Mariah Carey's just been Down Under with her cool tour, and her new single, "Breakdown" is – ouch! – Sizzling hot! TV Hits grabbed Miss M for the goss on her childhood and her plans to be a movie star. Read on...

Mariah's been one heck of a busy gal. She's got a long list of hit single and chart busting albums behind her, and with her latest single, "Breakdown" she's proved she ain't losing her magic touch.

It was pretty obvious that lil' Mariah had music in her genes. Her mum, Patricia Carey, is a classically trained opera singer who sang with the New York City Opera. "I was singing with my mom and her musician friends from the time I was about four years old," Mariah says. "I'd get home from school, and she would have, like five friends who were jazz musicians, and I'd ended up singing "My Funny Valentine" at two in the morning.

Music has always been a huge part of Mariah's life, but her home life, wasn't so stable. Her parents divorced when she was a toddler and she moved around a lot with her mum and big sis. "There were times when we didn't have a place to live and we stayed with friends. Those were very frightening periods," admits Mariah. "My mother was very supportive and very encouraging of my singing. But she was…unconventional. Even though my mum was my best friend and always been there for me, I never felt exactly like her. Something made me feel different from her."

Hmm, could the difference stem from Mariah's multi-racial background – having a white American mum and a Black-Venezuelan dad? Mariah admits she felt the difference strongly – especially when she was young. "I felt like an outsider," she explained. "Not that being multi-racial was a problem, but it was confusing. It made me different and separate from everyone else. I could talk to my mother about it, but she could never relate to it 100 percent. No one could unless they've been through it. I used to wish I was one thing or another, instead of a mixture of things."

But even though Mariah had her ups and downs, most people believe her rags-to-riches story sounds just like a fairy tale – she worked as a waitress, and was discovered when a friend slipped her demo tape to Tommy Mottola (the head of Sony and her future hubby). But Mariah is quick to point out that she's gotten this far thanks to pure hard work. "I think of Cinderella as a poor girl who worked her ass off and become a princess, so in that sense, I don't mind the comparison!"

Following her recent split with hubby Tommy, Mariah has released her new album "Butterfly," where she experimented a new hip hop sound, rather than the pop where she's famous for. It wasn't an overnight transformation – Mariah swears she's always loved hip hop music. "I started moving in this direction with "Dreamlover." I listen to this music all the time. It wasn't like I said, ‘Tell me, who does good remixes?' or ‘Who's the hot rapper of the moment?' I knew what I wanted to do and who I wanted to do it with."

And one of those people was Puff Daddy. Puff said he loved working with Mariah on "Honey" as they share the same taste of music. "She talks about Wu-Tang and Notorious B.I.G and Mob Deep – and everybody who's hot," he says of their first meeting. "It was like talking to one of my friends. And she knows the importance of her mixes, so you feel like you're with an artist who appreciates your work."

Yep, this is one lady, who sure knows what she wants, and Mariah loves having more control of her music. "I sometimes defer to people who've had more experience. That was my motto for a long time. But now I'm able to say, ‘I don't agree with you.' Now, if I don't do what I want, I'm the only one to blame."

So did everyone around her support her move to R&B? "Everyone was like, ‘What are you crazy?' They're very nervous about breaking the formula. It works to have me sing on the stage in a long dress with my hair up." But Mariah insists, she'll always love ballads like "Hero" and "One Sweet Day." "When I began singing, there was an effort to portray myself in a simple classic way – to go the ballad route. I love singing ballads and I always will."

One of the things this gal is most proud of was that her music appeals to so many different kinds of people. "I think it's great. I don't think it has anything to do with my being multi-racial – music goes beyond that. But being accepted by people makes me feel like I belong somewhere. And that makes everything I went through OK. All that matters is that I know who I am."

Mariah is sick of the constant attention of her life, particularly the split with Tommy. "I can't comment on other people out there spreading negativity. They don't have my interest at heart." It's rumored that Tommy was over protective of lil' Mariah even forbidding her from answering the phone! "When you've experience more than someone else, it's a natural tendency to try and protect the person from the things you've gone through," is all Mariah will have to say.

What makes her most mad are the whispers that the only reason she sold so many records was because she was married to a record company boss. "People used to say, ‘If she weren't married to him, she wouldn't have this, she wouldn't have that.' I don't care if you're married to the President of the United States or Houdini! Nobody can make the public buy records…I've worked my ass off for years, and contributed to the company as much as the company contributed to me." You go, girl!

For now, Mariah insists she's happy being single. "I have to learn things for myself. I have to experience things for myself. I have to make all my decisions and live by them." And Mariah's latest CD, "Butterfly" is her most personal yet. "For the first time since the first album, It feels like I'm letting a piece of myself go."

So what's next for Mariah? It looks like she wants to break into movies following divas like Madonna and Whitney Houston. Don't stress though Mariah fans, she says she'll never turn her back on her music. "What really matters at the end of the day is not how many records I've sold, not who says I was manipulative, not who says I was caged, or who says I planned the whole thing. I know who I am."


Many thanks to Kerry from MariahCareyCollection for the scans.