisions for a variety of fruit to be placed in her dressing room, including three mangoes and three papayas every night. Also required: 24 small bottles of spring water (at room temperature), orange cheese popcorn and two packages of Mori-Nu Silken Soft Tofu.

Twain's security demands are also quite revelatory. Her rider states that "A K9 sweep of the immediate stage area may be requested two hours prior to performance in order to lessen concern for crank bomb threats."

Additionally, it notes that "artist security dog may be with her at any time and we would want advance notice of other dogs on site."

Do such costly and rigid demands turn off fans of the divas? Not according to Daniel Green, managing editor of thesmokinggun.com.

"The next letter that we get from someone saying that we're giving them a less-than-positive view of their hero will be the first one we received," Green said. "People live to see those ridiculous demands."

Anders said today's divas aren't able to connect as intimately with their audiences, partly because they perform before such large arena crowds.

"These divas are singing in such large rooms, I wonder if they've lost the personal contact with their audiences," Anders said. "Singers used to make eye contact with their audiences, and the music was very personal.

"The business used to be about performing. Now, the divas are recording artists first."

As the executive producer of VH1's annual "Divas" concert broadcast, Lee Rolontz has spent more time than most of her industry peers around music's top female vocalists.

And while she concedes the term has taken on "both a good and bad connotation," she paints a fairly rosy picture of her experiences with Carey, Twain and their peers.

"When you get a group of performers together, everybody's wants and needs are different," Rolontz said. "But a lot of times, they're more lenient than you'd think. There's tremendous professionalism, and everybody is extremely respectful of everybody else's talent."

Rolontz did get a first-hand account of some rather curious backstage behavior from one of the show's production assistants, but said she has yet to experience any major scenes herself.

"One of the things that we tend to forget is that it's hard do what they do," Rolontz said. "You are depending on this muscle, and preserving that muscle takes a tremendous amount of discipline and work."

But Anders points out that the top singers of past generations didn't concern themselves with the issues of today's batch of divas.

"The true divas -- Ella (Fitzgerald), Lena Horne, Peggy Lee -- didn't demand that you not make eye contact when you were in the same room," Anders said. "And Ms. Peggy Lee didn't demand that all the green M&Ms be picked out of the bowl in her dressing room."

Source: Las Vegas Sun

News Tidbits & Site Updates

-- Over twenty photos of Mariah performing in Los Angeles and Santa Barbara have been added to our temporary Charmbracelet Tour section courtesy of Jimmy, Aaron, Katie and Robert!

-- Congratulations to April Rodriguez from Nevada for winning one single ticket to see Mariah live in concert at the Aladdin Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, courtesy of Aladerri.

-- On the list of the Top 200 best selling R&B albums of 2002 in Canada, Mariah made three appearances: #40 with "Charmbracelet," #128 with "Greatest Hits," and #159 with "Glitter."

-- "All I Want For Christmas Is You" is getting major airplay across the nation! It moved 22-3 in the past week on CHR/Pop Gold Radio Airplay, 21-19 on CHR/Rhythmic Gold Radio Airplay, and fell 14-16 on Adult Contemporary Gold Radio Airplay. From all three formats, the song has nearly 20 million audience impressions!

On Billboard's Hot 100 Recurrent Airplay, the track moves 14-9 in its 6th total week on the chart. On the Adult Contemporary chart, the seasonal tune drops 11-16 in its 13th total week.

-- Mariah is also doing well on various Billboard charts! "The Remixes" remains at #1 in its 9th week on Billboard's Top Electronic Albums chart, while "All I Want For Christmas Is You" climbs 2 spots to #7 on the Hot Digital Tracks survey. "Merry Christmas" drops 23-29 in its 77th cumulative week on Billboard's Catalog Albums chart.

Source: IslandYacht | Jason | JRKing | Nacho | Aladerri