“I thought, ‘OK, I’m writing a poem'”: Mariah Carey Was Clueless About Her Songwriting Genius as a Kid Only to Realize One Shocking Truth About the Music Industry Later
Mariah Carey is one of the best-selling musicians, and having 19 No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 chart as a soloist is a feat that certainly solidifies her position in the industry. She is widely known for her vocal range and signature use of the whistle register.
Carey is also popular for merging pop and hip-hop singing styles and breaking down racial barriers in pop culture. Considering all that she has achieved, one would think that she knew exactly what she wanted to do even as a kid, but she recently revealed that it was not like that.
Mariah Carey Took Time To Realize That She Is a Songwriter
Mariah Carey had singing in her genes if her mother Patricia Carey’s profession as a former opera singer and vocal coach is anything to go by. While Carey’s mother helped the singer achieve her dreams, she never pushed her daughter to make her singing opera-like.
The release of her self-titled debut album in 1999 helped the All I Want for Christmas Is You singer achieve fame. Since Carey did not do a world tour to promote the album, speculation arose that she is one of those artists who can only perform well in the studio. The songstress proved everyone wrong by appearing on an episode of MTV Unplugged. That was probably the last time anyone ever doubted her abilities.
That being said, Carey was not always aware of her songwriting ability. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, she opened up about the first time she wrote lyrics.
I don’t know that I knew that they were lyrics when I was writing them. I thought, ‘OK, I’m writing a poem, I’m writing a story.’ And then I would hum around the house, and that sort of led me to know that I wanted to write my songs.
Sharing this personal experience with the world must be big for Carey. She also revealed another realization she had later on in her life.
Mariah Carey Learned This Thing About the Music Industry Later
As kids, everyone presumes certain things which turn out to be mere myths when they are older. Carey was no exception as she believed that all singers wrote their own songs, just like many kids assume that actors actually sing the songs in their movies.
In the interview mentioned above, Carey also got candid about how all singers not writing their own songs was a revelation for her.
As I grew up a little bit more, I realized, ‘Oh, all artists don’t write their own songs,’ because I never knew that. As far as I was concerned, everybody wrote their songs. But that wasn’t the situation.
The Fantasy singer further said that she was probably in middle school when she realized that she wanted to pursue songwriting as a career and explore music-making.
