Mariah Carey was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame on Thursday, and during her induction speech, she reminded some folks about her resume! The five-time Grammy winner spoke about the adverse road she traveled to get to success, while congratulating the other inductees including Jody Gerson, The Isley Brothers, The Neptunes and Rick Nowels.
Congratulations to my fellow inductees. I remember I inducted Jermaine Dupri like, I don’t know, before COVID-19, like three years ago. And I was like ‘Jermaine, you know what, I’m really pissed at you that you were getting inducted before me,’ like that’s a whole other story. Hopefully someone will post that clip. JD, I’m not mad at you.”
At one point in her speech Carey reflected on her “dysfunctional childhood,” and learning to write songs despite the bumpy road. Mariah Carey is one of the most recognized singers of all time with 18 songs topping the Billboard Hot 100 chart and many more accolades. Mariah released her debut album, Mariah Carey, at the age of 20. Despite all of that success, Carey said she’s had to work twice as hard to ensure her other talents are acknowledged.
I constantly have to remind people I’m a songwriter. It’s become a joke to the point where… Because they’re all onto the diva thing, it’s like ‘Oh my gosh, she’s a diva, wow, a diva.’ Whatever.”
Mariah Carey is now one of 33 women to be inducted into the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame, an honor she admittedly didn’t know existed growing up. Before understanding a songwriter’s role in the industry, Carey says she always “just assumed the person that you’re listening to on the radio was the one who wrote the song.” She referred to songwriters as the “unsung heroes” of music.
Out of the 439 total inductees into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, only 32 have been women up until this moment. Now it’s 33. As my father once told me, ‘You did good, kid.'”
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