Below are photos of Mariah and Nick Cannon at Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia, California where a wedding reception for their close family and friends was held Tuesday, May 13th.

Mariah & Nick Ride the Tatsu





Mariah & Nick Welcome Guests at the Party

Source: MariahDailyJournal

United States (01-01-02-05)
Canada (01-04-08)
Australia (02-11-21)
United Kingdom (03-05-12-23)
Switzerland (05-10-15-22)
France (06-17-23-25)
Germany (07-22-38)
Ireland (07-13-25-39)
Japan (07-09-11-11)
Austria (08-36-30-56)
Italy (09-15-22-29)
Argentina (10)
New Zealand (10-20-25)
Netherlands (11-17-28-42)
Portugal (15-OUT)
Spain (16-30-65-71)
Denmark (18-34-OUT)
Norway (20-OUT)
Greece (20-07)
Sweden (22-40-50)

Official/Estimated* Total Sales:
United States - 827,000
Japan - 87,000 [Certified Gold = 100,000]
United Kingdom - 66,000*
Canada - 32,000*
France - 30,000*
Brazil - 15,000 (shipment)
Australia - 15,000*

Source: MariahDailyJournal | Nacho | MariahsBoy | Musicdayflycharm

Entertainment Tonight and its correspondent Kevin Frazier were inside Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia, CA, where Nick Cannon surprised his bride Mariah Carey with an ultra-exclusive reception.

Only HipHollywood.com has all of the details:

Cannon shut down the park, at a cost in the mid-six figure range, so that he and Mariah could party with 100 friends and family. Nick had the park decorated in pink and purple balloons with Carey's signature butterflies also a fixture. Mariah's album was playing throughout the park the entire evening, and each guest received a pink or red Superman cape as a gift.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Dept. and Six Flags security helped secure the 260 acre Theme Park from prying paparazzi, while Cannon, Carey and their guests played games and rode roller coasters, each time the new bride and groom riding in the front car.

The couple arrived a little after 8PM, greeted friends, then headed straight to the parks' flying rollercoaster, Tatsu. On the way Nick shot baskets with his buddies as his wife cheered him on. After a wild ride, the couple wanted to go again, but instead headed to the reception to greet guests. At the reception, they milled about with friends and family, all the while, holding hands and embracing in between conversations.

After about a 30 minute break the couple and about 20 guests headed off to enjoy more rides. Nick and Mariah were very playful and on more than one occasion he carried her on his back. They road 4 other coasters, multiple times, almost always sitting in the front seat, before finally calling it a night.

Kevin presented the couple with a blender as a wedding gift and Mariah said it was perfect for her protein shakes to lose weight and Nick's to gain.

Tune in to Entertainment Tonight on Wednesday, May 14th to see all the romantic fun.

Source: HipHollywood | ET Online

Our heartfelt sympathy goes out to all victims and families affected by the massive earthquake that hit China on Monday, May 12th.

Ritcher, our friend from MariahCN writes:

"On May 12, a massive 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit South-western China. The epicenter was Wenchuan County, Sichuan Province. Xinhua News Agency report that nearly 15,000 people died from the earthquake in Sichuan and neighboring provinces of Shaanxi, Gansu, and Yunnan and the death toll could reach far higher as the search and rescue effort continues. It was the worst natural disaster hitting the region in the last three decades. The damage to the property in the vast region is beyond estimation. We at MariahCN have made a tribute video with "Bye Bye" as the background music to the people and trying to get more international awareness of this issue. Just wondering if you can kindly help to provide a link on Mariah Daily Journal to spread the word. I'm here on behalf of all the Chinese lambs thanking you for your help in advance.

Please visit Red Cross Society of China for information on how you can help. You can also spread the video to anywhere/anyone you know."

Source: Ritcher - MariahCN

Click on the links below to download Mariah's appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show that aired Tuesday, May 13th on NBC.


Mariah Guests on The Ellen DeGeneres Show
Type: MPG | Size: 249.6MB
Download: [ Part I | Part II ]

Source: MariahDailyJournal

Still no word of a honeymoon, but newlyweds Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon are planning a big blowout tonight.

A source tells E! News that the two lovebirds are renting all of Six Flags Magic Mountain theme park for a private party.

All the roller coasters you can ride until you throw up...sounds romantic! Guess these two really are "eternally 12 years old" after all.

And this is just one stop on their busy schedule: Last Saturday, they were at Ellen DeGeneres' 50th birthday bash and then hit Villa on Monday night for some drinks and dancing.

Coming up, Nick's jet-setting back to New York City to deejay at the Stoli Hotel soiree Friday.

No word on whether Mimi will join her man that night, but the way they've been attached at the hip lately, it wouldn't surprise us.

Source: E! Online

Says she got 'gangsta' for tattoo session and that they'll have another ceremony next year for friends who weren't invited to this one

Mariah Carey appeared on "Ellen" Tuesday, May 13th to talk about her recent wedding to Nick Cannon.

She said the pair used a "video shoot" as camouflage for bringing friends out to the Bahamas for the beachside ceremony, and noted that very few people were invited.

"[It was] mostly people to do my hair and help me with my dress... and three of my friends and he had three people with him," she said.

"We wanted to be at the beach, we didn't want other people taking pictures, because we both experienced the hoopla of trying to make something into, like, a publicity stunt, which is what everybody thinks and will think anyway," she said. "We don't really care about that mentality. Instead of trying to be like, 'You're invited, but shhh, don't tell anybody,' we're just going to have another [wedding] next year. [Nick's] plan is to have one every year."

Host Ellen DeGeneres then held up photos of the pair's tattoos: Cannon's is a large "Mariah" across his back, while hers is a small butterfly on her lower back that incorporates the letters "MC" -- which she said stood for "Mrs. Cannon," but DeGeneres quickly pointed out could also simply stand for the singer's initials, if the marriage doesn't work out.

"That's so mean, Ellen!" Carey said.

She continued, "I never had a tattoo before, and it's his first tattoo also -- that's why it was a big deal. I fell asleep during my tattoo. People were like, 'What?' I was gangsta for that, a little bit."

Carey also said Cannon is the man she wants to raise a family with. "My parents divorced when I was 3 and I didn't have many examples of what was the 'norm,'" she said. But "I found the right person."

Related News Stories:
• Mimi Talks Baby Cannons (Extra)
• Mariah dishes about wedding on 'Ellen' (MSNBC)
• Mariah's Matrimonial Musings (E! Online)
• Mariah Tells Ellen She'll Have Another Wedding (People)

Source: MTV

Mariah had a late-night dinner at Gyu-Kaku in Beverly Hills, California Monday, May 12th. Below are high-quality pictures of Mariah, with Nick Cannon, outside the Japanese restaurant.

Source: MariahDailyJournal

Mariah left a new voice message on her official site, MariahCarey.com. You can check out the audio in the Voicemail section.

Mariah & Rachel: Hey! How ya doin'?
Mariah: Okay, it's Mimi and Rae-Rae, sings [...] We got Shawntae and Mae-Mae in the car right now, we wanted to call you and be festive, we know you guys know it's been a lot of festive going on.
Rachel: It's been pretty pretty busy!
Mariah: It's been an absolute smash. But we just wanted to say that we love you, I love you, I'm sorry that I haven't been calling you as much as I should be, and everybody is mad at me for not calling them, so it's not just you guys. Believe me, I always wanna call you, the lambs, the fans, whatever you wanna say, "lambs 4 life", I know that a few of you noticed that laughs on the back of the album cover, but anyway, I just wanted to send my love and gratitude for everything and send you a lot of blessings and just thank you for everything, really seriously, right Rachel?
Rachel: Yeah, you guys are the best!
Mariah: Come on, you can give them more festivity than that.
Rachel: [louder] You guys are the best!
Mariah: I got like letters and notes and yes, Rachel, say that again, what?
Rachel: You know I show you guys love everywhere you guys come to me, you know who you are!
Mariah: You know who you is! If you're talking to her, be like "Raychal", you gotta go like "Raaaaaychal!" and then she'll definitely definitely focus on you. But anyway, we love you, and, well you know I love you [...] as always, and I'm sitting here with my new hubby but he's being quiet right now, I think he's focused on something else, I don't know [...] oh and someone's calling me on the other line, maybe it's one of you, you'll never know! laughs Anyway, I love you, and I'm gonna call you back, [...] about to get on a plane right now, so I hope you like the new video and stuff, it's for all of you! And I will chat with you soon, okay? alright!

Source: MariahCarey.com | Text: MariahDailyJournal

Only EXTRA has the exclusive first look at Mariah Carey's cameo in "You Don't Mess with the Zohan," which opens in theatres June 6th.

Mariah Zohan Clip: [ Stream | Download ]
In the film, Adam Sandler plays a Mariah-obsessed Mossad agent determined to escape war -- to cut hair in New York City.

Source: Carlo from EXTRA | Kelly

Mariah Carey has been pop's queen--the real queen--for nearly 20 years, and she's not giving up the throne. But at M.C.'s lavish Caribbean birthday bash, Shanel Odum witnesses the record-shattering diva in all her glory: Calm, cool, and damn-near naked

Eagle's Landing, Jumby Bay, Antigua.

2 P.M. The heavens above Antigua are as smooth and playful as a handful of cobalt marbles. But on the island below, a frenzy is brewing. Mariah Carey's $12,500-a-night villa on the 300-acre tropical island is alive--almost antsy--with anticipation. Rob Payne, her stone-faced bodyguard, slips into a cotton tee as he escorts a lipstick-toting assistant into the ballroom-size living room, where a video crew is gingerly unpacking.

"Absolutely no one can go through those doors there," booms Payne, who's built like an All-Pro defensive end. "That's Mariah's bedroom. And smokers better light up in the front yard--she'll have a fit if she smells cigarettes!"

A gang of hairstylists, fashion assistants, photographers, and makeup artists race around the open-air bungalow, each on their own mission to please. Almost everyone else in the all-but-humble abode frantically taps away at a MacBook, BlackBerry, or iPhone.

Then, disaster strikes.
The manicurist is missing.

But there's no it's-my-party-and-I'll-bitch-if-I-want-to tantrum from the illustrious pop icon. The bluster is coming from a couple of men. It's Benny Medina, Mariah's longtime über-manager (the man known for his super-successful, hands-on approach with clients Jennifer Lopez, Usher, and Tyra Banks), and Michael Richardson, her dapper, Cockney-spouting tour manager. They're both outraged by the potential beauty crisis.

"If this slows us up," Medina roars, sporting a pink Polo and matching shorts, "I'm going to get really upset."

While waiting for Carey for more than 90 minutes, the resort's lone manicurist bounced.

"Wehw, wot villa is she in, den?" demands Richardson in a thick British accent. He whips out his cell and makes the necessary heads roll.

It's still early and the estate is already in a state of chaos. The Grammy winner? The diva? The sex symbol? She sleeps through the whole thing.

Somewhere on the same island, a very tan Paul McCartney strolls lazily across the starfish-studded beach. The 65-year-old Beatle has retired from hitmaking, but continues to hold the title--along with the rest of his iconic English pop band--for the most No. 1 singles on Billboard's Hot 100. With 20 chart-toppers, The Beatles hold the only record left for Mariah to shatter. This spring she skated past Elvis Presley with "Touch My Body," her 18th No. 1 single.

But it hasn't been all stardust and rainbows for Mariah. In 2001, what was supposed to be her film breakout, Glitter (20th Century Fox), fizzled. That was followed by a well-publicized 2001 breakdown on the set of MTV's TRL. Who could forget the strip tease? And the ice cream cart?

Then came liberation. Her last album, The Emancipation of Mimi (Island, 2005), sold nearly six million copies. It was that kinetic endeavor that helped Mariah reclaim fans that had dismissed her as a casualty of her own ambition. Continuing in the same triumphant vein, E=MC², aka Emancipation Equals Mariah Carey to the Second Power (Island), her 11th studio album, is a beautifully addictive lesson in dichotomy. Her claims of deliverance and growth have merit, but the butterfly-obsessed star still vacations in Neverland. The Mariah- and Swizz Beatz-produced "O.O.C."--as in "Out Of Control"--proves she hasn't lost touch with her youthful spirit. The song is bursting with instant messenger acronyms. "Side Effects" shows a deeper side of Mimi: Candidly detailing the aftermath of her tumultuous marriage to Sony Music bossman Tommy Mottola, she paints the picture of a woman stung by real heartbreak. Though she's sacrificed her famed vocal acrobatics--dolphins are still the only mammals that can top her five-octave range--for a greater pop presence, her limber tone and midrange belting work better with the album's synth-heavy beats and tickling treble. If anything, Mariah is the ultimate chameleon. She's evolved from sweet, soul-stirring ballads to booming hip hop hooks; from floor-skirting gowns to hot shorts and patent pumps. And most recently, to the Pistol Panties bikini she's rocking--with confidence--today.

5 P.M. The afternoon turns to evening, and a twister descends on Eagle's Landing. The cyclone hits the beach in a blur of blush brushes, hair spritz, and double-sided tape. Even the manicurist has returned, but only to remain on-call. She doesn't paint even one of Mariah's digits. So much drama, so little action. Every few moments, there's a glimpse of the eye of the storm--it's Mariah, emancipated. The 5-foot-9 mirage prances past the overly attentive pack and heads toward a rickety boardwalk, which instantly transforms into her runway. A magenta silk robe whips against those endless, copper legs; black Christian Louboutin heels stab the sand; a wild halo of corkscrew curls flies...

"Can we get some towels and a Diet Coke ASAP?" Medina demands for his artist, to no one in particular. The throng of attendants freeze in their tracks, eyes darting nervously from one person to the next, afraid to abandon their assigned duties but more afraid to disobey. After some confused stares, Mariah's longtime personal assistant Melissa Ruderman, races off to fetch the items.

At the end of the petite dock, Mariah breezily tiptoes through a knot of rocket wires as technicians--hired to prep the evening's fireworks display in honor of M.C.'s 38th birthday--pace anxiously. Their hand-wringing and panicked warnings float out to sea, unheeded by the singer. She's too busy hamming it up as if she were on a tightrope, occasionally grabbing at her manager's outstretched arm. Even traipsing across a minefield of pyrotechnics. Mariah is perfectly poised. Delicate. Dainty. Ultra femme. Constantly aware of how she looks, she makes sure a wisp of hair is swept across her forehead. She's rarely caught tilting her head to the right--the right's her best side.

"I'm That Chick"--a swinging future single from E=MC²--drifts above the photographers' encouraging banter, and everyone's feeling it. As the album flows seamlessly from dance track to love song, Mariah sways to the sound of her own voice. She doesn't need for this record to be a smash, but it inevitably will be. She'll stay relevant. She'll stay rich. She's that chick.

As she perches on a sharp formation of rocks, Medina simultaneously tends to her dangling sandal and regulates minutiae.

"Can we get more volume in her hair?"
"Robe, please!"
"Give me more eyes, Mariah..."

For the next setup, she saunters through the water in a bronze Ashley Paige one-piece and a pair of 4-inch heels, grinning like a pageant contestant. Miss Mimi perpetually flirts with an imaginary audience and doesn't stop winking, pouting, and writhing in the waves even for a moment. Even without an ogling entourage. Even when the photographer takes a break to change his flash. She rarely stops hip-popping and sashaying. And she looks damn good doing it.

"I'm getting really nervous about the overhead lighting," she raspily purrs, glancing down at her washboard abs. "My tummy... can I get some lighting from underneath instead, please?"

There are a few final flashes, followed by revelry from the crew. The shoot wraps, and party time is about to begin.

After tying a tiny, white button-up above her belly button, a chrome-colored, American Apparel bikini becomes Mariah's birthday suit. By now, she's a real-life Malibu Barbie, and one very few going-on-40-year-olds who can get away with rocking a belly chain and a gemstone butterfly appliqué on the small of her back. Her record weight loss is undeniable--Mariah is clearly more sculpted than scalpeled. But it's not just her blow-up doll aesthetic; it's her unapologetically larger-than-lush lifestyle--and M.C.'s B-day is no exception.

7:30 P.M. Mariah Carey's 38th birthday banquet is a Sweet 16 dream. Beckoning palms welcome guests to the entrance of the veranda, where a spouting stone fountain sits on Moroccan tile. The scene inside is a strawberry-frosted pubescent fantasy; purple, pink, and white balloons dance in the balmy Caribbean breeze floating through the spacious flat. Fuchsia feather boas drip from the arms of every chair. Kitschy gold crowns, tiaras, and noisemakers adorn each place setting. French doors are slung open to frame a cascading infinite pool that overlooks the Caribbean sea a dive's length away. This is how a superstar does her born day.

In the Mediterranean-style kitchen, a culinary crew decked in freshly pressed coats and stark white chef's caps are prepping pots. The scent of roast chicken waltzes in the wind. And then Mariah's posse begins to appear. Longtime confidante Shawntae "Da Brat" Harris breezes past, swimming in oversized jeans, a red tee, and a bandana over bead-studded braids. Recent acquaintance/music video director ("Bye Bye") Nick Cannon grabs his laptop and goes to the buffet to fix a plate. As her guests fawn, Mariah drifts from friend to friend, beaming and blowing kisses.

Suddenly, the sounds of silverware clinking and Perrier hissing are interrupted by a pop. Louis Roederer Cristal--not calorie-packed hard liquor, mind you--is served by a staff of three. Outstretched flutes salute the birthday girl as her nephew Shawn McDonald, 30, an attorney, delivers an eloquent toast. He salutes her generosity--Mariah paid for his Cornell undergrad and Harvard Law education. According to McDonald, Mariah's real beauty--the side she protects from the paparazzi--can't be photographed. "She's more like a sister to me," he says, as they clutch each other affectionately. The intimate party lets out a chorus of awwws.

As soon as McDonald finishes his speech, the sky erupts in a fiery pink explosion, a dazzling fireworks display. Someone in the small crowd shrieks in surprise--but not Mariah. She's peacefully sipping on a glass of champagne. She seems high on life. It's just another day for the birthday girl. Everything's a production--for her entourage. Like the pink conflagration overhead, Mariah fits and floats above it, unscathed by the pandemonium.

Source: VIBE | Text & Scans: MariahDailyJournal

[ Download this video ]

Mariah arrived at the NBC Studios in Burbank, California at around 4:50pm to tape her appearance for tomorrow's The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Fans reported that they couldn't greet Mariah as the paparazzi swarmed her car as she was entering the gate.

At the show, Mariah talked about how she met Nick Cannon, Ellen's birthday party last Saturday, "Love Story" being the 3rd single, among other topics. Mariah immediately left after the taping at 6:10pm.

Watch a preview of Mariah's appearance on Ellen to your right. Be sure to catch The Ellen DeGeneres Show tomorrow, May 13th. For local airing times, click here.

Below are pictures of Mariah leaving the NBC Studios after the taping.


From the EllenDegeneres.com's real-time web camera, below are screen captures of Mariah and Ellen during the taping.

Source: MariahDailyJournal | Kelly

Newlyweds Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon were among the high-profile guests at Ellen DeGeneres's 50th birthday bash in Southern California over the weekend.

The party, held on the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank (where DeGeneres is now taping her show, after having moved from the nearby NBC studios), was set up like a carnival - complete with 10-ft. elephant topiaries, a Ferris wheel, bumper cars, carousel, dunk tank and stilt-walkers.

Others who helped the talk-show host celebrate her landmark - which was actually back on Jan. 26 – included the Jonas Brothers, Paris Hilton and Benji Madden, David and Courtney Cox Arquette, T.R. Knight, and Tom Hanks with wife Rita Wilson.

For entertainment, Pink sang several of her hits, the dance crew ACDC performed and DJ Samantha Ronson spun tunes as guests hit the dance floor.

Snacks included red velvet cupcakes, Pinkberry yogurt, sushi and a dim sum buffet.

DeGeneres, who was accompanied by girlfriend Portia de Rossi, will share clips of the celebration on her TV show set to air Friday, May 16.

Source: People

So the world's press have been falling over themselves recently, coming up with all sorts of completely fabricated stories about Mariah- and calling all of us who love her for a quote. So here goes:

Congratulations to my New York cousin who has become a wife, and her new husband, Nick Cannon. MC is still an MC, as she's now Mrs Mariah Carey-Cannon!

Before we get into the real talk, let's cut the silly stories dead:

MC didn't buy her own ring and she wasn't given a second hand ring. In fact, I'm reliably informed that the ring Nick once offered someone else isn't even in the same league as the one MC is sporting. MC's is 10 times bigger.

MC's ring is the most beautiful ring ever with "pink yet lavender" diamonds surrounding the centre.

Next: The flowers didn't come from the island of Eleuthera. They were flown in from Miami. Also, with regards to all the pre-nup rumours; all you need to know is they're both independent with their own thing going on and have both their respective heads screwed firmly on!

MC has been friends with Nick since 2005 when he presented her with a Billboard Music Award. They kept in touch and let their friendship develop and the most beautiful thing is: Nick always used to say he was in love with MC and that one day he was going to marry her. It seems he spoke it into existence!!

Nick went on to propose to MC- twice! Firstly on the Empire State Building, which she had just lit up publicly in pink- yet lavender- lights.

Nick hid the ring in a candy wrapper amongst lollipops and lunchboxes, and then he re-proposed after whisking her off on a helicopter ride around New York so she could see her "pink and lavender Empire State Building."

Think that's beautiful? They've further cemented their love for each other with tattoos. Neither of them have ever had a tattoo in their lives but now MC is sporting a "Mrs Cannon" tattoo while Nick has "Mariah" across his back.

I can say that of all the men I've seen MC with in the past, I've never seen her like this. I'm not sure she's ever truly been in love until now. And even better still, all of us who love her, love him, coz he constantly reminds us: "I am madly in love with my wife and it's my life duty to make her happy."

I toast you Mr and Mrs Cannon!

Source: Jasmine Dotiwala - The Voice

MARIAH CAREY is a goddess and self proclaimed diva, known as much for her hair, her body, her boobies, her butterflies, her breakdowns, tears and tantrums as she is for being THE BIGGEST SELLING FEMALE ARTIST OF ALL TIME! Currently riding high on the crest of her 18th American Number 1 with Touch My Body, she secured the double whammy by going top of the Billboard 100 with new long player E=MC², which sold 155,000 units on the first day of release. Impossibly perfect, talented and tantastic she is synonymous with glamour, luxury, extravagance, hip hop, Christmas, puppies, bling, ice, men, money, designer clothes, high heels, extravagant videos, sex, seduction, life and love, ever since she first warbled her way to the top of the charts and the top of our hearts with her self-penned worldwide mega smash Vision of Love. Mariah had achieved both massive commercial and critical success by expertly straddling both mainstream and hip hop fans alike and seamlessly taking them on the ride of their lives. In a worldwide exclusive, we meet with Mariah in New York where she stripped off to reveal her new and improved, to die for beach body. There truly can be miracles... when you believe!

A brief conversation with Mimi about 'festive' :)
HERE IS MARIAH CAREY. The real-life, genuine Mariah: huge Disney smile, vest, tight Miss Sixty jeans, next season's Balenciaga's footwear, vast hair, even vaster vase of white wine poised in one hand, refusing bread with the other ('I'd really rather you not torture me with it,' she implores an attentive flunky). Mariah is sitting on a chaise longue as the clock turns towards 12 midnight. It is her equivalent of two in the afternoon. Every close Mariah-watcher knows that her clock is set, with an alchemically genius star's touch, to Mariah-time. She rises late afternoon and sleeps some time after sunrise. Sometimes, when she wants to re-tool another impeccable vocal to add to her boisterous cannon she will call in her musical playmates at 4am. Refuseniks to the power of Brand Mimi will huff and puff at the mild inconvenience of it all but it seems only reasonable that her press commitments should follow suit.

On this occasion, Mariah is lit almost entirely by what looks like IKEA tea lights. The low lighting makes you squint. Mariah is in a New York studio, cornered against a fluorescent skyline that includes the twilit sheen of the Empire State Building (straight ahead) and The New York Times offices (to the left). In the mid-to-nothing lighting, I just about manage to make out some contraption or another beside her. Because Mariah is Mariah you just want to absorb the detailing.

What's this thing here, Mariah?
This thing? Oh, this thing is like dead to me. I don't know, somebody was trying to be festive and give me a fan, I think. But it doesn't work. Does it work?

Oh my God, I love your use of the word 'festive.' It's the best thing ever. [Mariah howls her big, Disney laugh]
I'm always feeling festive! I hate, hate, hate when it's not festive. Don't you hate a non-festive moment? It's rancid! Seriously. And I love how if something isn't festive and amazing, it's just like rancid and horrible. No, honestly? I don't even know what made me start to say 'festive'. I just am! It's always about being festive. Sometimes when you get smacked around the face with whatever it is, when you have a non-festive moment or whatever, you just have to come back at it with all that much more happiness.

With more festivity?
Festivity! Yes! Bring it on! Bring on the festive! People just do not need bleak moments. Or what I call... bleakocity.

Excuse me? Bleakocity?
I actually have a song that goes [starts singing in full-on upper register Mariah mode, the voice that launched a million young girl's All American Dreams] Bleeeeeeekocity... Bleeeeeeekocity...

Amazing. Is Bleakocity likely to make it to vinyl? It needs to happen.
Honey, it happened. It was a ring-tone that I wrote. We went through a moment, and when I say 'we' I mean me and my friends and it's just... oh, people think that I take myself so seriously but maybe they'll finally start to get it. The thing is that I think having festive themes really is necessary. You seem like a festive person.

Believe me, honey. I am now.

It's all about Mimi: the bleakocity :(
HOTHOUSED at the back end of Long Island, NY, by an opera singing single mother that let her out of piano lessons aged six, Mariah comes from nothing. By way of comparison to the astronomical turns the singer's life has taken, her sister Alison's story works as a pathos-addled comparison. Mariah made no secret of Alison's HIV+ status from career launch, but as lil' sis's life continued its astral ascent towards world domination, Alison was arrested for prostitution and has battled with multiple addictions throughout. To lend a dark cloud over the family from the outset, Mariah's mother's family had disowned their daughter when she married a black man.

Mariah's metaphorical use for music as a means of escape is way closer to Dizzee Rascal's than it is Celine Dion's. If Mariah can play the ditzy cheerleader par excellence in pop culture, it hides a variety of harder depths. One of the cuter details of her early years was that she was known as 'Mirage' at High School, such was her busy absenteeism. And that is before we even get to the much-publicised breakdown she suffered in the early '00s.

The Cinderella story goes that she met her Prince Charming and ticket to the royal palace aged 17. The name Tommy Mottola, the head of Columbia records who she married in an extravagant ceremony with the world's press circling above them in helicopters in 1993, only to divorce six years later, is dropped into every Mariah interview, as if she were incubated in a test tube by the mogul.

She claims to suffer from a kind of arrested development that ends aged 12, but Mariah has at least learnt not to mince her words in adulthood. "I don't think it's been easy for anyone to have a grasp or understanding of who I am because my career was so much about keeping me like a... well, there's a line on this new album [from the song Side Effects] 'Keeping me there under your thumb, because you were scared that I'd become, so much more than you can handle.' It's about the private hell we built. And I dealt with it."

From the outset, Mottola and Mariah had different ideas about where she should be positioned as an artist. He saw her in Whitney's then squeaky-clean lineage. She wanted to step herself into the '90s. Mariah had demoed the whole of her first album outside of Mottola's reference with her earliest collaborator, Ben Margulies. "Do you know what's funny?" she says now, remembering back to the time. "My demos were much edgier than my albums became. I wish I could have gone back to the essence of what those records were when they were demos. Even the demos that I was working on with Ben. When it became time to work on the first album everyone was so obsessed about competing with these other records and to produce them up. Any producer I was supposed to work with had to be that much smarter than me. At that point I was so much younger than everybody else involved in putting my record together. And I felt like I was so much more in tune with what was really going on in terms of music. For me a lot of that edge was... honed. They smoothed it, honed it and toned it because it worked better for mass appeal. I understand that because people don't want you to be too in their face. I understood it then but I was this skinny little twig and I couldn't walk in short tops and heels. I didn't try to be sexy... and I don't know what would've happened in my personal life if I had, whether I would've been completely shut down. But fortunately I was taken seriously as a singer so it wasn't about what I was wearing. It was about me as a songwriter and me as a singer. They stuck me in that... like, they made me change my hair texture. I was like 'hello, can I get a little blowout, maybe? I'm a little tired of the curly locks. Done that already.' But it's all good, you know?"

Eleven studio albums in, surely this is all the stuff that goes towards making the Mariah Carey that's here now?
Exactly.

Do you like that person?
I do. I feel like I've had to grow into this place. Honestly? I've so not arrived at the place that's the best person I can be. But I'm trying.

The Mottola years saw the singer operating at a phenomenally prolific, almost 1970's music business work rate. "They took an old mentality and put that on me," she says. "I was cool with that, you know? It was a corporate thing but I had no problem with it at the time." An album a year, with an MTV acoustic gig and a Christmas set which packaged her up and rinsed the commercial potential out of the girl that emerged from backing vocalist to superstarlet overnight. Working with the cream of urban American production talent, from Clivilles & Cole to Babyface, Puffy to Jam & Lewis, Mariah always managed to sneak in one track towards the end of each album that hinted at the sadness behind the aggressively marketed fairytale that was supposed to comprise her story. She looks genuinely astonished that anyone might have been paying attention.

"Some bitches just look at the same old story on the internet and change three words and write it. The End. Nobody looks at those lyrics. And the people that do are the ones who... well, I write it for real music lovers who care about what I do. I guess you could quote some music lover who hates what I do. People have different tastes and what not. But there's a song called Close My Eyes on the Butterfly album. Did you hear that? What a sad lyric." There were four years that she couldn't bring herself to perform the song live. "I was in a weird place. That was the time that my first relationship, I mean not my first one but my first as a quote/unquote adult... prior to adulthood, really. It was interesting, tough, and unique. A lot of times, back in the day, I would get shut down from doing that. If people weren't monitoring what I was writing I could've got away with saying what I wanted. There's a song called Looking In on the Daydream album... I got in trouble for that song. I did. For being real.'

History should allow a flipside to the Carey/Mottola coin. Without Mariah it is unlikely that the words 'Tommy Mottola' would have ever been heard outside of the music industry. The most famous girls that Mottola has taken charge of since losing the reins of his ex-wife's phenomenal talent, from Jennifer Lopez through Shakira, have been launched with an uncanny similarity to his most famous charge. Shakira entered Mottola's world as a dark haired Alanis-a-like singing folky rock songs in Spanish. By the time she had been through the Mottola tumble dryer the curly, fair locks, the occasional evening gown, the racial element buffed to the point of non-existence, the tutored sexuality and the world-beating power ballad -- all reliable Mariah staples -- were neatly locked down. Tommy Mottola was just doing his job with Mariah. As a record company executive he was charged with turning ordinary people into extraordinary figures of aspiration. It was Mariah that was living the aspiration and lending her whopping great voice to the world.

"I feel that's why I've been given the gift to write and it's why I've gone through so much crap, I think. You have to go through something to have a testimony."

Talking of testimonies, a brief interlude for some of Mimi's thoughts on the American Presidential race *=

ONE OF MARIAH's ongoing preoccupations is being mixed race. Her mother is Irish/American, her absent father Venezuelan/African American. It follows her everywhere. For popular consumption this has turned out to be a fortuitous blessing that works very much to her advantage. She didn't have to go through any Jacko-like surgery to hammer home the multi-purpose crossover of her appeal. She can be white Mariah, in a Versace evening dress and Van Cleef ice. Or she can be black Mariah, in hot pants with a hip hop don on her arm.

But one gets the feeling that Mariah doesn't operate only as a commercial entity and that much of her adult professional life has been about presenting a buffer to that. She still feels like the eternal outsider.

"If I do it's because I am."

With this in mind, the United States of America could turn into a very interesting place for Mariah Carey over the next year.

Do you think that Barack Obama could change America, Mariah?
Totally. I do think so. I do. I'm an eternal optimist and nothing would make me happier than to see that part of the world change. To see the whole perception of race and particularly when people have to deal with someone who is biracial, that is not easy for this country to do and for the world to do. I don't want to do it a disservice by even saying that. But I've lived it and I know what it is and there are seven-year-old kids still going through that. I meet them. They tell me.

It's all about Mimi: the festivity :)
MARIAH CAREY entered 2008 in fine fettle. She is not only preparing to service the world with 11th studio record, with some net serendipity she also still fits into her 11th grade jeans. "Yes, I'm still my eleventh grade size. Which is amazing. Is that a splash of wine?" It's a splash. "Can you give me a splash too? I feel soo unhip. Thank you. It's incredible how much of my life is based on what size jeans are what, a 26" waist I always think I have to lose weight from my thighs but I've always had that. No, but seriously, it isn't fat."

Mariah begins punching her own thighs to prove the point. "Even that doesn't hurt me," she trills, delighted. Warming to the treat of her own thighs, she asks me to punch them, too. She is nothing if not game, Mariah. And truly Amazonian. There is something slightly frightening about the invitation to hit her. I tell her I cannot possibly hit Mariah Carey. "But I'm a fighter. I'm a scrapper."

You are also, though, Mariah Carey, a carefully built legend.
Oh, you know what? I so didn't try and build a type of legend anything. It just sounds so foreign to me. If you only knew me.

How does it happen then?
You know what it is? It's so weird now. It's like celebrity is so fast moving and you just kinda have to be on the internet and you're famous and that's great... if that's what you want. If that's gonna make you happy. For me it's about music and my love for music and creativity and the fact that, you know, I don't even have to grow up doing this job. Which is really cool. Honestly, music has saved my life.

After seven straight months working on it, she was beginning to put the finishing touches to her 11th studio set, E=MC², by January of this year. The evergreen jollity of her classic All I Want For Christmas Is You lent the forthcoming campaign a little burst of festive pre-publicity. In the download area, her most festive joint had been buoyed by, of all things, a DFS soft furnishings advert to give her an unprompted Christmas UK smash.

Mariah considers the gestation period of making the new record. "This one? Seriously? It was like having a child."

Carey's records split equally and decisively between two camps. One popular perception of the singer is emoting the saccharine ballad, Hero, pinkie shaking against the microphone, hair voluminously waving against a wind machine. It is a distinct part of her oeuvre. But as early as her second suite, Emotions, MC was resting her immaculate vocalese against tougher street grooves. Rarefied DJs will still to this day tip a wink to Clivelles and Cole's Latin hip hop dub of its breakout hit, Make It Happen. After her split from Mottola, Carey's hip hop instinct rose from bubbling undercurrent to tsunami. As the clothes shed, the beats grew heavier. The delectable Heartbreaker, Fantasy and Loverboy all became block party favourites.

Since being famously bought out of her contract by Virgin records, the ravishing urban variant of the Mariah aspect has been allowed to develop at its own rate. Unsurprisingly, after finding a more natural home at Island/Def Jam. Her new set, E=MC², is its slickest, beefiest incarnation of street Mariah yet. The blowout disco joint That Chick sounds like it could've been dusted off from the West End Records back catalogue in the late '70s. The fresh, multi-layered, contemporary Philly bounce of I'll Be Lovin' You Long Time jumps along as if performed by a singer half her age. The whole set is Mariah on world-beating, market-leading form. The odd ballad moment, Thanx 4 Nothin', still grooves and finds a neat counterbalance a bass heavy reggae lilt to Cruise Control and the brilliant party bangers O.O.C. (Out of Control, naturally enough), Migrate and Heat.

Three different titles had been mooted by Billboard magazine before camp Mariah -- and believe me it is -- settled on audacious Einstein pun for the record. It's the second installment of glistening, modern funk that comprises the rebirth of Ms Carey. "People decided to roll with the wrong title," she says, a little snippily. "I never said it was called 'That Chick'. People were coming up to me and saying 'please don't call it That Chick'. I mean, whatever, even if I did, when I told people I was coming out with an album called The Emancipation of Mimi some people hated it. All this is just" she pauses, to accentuate her feeling vaguely disgusted at the word "opinion. Until something is proven".

The idea of her Emancipation sounded preposterous until it turned out to be precisely that, hiking her career back from the dip of its predecessor, the more 'classic' Mariah of Charmbracelet. Finally the idea of urban Mariah had bedded into the public consciousness, aided by the stopgap brilliance of her Busta Rhymes duet, I Know What You Want. The Emancipation was the Mariah that Mariah wanted to be. "Exactly. And 'Mimi. People were just like 'what-ever!' But the people that know me know what it is. With this one, E=MC² is kind of the same thing. Emancipation equals Mimi times two. It's kinda cool. It doesn't have to mean Emancipation. It could mean anything. Let's see."

The quintessential and oft forgotten disco contingent that love a Mariah remix will clearly take the E to mean Ecstasy. Mariah looks delighted at the prospect. "You know when someone says 'Bingo' when you get the right answer? You got it. Bingo, Yatsi, checkmate. I give you a bingo for that. I love that. It's hot!"

Some time around the release of the second single from her Emancipation, Mariah Carey -- the greatest MC -- cemented her position as the defining female artist of her era again with effortless mid-pace love story, We Belong Together. This pure Grammy fodder once more. The track squeezed lyrical references to Bobby Womack and Babyface, thus traversing some of soul's lengthy history in the space of one couplet and intermittently slipping her voice into its lineage. Another stone could classic under her belt, The Emancipation went on to become her biggest selling album in a decade, spewing out hits, blaring out of hummers, filling airwaves, nightclubs and wedding receptions and putting into metaphorical parentheses her dark years. The preamble to E=MC² sees Mariah at her hottest point yet. Which is exactly as it should be.

Operating in a space outside of irony and reliant only on her immediately identifiable and mostly magnificent gift for singing and telling simple, literal truths through song, Mariah is the modern music industry's own watermark for international success. With a breezy defiance, two weeks after our meet in NYC, she deftly hangs up the phone live on air during a Radio One chart show interview as the DJ attempts to wow at her 80 million plus recorded sales. The subsequent media scrum on this incident attempted to deride that 'diva' status that haunts Mariah as a sometimes inconvenient but nonetheless fabulous shadow. But the fact of the matter remains that the interviewer had been wrongly briefed, to the tune of an extra 80 million sales. Mariah is the singer and mostly the author of 160 million records the world over, making her the most successful female artist of all time. She is allowed and should be encouraged to be proud of that fact and to not accidentally have it halved for public consumption.

Her only real competitor in terms of repeatedly touching a public chord and turning it to commercial gold dust is Madonna, though in terms of simple execution their careers could not be any more starkly opposite. While Madonna's career has been one long, glossily art-directed, gym-honed, buff, superstyled succession of smoke and mirrors, Mariah can repeatedly do the wrong thing and get away with it. Her raw gift is the foundation on which her career has been erected. Even at her lowest ebb, the gift is still discernibly present. Sometimes she's allowed to be a catastrophe. Because she is blessed.

A week after the Radio One incident, the first single from E=MC², an immaculately saucy R&B joint, Touch My Body, pulsing beat echoing Mary J's Real Love with a neat grown up twist, nudged her ahead of Elvis as the performer with the most US Number 1's in chart history by becoming her eighteenth. Though Mariah is 38 and just shy of 20 years into her incredible career, her immediate peers now stretch from the young whippersnappers nipping at her ankles -- let's say Rihanna (Leona is a touch too obvious) -- to the bona fide legends -- let's say Barbra Streisand, if ever (if only) she'd made a record with either Ol' Dirty Bastard and Westlife.

The luxury, platinum groove at the heart of Mariah's success is beyond statistics. Her importance runs deeper than all that. She has become The American Dream. She is rags-to-riches multiplied by a million, the most fundamentally fascinating beacon of the pre-American Idol generation that apes her every vocal tic and performance manoeuvre for inspiration.

You got me feeling emotions... Two little stories Mariah tells in our audience highlight the duality at either end of her lifespan so far. :) :(
Just before her debut single and Number 1 Vision of Love went to US radio, Mariah was driven to the nrighbourhood she grew up in. "By the time I was 12 I had experienced more than people who are freakin' 40... Because of what I'd seen. The world sees somebody on TV and they're like 'we get you' and they want to put you into something because it's easier to think 'OK, she falls into this box. Pop diva.' Whatever. But it makes them a little uneasy that I don't fit into that box. I moved 13 times as a child. I stayed in one place for the longest and I went there once afterwards. Someone I grew up with had passed away when they were 20. They were older than me but not much. I knew that my song was coming out and they would never get to see it. It was my door neighbour." She thinks about for a moment. "That was sad."

Mariah's current New York incarnation could not be further from her humble origins. Why, only the other week she was being courted by the latest in a succession of visionary men in the American music history to be enthralled by her. Let her take the tale...

"I was at a friend's house. I don't wanna talk about her because she is a very prominent person but she's private. She's a private person with a lot of very famous friends. And she just happened to like me as a person. She's cool. So I was at her house and Quincy Jones was there and Chris Tucker was there and a few other people and..." Sounds like a fun party. "She has amazing parties. But whatever. So I'm sitting there and I'm playing this song from the new record just for a few people who were on and Quincy was engaged in another conversation and when he heard this one song he stopped and said 'play it again'. And I am like 'that is Quincy Jones!' He was really breaking he song down for me, musically, and saying why this bit was his favourite and what you did with this bit and I was like 'you definitely know the technical moments'. And I feel like an imbecile there next to him."

Mariah is nothing if not literal. Great swathes of her mass appeal like in her simple truisms. Her habit prior to the vaguely preposterous new album titling motifs was to utilise the language of the teenage girl -- Charmbracelet, Butterfly, Music Box, Glitter, Rainbow, Daydream -- and give each easy symbol a pointed visual interpretation to cement the theme. These little symbols of girlish affectation tie with her confessions of arrested development. She claims to love the job she does because it allows her not to have to grow up. She doesn't want children of her own just yet ('maybe one day'). Perhaps they wouldn't fit into her Mariah timeline.

In the flesh she is as easy to read. There is little in the way of deeply held analytical momentum behind Mariah. As your eyes attune to the light you realise that she's wearing a diamond butterfly. "I bought this for myself and then they ended up kind of giving it to me, the Van Cleef butterfly." It seems rude to ask the price of the gift, or indeed to probe too deeply into its possible significance. "I was never thinking this is going to be my new thing. I'm going to walk round the town with butterflies. No, this is just something that people have said 'oh my God, you are obsessed by butterflies!' It became this thing and it's like it's not that deep.' I'm not part of, like, the magma of life, the lava of life. It's sooo not about that. Magma, wrong word! That'll be my Austin Powers moment. Seriously, it's just like emerging. The whole butterfly moment in my life happened purely by accident. I was writing the song Butterfly and then left a relationship like a butterfly and then I kinda like was as fragile as one for a while and everyone was a little bit concerned when I left that relationship because it was, you know, not your everyday story... so I guess all these things kind of build up and become sort of mythical moments."

In a world of confusing multimedia symbols. In an age of ironic overload and backhanded sales pitches, Mariah is a focused and breathtakingly successful emblem of simplicity. It is its own skill.

She seems unquestionably relaxed, no doubt helped by the top up in the wine glass half way through the interview. Her approach to music, post her Emancipation, is similarly reductionist. "I'm like, 'OK! Jermaine likes it, then I like it," she says, referring to the man who executive produced Mimi and was brought back to the studio for E=MC², Jermaine 'Mr Janet Jackson' Dupri.

"What does it take to create one of these albums?" she says, reverting back to her process. "It depends. Maybe I took longer with the last record. Maybe it was the same amount of time. You know, honestly, when LA Reid gives me a suggestion about working with somebody I listen and I enjoy that. I like making him happy. I like making records that are fun for me."

Mariah has played out her professional life in reverse. Her records get more youthful, her beats hipper, her voice more tangibly sweet and, of course, her clothes tighter and lesser the older the artist gets. E=MC² is a particularly festive record, I comment.

"It's very festive," she beams.

Source: Scans: PinBoard | Jayden | Text: MariahDailyJournal

In Touch, May 19, 2008 issue
Cover Story: Has Mariah Made A Big Mistake?


Star, May 19, 2008 issue
Cover Story: Bride Mariah - What Was She Thinking?


Us, May 19, 2008 issue
Cover Story: Mariah & Nick's Surprise Wedding


Life & Style, May 19, 2008 issue
Cover Story: Suprise! Mariah's Married!


And, additional scans from this week's In Touch, Life & Style, OK!, and People magazines.


And more, from last week's (May 12th) issues of Entertainment Weekly, In Touch, Life & Style, OK! and Us.

Source: MariahDailyJournal | tombstoner79

• According to Hits Daily Double, E=MC², in its 4th week of release, is projected to come in at #4 with sales of 80-85k next week.

• Martha Stewart has offered her congratulations to her friend and Macy's commercial co-star Mariah Carey, for the singer's nuptials to Nick Cannon. "Mariah, I hope you have a very lovely life. You deserve it. You're fabulous!" (Access Hollywood)

• Watch a video of Mariah and Nick Cannon leaving the Waverly Inn in New York City Thursday night from Access Hollywood and Extra TV. Also included in the video, a discussion about 'Stars & No-Name Dudes' on Showbiz Tonight.

Download link and screen captures below.


Download: Mariah & Nick on AccessH, Extra & Showbiz Tonight
• When asked if Mariah would be a great mother, friend Tyler Perry told Us Magazine: "Absolutely! Her baby would be in Gucci, Chanel and diamonds from birth," the director said at Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People in the World party in New York City Thursday. "She is a wonderful, wonderful woman, so I'm just joking around."

• Mariah tops both Overall and Music searches on Yahoo! Buzz.

• Kathy Griffin at her San Diego show last night talked about Mariah's appearance on Oprah. She imitated what she called the diva walk as Mariah walked out on stage. She said, "Oprah is the biggest thing, she doesn't breathe the same air as we do. Sometimes she has people on her show that are almost up to her level, and Mariah is one of them. Oprah can't handle that." She said she loved Mariah Carey, then sang a few lines from 'Bye Bye' but said she didn't like the album.

• People wants to know: "Who is your favorite leading man in a Mariah Carey video?" Vote here.

• In an interview with New York's radio station Z100 on May 1st, Madonna admitted she likes Mariah's "Touch My Body." Watch the video interview here.

• To the right, watch up-and-coming male R&B group, AHMIR, perform a touching rendition to Mariah's "Bye Bye." You can download the song on their MySpace.

• The soap opera "As The World Turns" has been playing E=MC² songs. On Thursday, May 8th episode, they played "I'm That Chick," "For The Record," "I'll Be Lovin' U Long Time," "Last Kiss," and "Cruise Control" during the 'night club' scenes; and on Friday, May 9th, "For The Record" was again played in one of the scenes.

• "Every Day Is Mother's Day: Country Songs for Mom," a CD compilation of beautiful string quartet tributes to a bunch of great artists, includes Mariah's "Hero." More info and hear 30-sec clips here.

Fans' Corner
• Jeramiah and Boudi created some wallpapers to share with everyone!



• The Butterfly Room and MC Media World have merged to make a bigger and better community. Check them out here.

• In celebration of its 1st year anniversary this May, SweetMariah will be posting rare pictures and videos on the site throughout the month. Elise has provided us with a preview of the videos she'll be uploading on the site. Congratulations to Elise and her team!

• Rick from Holland and Manuela from Romania have launched their own respective Mariah fan sites: Rick with MariahCareyWorld; and Manuela with a new Mariah board, Mariah Carey Romania Forum. Check them out!

• Below are photos from the E=MC² Fan Party, organized by Kelly K, at Hamburger Mary in West Hollywood on April 19th.


• Lamby Joe has started working on a new fan book called "Lambs Equation." Fans who want to participate can send a 1-2 page entry with an art work of their "equation." For instance a letter or image equals a nickname, initials or name along with a description of what it means and/or why. Fan letters are also welcomed. For further information, please contact Lamby Joe at LambsIncProject@aol.com.

Source: MariahDailyJournal | Bobby | Kostas | Boudi | Marc | Hairul | Weilun | Poody | Natalia | Curtis | Taylor - CMH Records | Bojan | Paul | Elise | Kelly K | Robert | Rick | LambyJoe | Matthew | Manuela | Ashley

FRANCE
Below are scans from the May 22nd issue of the French magazine, Oops!.



SINGAPORE
HMV Singapore is holding a contest for E=MC². 100 winners with the most creative photos will be chosen. All you have to do is stand next to the store's E=MC² cardboard standee display (see photo on right) and pose like Mariah Carey with your copy of her new album and take a picture of yourself. Email the photo with your details (Name/Contact #/Location of Display) with subject heading "Mariah Carey E=MC² Photo Contest" to umcontest@hotmail.com. Contest ends May 31, 2008. Visit your HMV stores (Heeren/City Link) now!


SERBIA
"Touch My Body" is #1 for 2 consecutive weeks on MTV's Adria Top 20. Click on the link to vote.


SOUTH KOREA
E=MC² is up a spot to #3 on Hanteo's Weekly Pop chart this week. To the right is a picture of an ad for E=MC² at Hong Dae Station (Line 2) in South Korea.

Below are photos from the Universal Music Korea-sponsored MC Family's E=MC² release party held at the Miji Centre, Seoul on April 13th.



TAIWAN
E=MC² drops 2 spots to #3 on the Taiwanese International chart this week.

BULGARIA
"Touch My Body" places at #1, up 8 spots from #9, on Bravo's Top 20 Songs as of May 12, 2008. (see scan on right)


THAILAND
Universal Music Thailand, Lux and Mariah Carey Thailand hosted a release party for E=MC² on April 22nd at the Siam Paragon's Fashion Hall. The photos below show the venue with hanging 6 meter-tall E=MC² banners, seating area for those who got the tickets/invitation cards, auction for autographed Mariah T-shirt and large E=MC² banner, Mariah Carey Thailand Fan Club group photo, 'Diva of the Night' winner, invitation card, and scans of the release party news published in the national daily newspapers, Kom Chud Luk and Post Today.




Below are photos of the E=MC² display at 3 major stores in Bangkok: B2S stores at Central Chidlom Department Store and Central World Plaza; and Gram Music Store at Siam Paragon.



E=MC² has been released in Thailand in 3 editions: Deluxe with iPod skin, Standard with European type CD case, and Special Thai edition, Standard case with special low price. Also included in each CD is a coupon to win the "M by Mariah Carey" perfume lucky draw contest.




ASIA
Mariah (along with Madonna) is MTV Asia's Featured Artist in the month of May.

Read MTV Asia's review of E=MC² here.

Source: MariahDailyJournal | Jack | Weilun | Varun

• DOWNLOAD
Mariah's second single "Bye Bye" is available for digital download at iTunes. Get it now!

• VOTE
Vote for the "Bye Bye" music video and help it make the following countdowns:


• STREAM
Keep on watching the video on Yahoo! Music and AOL Music. Billboard has expanded its Hot 100 formula to include weekly streamed and on-demand music data from these two prominent sources of online music.

• REQUEST
Please request the song at your local radio stations. You may use our request lines page to find your station's contact information.

Source: MariahDailyJournal

Thanks to everyone who participated in our last poll, "Which E=MC² track are you most excited about?" The results were as follows:


A new poll is now up! Located on the right sidebar, our new poll asks: "What do you think should be the 3rd single off Mariah's new album, E=MC2?" Get voting now!

Source: MariahDailyJournal

Below are high-quality photos of Mariah at Time's "100 Most Influential People in the World" gala at Jazz at Lincoln Center on Thursday, May 8, 2008 in New York City.



And out for dinner at Waverly Inn following the Time gala.

Source: MariahDailyJournal

Next Tuesday, May 13th, Mariah Carey will join Ellen to make her first TV appearance since marrying rapper Nick Cannon! Be the first to hear about the wedding, the reception, the honeymoon -- straight from Mariah herself!

The Ellen DeGeneres Show will tape Monday, May 12th to air Tuesday, May 13th.

Source: Ellen | Julio

With just a few friends on hand (and four boxes of Maine lobster), surprise couple Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon tie the knot at a sunset ceremony on the beach in the Bahamas

They hadn't even gone public with their relationship--in fact, they had only recently begun seeing each other--when Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon decided to take the plunge. "We got tattoos!" says Carey. "His is on one shoulder to the other and it says 'Mariah.'" And hers? "It's on my lower back and it says 'Mrs. Cannon,'" she says. Only after that did they ink a marriage license--and pull off the surprise wedding of the year. Carey and singer-actor Cannon first met in 2005 at the Teen Choice Awards but only started dating in late March. Just weeks later, to the shock of a lot of their friends and family, they whisked off to Carey's Bahamian estate and wed in a sunset, ocean-side ceremony April 30. While still on their honeymoon, the giddy newlyweds spoke exclusively to People's Liz McNeil about their whirlwind courtship, Cannon's candy-themed proposal and--yep--having kids.

So, how does it feel to be married?
Mariah: [Laughing] Who wants to go first? You go first.
Nick: It feels amazing. My cheeks hurt from smiling so hard. I've been smiling for days.
Mariah: It's comforting--and something I've never felt before. Which is really being in love and happy with someone who really understands me and isn't trying to do anything but make me happy. It's wonderful.

It happened pretty fast, didn't it?
Nick: In our minds, it was a love-at-first-sight thing. Since we've been together, we've been inseparable.
Mariah: I don't think anyone realized what we already know--that we were going to get married.

When did you first know that?
Nick: I'd always admired Mariah from afar, but once we connected I felt it was destined: This has to be my wife.
Mariah: I definitely knew. Of course, everyone is running the photo from the 2005 Teen Choice Awards...
Nick: From then on, I thought, "I have to get closer to her and express my true feelings." I was praying I