Happy 20th Anniversary to Mariah Carey’s eighth studio album (and soundtrack of the film) Glitter, originally released September 11, 2001.
When I told people recently that I was writing about Mariah Carey’s 2001 soundtrack album Glitter, I got the same response: laughter.
I can assure you none of them could name a song off of the album, but to the general public who don’t consider themselves “Lambs” or part of the “Lambily” (as Carey fans call themselves), Glitter can elicit this kind of reaction. With a story that loosely resembles Carey’s own rise to fame, the film is up there with Showgirls in terms of perceived artistic and commercial failures on a grand scale. It’s also an example of how poorly celebrity women are treated whenever they step outside the lines to try something big and bold that doesn’t fully connect with the public.
For years, Carey pretty much politely ignored the album, the movie and her storied emotional and physical collapse that occurred in the middle of promoting both projects in the summer of 2001. Songs from the album didn’t appear in her live performances until around 2016. She kept the album off of streaming services until mid-2020. And if, like me, you own the deluxe CD version of her 2009 album Memoirs Of An Imperfect Angel, you’ll notice that inside the mini Elle magazine included with the CDs Carey revisits all of her albums up to that point except Glitter.
Basically, the album and movie were gum on her Louboutin heels for years due to the overwhelming media narrative that both were colossal “failures” due to less than expected box office receipts and album sales figures. It was the first dent in her crown after essentially owning pop music in the ‘90s with fifteen number one hits on the US Billboard Hot 100 (fourteen of which she wrote or co-wrote TYVM!) and over 100 million albums sold around the globe.
But back to the elicited laughter from the mere mention of the Glitter album. The 12-song collection has always been overshadowed by the movie and its paltry box office numbers after it debuted in late September 2001 at #11 (especially when it was the only new movie released that weekend). It fell behind movies that were already in theaters for weeks, like "American Pie 2,” "Rush Hour 2,” and Nicole Kidman’s “The Others.”
I don’t remember any of those films, but I sure do remember Glitter. I saw it in a theater on 23rd Street in New York City’s Chelsea neighborhood on its opening weekend. This was a couple weeks after the 9/11 attacks and many of us in New York were just looking for a lighthearted escape. We were still dealing with the aftermath of the attacks: the smoke, the burning rubber and metal smell, and a heavy sense of mourning that didn’t lift for a long time—especially for those like myself who saw terrible things that day.
So, I went to see Glitter because I needed an emotional lift. I was (and still am) a Mariah Carey fan and I wanted to see her on the big screen in her first starring movie role. I didn’t think the movie was terrible, but I also didn’t think the filmmakers and producers protected Carey on screen as an actress at all.
As a TV and Film editor myself, watching the movie again recently, I was shocked at how wildly disconnected the film is. I was also surprised at how Carey’s character “Billie,” a background vocalist with aspirations of pop music stardom, wanders throughout the film with perpetually slumped shoulders and is reduced to almost a supporting player compared to the storyline given to her co-star Max Beesley who played Billie’s love interest, “Dice.”
Reviews for the film were brutal. USA Today referred to it as a “dim bulb of a movie.” The New York Times described it as “an unintentionally hilarious compendium of time-tested cinematic cliches.” The Wall Street Journal said it was “too dopey to deserve scorn.” Other reviews attacked Carey personally; none of which deserve repeating here. All smacked of the same subtext: How dare she try to become an actress.
According to Carey in her recent memoir The Meaning of Mariah Carey, her original ideas for the story and “Billie” character were chipped away by studio notes from Columbia Pictures—a sister company to Sony Music / Columbia Records where Carey’s ex-husband Tommy Mottola was the CEO—and hampered by Mottola himself whom she believed was out to “sabotage” the project. “The initial concepts I developed for the story were almost entirely rewritten,” Carey wrote. “Nothing could be too real, too edgy, too sexy, or too down-to-earth. There was a much grittier script to be had...but we ended up with something very bubblegum.”
Even her choice of Terrence Howard as her romantic lead was, according to Carey, vetoed by studio execs because Howard is Black. As she told Questlove in a rowdy three-hour podcast interview back in January (where she revealed a WICKED Aretha Franklin impression), “What happened was…they very much whitewashed it, quite literally.”
But while she may have lost control of keeping the story in the film the way she originally envisioned, Carey had complete creative ownership over the sonic creation of its soundtrack. After divorcing Mottola and leaving Sony Music, she signed a huge deal with Virgin Records (home to Janet Jackson and Lenny Kravitz at the time), which was a massive personal and professional declaration of independence.
Adding Carey to their roster was also a big accomplishment for Virgin, whose parent company, British music conglomerate EMI Group, had lost market share, was the subject of takeover rumors, and was looking to merge with another media conglomerate. So, adding a marquee talent like Carey to their roster would hike up the price if EMI ended up being bought by someone else.
The multi-album deal was estimated in the press to be around $80 million plus a $20 million signing advance. According to the Los Angeles Times, it gave Carey complete artistic freedom on her albums for Virgin and also included a $7 million payment to Carey to reimburse her for having to buy out the last remaining album on her Sony contract, which was the Glitter soundtrack.
As part of the deal, Sony (and by association, Mottola) would distribute the Glitter album in Japan where Carey had a huge fanbase. So, even though she had left Columbia Records, it was not a clean break from her ex-husband whom Carey felt was trying to make her next career chapter extremely difficult as a result of Carey breaking up their marriage.
Carey also needed this deal. As she recalled in her memoir about the Virgin pairing, “I sealed the deal on my freedom.”
But as Einstein once said, “Freedom, in any case, is only possible by constantly struggling for it." And, for Carey, the movie and accompanying soundtrack sparked a dangerous personal and professional struggle. Summing up the Glitter experience in a 2018 interview, Carey told WBLS on-air radio personality Shaila Scott, “it almost ruined my life.”
What’s actually inside the soundtrack always seems to be an afterthought in the Glitter conversation. Most of the focus is put on the album’s sales figures and sluggish chart performance. After its unfortunate release date of September 11, 2001, Glitter debuted at #7, didn’t hit #1 like many of her previous albums, and didn’t sell as well as her other albums in the past.
Instead of those stats, the focus should actually rest on Carey’s continued desire to marry pop, R&B, and hip-hop genres for the masses with this album. She had done it on her previous projects, 1997’s Butterfly and 1999’s Rainbow, successfully releasing herself from adult contemporary prison and expanding her reach into more youthful lanes of R&B, rap and hip-hop.
As a soundtrack for a film set in 1982 (although by final cut much of that time stamp was removed), Carey wanted to evoke the early Eighties vibe in New York City when post-disco funk, R&B and hip-hop were bubbling up on radio stations like WBLS or KISS FM—stations Carey listened to growing up. So, she enlisted hitmakers of that era, Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, to executive produce the album with her.
But Carey also wanted to weave in the sound and talent of current hip-hop and rap that was bumping on pop and R&B radio stations as well as music television shows like MTV’s TRL and BET’s 106 & Park. So, she invited artists like Ludacris, Mystikal, Da Brat, Busta Rhymes, Nate Dogg, Ja Rule and bubbling-under rap talent like Shawnna and Fabolous who had yet to release their debut albums.
These personalities and their undeniable talent gave the Glitter album a rowdier edge and more grit than previously heard on Carey’s past studio projects. It was an interesting melding of different eras and music styles. It’s clear Carey wanted to have a good time making the album, and in the uptempo tracks it totally shows.
Her remake of the early Eighties club classic “Last Night a DJ Saved My Life”, produced by DJ Clue and Duro, updates the post-disco track with harder bass (by Randy Jackson), full throated hype adlibs from Busta Rhymes, sleek raps from Fabolous, and Carey (aka “Wilma M. Holla” on the track) taking on the original “Last Night” songwriter Michael Cleveland’s rap verse. It’s the longest song on the album, and worth every beat.
On “Don’t Stop (Funkin’ 4 Jamaica),” which incorporates Jazz trumpeter Tom Browne’s 1981 R&B hit “Funkin For Jamaica (N.Y.)”, rapper Mystikal takes pole position with three verses while Carey softly glides around the hook until she gets to the bridge and blows the roof off the song.
And her cover of “I Didn’t Mean to Turn You On” stays close to the original that was written and produced by Jam & Lewis in 1984 for R&B singer Cherrelle. Songs like this with their tongue firmly planted in cheek are meant for Carey to cover. You can hear the constant wink in her eye.
The standout track on Glitter is definitely “All My Life,” which was written specifically for the album by Rick James. Out of all the uptempo songs on Glitter, Carey feels most at home here in the land of Teena Marie and Mary Jane Girls.
As the story goes, Carey called James and asked him to write a song for the album that had a Mary Jane Girls vibe like he did with their classics “My House” and “All Night Long” in the mid-Eighties. “I said, yes Mariah doesn’t every mother f*ckin b*tch in the world? Hello! We all want that,” James recalled in a 2001 interview, adding “I wrote that in like five minutes in the studio.”
Produced by Carey and James, it’s effortlessly funky while Carey delivers an understated sexuality even when singing a line like “You and only you / Can do the freaky things you do.” Out of her entire canon, “All My Life” is definitely a top-tier deep cut.
These throwback songs are a love letter to the music that moved her when she was younger. Music that partly formed her taste, music that inspired her—and, if you read her memoir, music that probably saved her while living in a chaotic household and growing up in a world that didn’t know how to define her.
The ballads on Glitter are clear-eyed and exceptional. “Lead The Way” (co-written and co-produced with longtime collaborator Walter Afanasieff) has one of the most epic final notes of any ballad Carey has recorded. It’s almost twenty seconds long and Carey takes it for a thrill ride (trill ride?) over hills and around tight curves. No wonder why it’s the second song on the album. Carey knew she stuck the landing on that one and put it right up front for everyone to hear.
“Reflections (Care Enough),” also co-written by Carey, places her in the shoes of an abandoned little girl (it’s kind of a “Billie’s Theme” in the movie), “Never Too Far” (featured prominently in the film’s penultimate scene) is a classic Carey requiem full of big emotion, and even the gentle and mournful “Twister” (also co-written by Carey)—a tribute to Carey’s former stylist who ended her life in 2000—stuns in its simplicity.
And then there’s the behind-the-scenes-drama-filled, bouncy-as-hell lead single “Loverboy.” It’s a sex positive pop/R&B excursion built around a sample from funk band Cameo’s hit “Candy,” which was a #1 R&B song in 1987 and a favorite of Carey’s from her teenage years.
“Loverboy” is basically about finally finding someone who knows how to throw down in bed with lyrics that match the hedonistic vibe of the early Eighties in New York City where the Glitter film takes place ("Loverboy / Come on and love me / Give me more / Touch me and touch me / I enjoy the way you rock me / All night long").
Of course, given Carey’s deep knowledge of music from the Eighties, when she got Cameo’s Larry Blackmon and Thomas Jenkins in the studio to record their “Candy” chorus for the track, she didn’t want the lyrics from the song’s radio version. Instead, she asked them to recreate the hook from their remix version, “I felt like a little kid again," Carey told MTV News in 2001 about the recording session, “it's like reliving a childhood moment."
Originally, “Loverboy” was built around a sample of “Firecracker” (a 1978 cover of an obscure 1959 exotica song) by Japanese electronic music band Yellow Magic Orchestra, who played on Soul Train in 1980 and were popular in certain corners of New York’s emerging hip-hop community. But once Carey found out the sample would appear on Jennifer Lopez’s second album for Epic Records, J.LO (thanks to Mottola who was keeping an eye on the tracks Carey was creating for Glitter), she and producer Clark Kent scrapped their original version.
Carey also remixed “Loverboy” by adding rappers Da Brat, Ludacris, Shawnna and Twenty II to the track, filling it out with street cred and tight rhymes about good sex. It features one of my favorite Da Brat lyrics ever ("Banana split my dairy queen / Butterfinger my tangerines / Chickens only taste my Loverboy in they dreams.") I pull this remix up ALL THE TIME.
When “Loverboy” was released to radio in June 2001 (the remix went to R&B stations, the album cut to pop stations), response was tepid. According to trade publications at the time, pop radio programmers were more comfortable with Carey’s ballads and “ambivalent” about her hip-hop-leaning musical direction, which is odd because there are no rappers in the version that was sent to pop radio. But it does give a glimpse into how much pushback Carey received at radio for daring to break out of the adult contemporary genre.
The David LaChapelle-directed music video for “Loverboy,” mostly shot on a racetrack in the California desert with Carey bouncing around in a racing suit, shorts and a tank top, didn’t fare much better upon release. The Guardian called it “wacky” and Vibe went the extra step to swipe Carey personally by describing her persona in the video as a “brainless bimbo” who was “too fleshy for her skimpy outfits.”
The video struggled to stay higher up on playlists at MTV, BET and Canada’s Much Music, which was a problem for Carey who, in the past few years, was competing against younger artists like Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera that were making maximalist pop hits, and upstart R&B vocalists like Alicia Keys whose balladry was nipping at Carey’s heels with her debut album Songs In A Minor. It was also a mushrooming problem at Virgin Records who had sunk a lot of money into securing Carey and her Glitter project.
In my view, the reason why “Loverboy” didn’t catch fire on pop radio is because it was out of step with what big tent pop music had been doing in the past few years, which was to beat you over the head with BIG POP HOOKS. Acts like Spears, *NSYNC and Backstreet Boys had success with songs crafted by Swedish songwriters and producers whose main goal in songwriting was “don’t bore the audience.”
At the time of the “Loverboy” release to radio, Janet Jackson had just scored a #1 hit with the instantly memorable “All For You,” Destiny’s Child were defiant and declarative on “Survivor,” and P!nk, Christina Aguilera, Mya and Lil’ Kim cranked their bombastic remake of LaBelle’s soulful 1975 R&B hit “Lady Marmalade” up to 11—sending the unlikely foursome to the top of the Hot 100 (lyrical subtlety be damned!).
Carey’s “Loverboy,” though, is a song that doesn’t really progress in the way the biggest pop hits at the turn of the century kept their foot on the accelerator. It also featured a thick and stabby bass line, electric guitar accents and a slightly cloudy vocal hook. Don’t get me wrong, I love “Loverboy” (especially the remix), but it lacked the in-your-face energy that mainstream pop was delivering at the time.
The original “Firecracker” version (which Carey finally released on her Rarities album in 2020) would have definitely been a bigger hit. The Cameo version is harder, darker and a bit slower. When I hear the OG “Firecracker” version, I really feel for what Carey and producer Clark Kent must have gone through to strip out the backbone of “Firecracker” and try to incorporate the Cameo track into “Loverboy.” The OG version is brighter, bouncier and just more fun.
With the lead single from her “freedom” album languishing at radio and hovering in the middle section of Billboard’s Hot 100 (it debuted at #79), Carey decided to take matters into her own hands, “It didn't seem like the label had a strong promotional strategy, and I didn’t have a coordinated management team in place yet,” Carey recalled in her book, “I didn’t see anyone around me taking control of what was becoming the ‘single situation.’”
So, she planned a “surprise” appearance on MTV’s TRL show (i.e., obviously coordinated with MTV production, the MTV Talent department, legal, security, etc.) to drum up excitement for the song and hopefully get it up to #1.
The rest is history. Surely, you’ve heard of the “ice cream truck” visit where Carson Daly, having a real “frat boy” moment in front of millions of viewers, asked the crew to turn up the A/C after she removed her t-shirt and revealed a tight tank top. He later remarked to everyone at home, ''Ladies and gentlemen, Mariah Carey has lost her mind.''
Eventually, “Loverboy” hit the #2 spot (jumping from #60 the week before) on the Hot 100 chart in the US after the CD single was discounted to 49 cents in record stores. Trade publications at the time threw shade on that pricing move, claiming Carey grabbed the runner-up spot “only because” Virgin discounted the price of the single…as if other acts never did that (it’s 2001 so I’m paging Destiny’s Child, Jennifer Lopez and Ricky Martin for starters.)
While trying to knock Carey for a completely normal industry pricing practice, the industry trades forgot to take into account that customers actually had to want to buy the song, then drag their ass to a record store, line up at a cash register and spend their own money on it (Gen Z, I know I know I know it’s CRAZY!). The week “Loverboy” hit #2, it sold over 180,000 copies. So, obviously the customer is always right.
Eventually, the grueling work schedule Carey had been under for months promoting the movie, finishing the album, drumming up interest in a lead single that was not connecting well with listeners and critics, dealing with the stress of Mottola and Columbia Records pulling some Glitter promotional items out of record stores (according to Carey in her memoir), non-stop interviews, plus the fallout from her TRL appearance (did I mention she also shot a second film with Mira Sorvino around the time?)...it all became too much for the already insomniatic perfectionist who ended up hospitalized under, at the time, hazy circumstances. All of her public appearances were canceled, and the film and soundtrack were pushed back to accommodate Carey’s needs.
A few weeks later she did make one under-the-radar appearance at the Fresh Air Fund’s “Camp Mariah” in Fishkill, NY—a program for disadvantaged youngsters from the New York City area that Carey had been supporting for years. According to USA Today, while visiting with the kids, Carey signed autographs and handed out portable CD players that had her “Loverboy” CD inside, which is HILARIOUS when I think of those kids going home to blast lyrics like “I got myself a lover / Who knows what I like / When he invites me over / I come every time.” Keep promoting that single, Mimi!
The album’s release on September 11, 2001 may have had something to do with its soft sales of only 116,000 in its debut week. Napster use may have bit into this as well. And possibly because reviews for the album were mixed. People applauded her take on “Didn’t Mean To Turn You On” and called the album “bright spotty.” New York Daily News labeled it a “noisy declaration of independence.” Billboard called it a “minor misstep in a stellar career that has earned the singer a few free passes.” And, let’s be honest, at this point in her career, after Carey absolutely over-achieved throughout the ‘90s, this was an astute observation.
What critics kept complaining about, though, was the number of rappers Carey enlisted for the album, with many writers deriding the amount of real estate they took up within certain songs on the soundtrack. I mean, HELLO did they even listen to Butterfly or Rainbow? Those albums were thankfully packed with rap and R&B artist features. Billboard peculiarly noted Carey’s continued “fascination” with hip-hop—as if she’s gazing upon a set of Faberge’ eggs that she’s not allowed to touch but really wants to.
Of particular ire to some critics were her versions of “Don’t Stop (Funkin’ 4 Jamaica)” featuring rapper Mystikal and “Last Night A DJ Saved My Life” featuring Busta Rhymes, DJ Clue and Fabolous because they felt she was overrun by these rap features.
But did these writers ever think about why she made these songs this way? From my viewpoint, including current rap and hip-hop artists into this project was another love letter from Carey to a Black artform that she respected and identified with so much.
So, giving Mystikal not one, but THREE grizzled verses in “Don’t Stop (Funkin’ 4 Jamaica),” getting Busta Rhymes hyped up ALL OVER “Last Night a DJ Saved My Life” as Carey sits back a bit, and choosing to open the album with the rap-infused “Loverboy” remix, Glitter fully delivered on what Mariah first wanted to do in 1995 when she added O.D.B. to the Bad Boy Remix of “Fantasy” —share the spotlight with rap, hip-hop and R&B artists and give them mainstream marquee moments she already had, but felt they also deserved.
In the months surrounding the release of the Glitter album and movie, Carey became a national punchline due to disappointing box office numbers, slow album sales, and relentless armchair analysis in the media about her mental health. And the jokes would not stop. Usher told US magazine "I'm having a Mariah Carey” when he was asked about his stress level. Brad Pitt told Vanity Fair that he “thought about pulling a ‘Mariah Carey’” after a rough year in the movie industry. On the first Saturday Night Live after the 9/11 attacks, “Weekend Update” joked about the CIA hunting for Osama Bin Laden in theaters where Glitter was showing since there would be so few people in there.
Even during “The Concert for New York City,” a September 11th benefit concert, actor Billy Crystal suggested the country needed to gather together as one by agreeing on one thing, “we can never, ever again let Mariah Carey make another movie.”
At this point, Carey was exposed and badly bruised. Mental health topics were such huge tabloid fodder back then. It’s totally different now where stars like Demi Lovato, Lady Gaga and Selena Gomez can be upfront about their mental health challenges. There’s acceptance and a support system for them now. Back then it was a much different story and I can only imagine how alone Carey must have felt through it all.
She could have retreated from the limelight and licked her wounds, but instead she got back out there in front of cameras and kept promoting the album on telethons, award shows, 9/11 television specials, industry events, and a Christmas trip to Kosovo to perform for US troops. She even landed a guest starring role on the Ally McBeal television show where she sang “Lead The Way.” Keep promoting that album, Mimi!
Through the years, Glitter shadowed Carey even when she was back on top. In 2008, as Carey celebrated her 18th #1 song in the US with “Touch My Body,” the website Jezebel ran an article about the Glitter era with a clickbait headline, “REMEMBER WHEN MARIAH CAREY WENT CRAZY?” and ended with a vile kicker, “We're glad she's feeling a lot better and is back on top, but we kinda thought she was equally entertaining while hitting rock bottom.”
After the fan-fueled #JusticeForGlitter social media campaign in 2018 pushed the Glitter album into the #1 spot on iTunes, Carey finally released the locks and let Glitter back out of the box she hid it in for more than fifteen years. She’s public and proud about the album again. She should be. I think Butterfly (which is one of my favorite albums of all time) and Glitter are the two Mariah Carey albums that are most organically aligned with who Carey is as an artist and a music lover.
I was one of those fans who bought the album on iTunes in 2018, and I already own it on CD and a rare DJ promo double vinyl album copy—both from 2001. Why did I buy it on iTunes then? Because I hated the way Carey was treated in 2001. She was piled on and absolutely deserved better. All she was doing was trying new things, taking control of her own destiny, and being authentic about the music that inspires her the most.
By the way, I just checked the music section on Carey’s website. Out of her lengthy list of albums, it’s Glitter that’s featured on the page. Carey is now the one who gets the last laugh.
LISTEN: