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About Nikki from usa:

Possible blessing in disguise (72,531) by Nikki from usa Mariah originally said the SSFT was because she wasn't sure when she was going to tour again, yet the first thing this year was announcing opening for Lionel. I don't know who's idea this was, but it might be a good one. That's a lot of arenas to win some fans back if she can prove she's still got the goods. Since this is Richie's tour Mariah will get to see a pro at work and how things run under his control and that may give her a real comparison to how different it is under her own. That may be what she needs to move Stella to the friend with tv producing skills and find a professional with music experience to handle her own management. (Sunday 12 February 2017; 7:10)

How much crack? (72,459) by Nikki from usa Is Page Six smoking? They're doing entire arenas and the first concert on the tour doesn't start for nearly another 5 weeks. The prices seem to start at $20-40 bucks and go all the way up to $1,900 near the stage. I hardly think a discounted pre-sale lasting through Valentine's Day which is still a month away from the very first concert is exactly doing badly or "not selling". This tour is jam packed with a lot of back to back concerts the next day apart despite being in different states. That's a lot of touring and jet lag on top of singing concerts back to back. However, there are quite a few that are up to 3-5 days apart too. It'll be interesting to see how Mariah fares with this. It could have a Charmbracelet tour effect and really help her tune up her vocal or it'll have the opposite effect by making her hoarse, raspy, and possibly injure her instrument. She won't be able to even attempt 24 hours of vocal rest in between performances. I'm kind of hoping Roc n' Roe won't be tagging a long or there's no way Mariah's going to be able to keep up vocally with this schedule. I have a hard time believing Lionel would let her lip an entire opening act for one of his shows. (Friday 10 February 2017; 9:49)

The opinion conundrum (singing) - what would you do? (72,404) by Nikki from usa 1. If you were a singer and you had a jam packed schedule for promo with only an hour or two to spare, but you heard fans at radio stations were begging you to come visit them while you were in town. If you go, there's a good chance you'll be late to your other promo and get trashed for being tardy once again. If you don't go the papers will trash you by claiming you don't care about your fans and the radio stations assume you dissed them. What would you do? 2. You are a professional singer who really wants to prove themselves, but you overestimated your recuperation time. You had 5 great live performances so far, but the last one you were a bit hoarse. The sound of your voice was different than usual and you had trouble hitting some of your notes due to all the belting 2 days beforehand. Gossip is swirling that maybe you can't really sing and everything has been a hoax or lip sync after all. You have a medium sized event coming up that will be televised. Unfortunately, after you fully recovered, your label made you come in to put more impressive vocals on a song you just cut and re-sing the whole thing. Now, your voice is in worse shape than before and the event is tonight. What would you do? Sing live and be ostracized or lip it while people continue to speculate about your ability? 3. If you only had 2 options: sing 1 concert completely live that's syndicated worldwide once a year and lip-sync 40 mini concerts every year or lip-sync 1 worldwide syndicated concert every year and sing 40 mini concerts live. What would you do? 4. Add on - The worldwide concert isn't paid, but the 40 mini concerts are. Now, what? 5. Is it more important for the fans to believe you can sing or the world? (Thursday 9 February 2017; 4:28)

Wow Nick (72,403) by Nikki from usa I can recall twice where Nick said "you never know, there could be a reconciliation" 2 months after their divorce began and once again last year. That's a lot of double talk. However, I do agree with him about Tanaka. I never thought he and Mariah were a couple. Mariah's stiff as a board around him and he's not treated as a significant other. I've never seen a man of Mariah's walk behind her or see Mariah not beam when talking about him. The way she talks about Tanaka isn't romantic. "He has many nice qualities"? Hot. Steamy. I thought she might have a candid moment and we'd get her side of the story, instead we got a fairy tale drama. A bad one. But, like I said before, maybe she legally couldn't discuss it and a made up story is all that could be provided. The way Mariah discussed this docu-series sounded like a behind the scenes of putting on a tour and live performances as if this would be all about the tour. We got very little of that. I think maybe it started out that way, but then Mariah focused more on her impending nuptials instead. When the breakup happened she wasn't left with enough footage to do the original concept. That hurt may have still been a bit too fresh and he clearly made demands about getting cut out of the show. That may not have left a lot of options open. I don't know why Mariah would want to be portrayed as a cheater and if this was thought through I don't think she would've gone through this direction. (Thursday 9 February 2017; 3:53)

Subway and a tuna sandwich? (72,355) by Nikki from usa How out of touch is Showbiz411? 6 million views on Vevo puts Mariah's video in the 10G per month range. Spotify is free and she wouldn't make any money from those streams anyway, so I don't understand the point. It would help her on the charts, but that's about it. I Don't is a cute little ditty, but not much else. I wish MC would find her own creative muse and outlets instead of listening to Stella. Pay attention to your bank account Mariah. (Wednesday 8 February 2017; 5:11)

Re: question about charts/random songs (72,202) by Nikki from usa AIWFCIY did better this year on the charts than last year according to stats, but I have to agree with you. Last year I heard it all the time, this year I only heard it on radio once. What surprised me even more is last year it went up so high on views, but this year was less than half compared to last. How tough the competition is changes from year to year. Mariah will need a lot of Vevo views, streaming from Spotify, radio play, and sales to have a hit. Quite frankly, all I think Mariah needs to do is get passionate about something. Her music does best when it comes from the heart rather than from hype. Less frosting and more cake. Mariah is singing at the Jazz Festival in Dubai toward the middle of this month. Dubai is getting really excited and Mariah called in to a local radio station last week for an interview. They went nuts. That's why her music is taking a leap over there. (Sunday 5 February 2017; 6:32)

Mariah did a live interview on Facebook (72,023) by Nikki from usa It went viral within 1 hour. I had no idea there was a Lego Batman movie coming out, that MC is attending the premiere this weekend, or that she's playing the Mayor in it. Some good info in this interview. She prefers Slipping Away to Do You Think Of Me? Mariah wrote Alone in Love when she was 15. She's not making an album now. She's focusing on releasing singles and once there's enough singles she'll release an album. I guess that's one way to ensure a hit LP. Release a bunch of different songs until you find a sound the public meshes with and once you have enough, flesh out an album in that vain. MC said she's already working with a talented artist for a new song and all we know is this artist is a "him". She's cut another track with Roc n' Roe in it. "I Don't" is already in the top 5 in Asia. Although, I don't know what that means. (Friday 3 February 2017; 5:31)

Re: Ribbon (71,943) by Nikki from usa Mariah did fire Cindi. In fact, many of us on the board had been complaining about the fact Cindi was never releasing statements for Mariah or handling her in any way. Mariah had switched publicists 3 months before Cindi contacted Page 6. Mariah's full letter was published and it was very sweet. She applauded Berger's career and it was filled with thanks for her work up until that point, but stated she wanted to go a different direction. She wanted to honor her for her accomplishments as "woman of the year" and come up with a joint statement for the press. The sheer fact a publicist contacted a major gossip column to say they dumped an artist looks like saving face. You also seem to have a hard time distinguishing between what Mariah's official camp says and taking gossip columns "sources" as Mariah's word. I wouldn't take any James vs. Mariah's thing too seriously. It would appear they have contracts about being able to talk about it which would explain the current situation. She might have to aim for ridiculous if truly talking about it isn't on the table. There was something fishy about NYE. TMZ had a clip proving the album cut of Emotions was supposed to be played, but that's not the version DCP did live. Even boards for soundtechs were abuzz after that. They said it was bizarre that nobody jumped on stage to check her equipment, especially for a performance that long. DCP has had trouble keeping top talent for their show after Dick died, after all, why did they call Mariah to headline? However, even if MC has a right to be ticked, nailing them to the wall wouldn't be in her best interest. They're powerful and are in touch with a lot of other musically inclined shows. Stella should've gone with a joint statement. (Thursday 2 February 2017; 7:48)

Re: Tommy Mottola (71,941) by Nikki from usa I don't think the guy who tried to sabotage her entire career should be given any free pass. I also don't see how gloating in his own book how he isolated her and instructed their house staff not to look her in the eye or speak to her - being treated like a ghost in her own home - before "apologizing" for being controlling "because I knew she had so much talent" really suffices as an apology. He doesn't even act like his actions in the Glitter debacle ever happened. Mariah never went into full details, she stuck with buzz words. What sticks out to me is what producers and Da Brat stated before she and Mottola split. A couple of producers mentioned it was hard to work because he would call every other hour to see how things were going and constantly reminding them they had to be done by 7pm because a car would be there to take her home for dinner. Da Brat didn't understand why Mariah kept whispering and Mariah told her it was because she didn't want the audio from the cameras around the house to pick up their talk. You can actually see some of those cameras in the remix video for Always Be My Baby. (Thursday 2 February 2017; 7:28)

Natural progression (71,819) by Nikki from usa I think Mariah's very honest about how she's feeling at any given time. But, I don't think people pay attention. Mariah likes to call the shots in certain things, but not everything. From watching her have JD pick out her first singles and unable to make a decision on her own to the fact that Nick had say in money making decisions when it was only her money while they were together and tried to continue to do so after they split to asking Nick's and Prince's opinion before joining American Idol after making it clear she really didn't want to do it, I don't think Mariah's ever been fully committed to the drivers seat. MC repeatedly said Nick was never home and how lonely she felt. Nick kept saying the reason why was because he needed to "be a man" and "make his own money". So, it makes sense for her to be with Packer. He has his own money and career. He should have time to be a family and a steady patriarchal figure like Mariah never consistently had. Except, Packer never made his wealth. He inherited it and spends all of his time trying to keep it. He encourages Mariah to do impromptu concerts and tries to use tickets to sway political figures. He drags her along to business meetings and uses her star power to help close huge deals. Mariah finds herself only spending vacation time with him before he proposes and tries to rush her to the alter. It also appears he dumped the wedding planning on Mariah much of the same way Mottola did. That deja vu must've been eye opening. Packer's divorce still isn't finalized yet, he dated a women for less than a year before proposing, and tried to rush her to the alter even though it wouldn't be legal. That's not normal. Mariah has a habit of marrying men who take advantage of her. Maybe it's easier for her to live in a fantasy than face the reality. (Monday 30 January 2017; 21:45)

Andrew (71,257) by Nikki from usa Two things that are wrong. 1. Mariah sang We Belong Together live at the Blueprint Special 2005. The whole special was live so slow your roll. She also sang it live on the MTV Music Awards. As much as most think it must be lipped because its so good, the audience, Mariah, and her crew tell a different story. Since no one can prove otherwise, claiming she lipped it is simply an opinion and not a fact. 2. Mariah was supposed to sing a remix as opposed to the original version of "Boy". They had some equipment failure on their end so she had to lip the regular version on the spot instead of what she actually rehearsed. The Boy version they had was the extended version with a high note at the end which was not on the original edit. She had talked about this in interview at the time. (Saturday 14 January 2017; 18:57)

Re: The one (71,255) by Nikki from usa I know why. I thought it was the dumbest reason ever too. It's because everyone and their brother released a song with the same name. Shakira had a song called The One that was out, so did the Backstreet Boys, Nickelback, Mandy Moore, and there were 2 others. If the song is hot it should be given its shot, what's the big deal if other songs have the same title? Best song wins. (Saturday 14 January 2017; 18:41)

Re: sue (71,188) by Nikki from usa Mariah tends to wait until the last minute, until she absolutely has to end it. I'm sure it was a matter of "it's on its way" and Mariah saying ok until there was no more time left. She wouldn't cancel unless she had to. Mariah has been trying to get down South for awhile now, I'm sure she didn't want to cancel. (Thursday 12 January 2017; 8:42)

LA Reid and J.Lo (71,147) by Nikki from usa I went to LA Reid's social media to see if I could find any hints about MC's song. I found pics of him with J.Lo and Medina called "epicfam". He supported J.Lo's last song and a couple pics of Mariah in a collage to support his book. I was reading about what he was saying in 2014 about her not ever having a #1 again and focusing on how long she's been out and radio isn't interested in artists like her now. He also helped J.Lo "come back" with On The Floor which is a rip off of Party O' Clock. I know at the time a lot of folks thought he was just trying to take the pressure off Mariah, but I think he's being honest. I was also surprised that the real reason Mariah wanted to go back with him was also that "family" feeling she keeps talking about. It's kind of ironic in a sad way how much her family has used her, so she keeps trying to invent other families out of work who just wind up being just as leech-y. I thought LA was bad news before he signed her no money deal, which is a good indication of how much he thinks she's worth as an artist. I do hope Mariah finds what she's looking for. I just think she'd find it faster if she started with qualified professionals who have basic respect for her as an artist. Things change when you start feeling valued. I wish she'd open her own label. She could cut tracks and upload them straight to iTunes. Ok, I am just trying to get more music from her with that last one. (Wednesday 11 January 2017; 8:13)

L.A. Reid - let me guess (71,145) by Nikki from usa The song he wants to put out is a duet with MC and Lionel Richie. It's the only thing that makes sense with them about to tour in a couple of months. If L.A. were to release a new track in 3 weeks it would be the beginning of February when Mariah will be in Dubai for their Jazz Festival before she goes on tour with Lionel. That makes no sense when she has no time to promote it unless that's what the tour is for. I really hope this isn't his next move. Reid may have approved the release of Infinity, but he also said Mariah was lucky to be on the radio. The plans he talked about for her such as a duets album is something for someone much older or nearing the end of their career. It doesn't look like Reid has any faith in her and just wants to put her out to pasture. The real trick here is that Stella thinks Mariah's audience is 12 year-olds, which makes how she's presenting her even weirder, and L.A. is trying to group her up with the ages of Bette Middler. Will the real Mariah Carey please stand up? (Wednesday 11 January 2017; 7:04)

Re: Legal battle (71,074) by Nikki from usa I'd be surprised if this worked for them. I did the original research months ago, but the promoters Mariah was talking about left an apology on their own page stating that they had a miscommunication over securing funds with their people. It was my understanding that Mariah couldn't do the tour because the people were never paid. No one's going to build her a stage if they're not paid. I don't know if the people suing are different promoters or how all that worked, but it is true one of the groups responsible did have an apology on their own website and admitted fault. If these folks are a different section than there's a chance after the original concert cancellations the ones left over wouldn't be profitable. There has to be so many concerts to make it worth the effort or she'd lose money. But, that's not how contracts work and Mariah's new touring team is very green. However, I thought she was supposed to reschedule for this year? Hopefully, something can be worked out. I'm hoping for a blessing in disguise. Mariah might finally take notice that despite her emotional relationship with Stella she's not qualified to do the job and these continual mishaps are just proof. Stella wants drama for exposure, but that's not in Mariah's best interest. (Monday 9 January 2017; 21:52)

Re: Billy (70,892) by Nikki from usa Mariah couldn't have done that. She was deaf, not confused about her lyrics. (Friday 6 January 2017; 8:47)

Really Tommy? Stella shush, MC's recovery (70,891) by Nikki from usa That's funny coming from a guy who tried ruining her career. However, not only is he right, but it's nothing different than most of us on this board have been saying for awhile now. I appreciate MC willing to give people a shot and not firing at the first mistake, but you need to surround yourself with people qualified to do their jobs if you don't want to do their jobs for them. I thought she learned that lesson from Glitter. Everyone but one actor had ever acted before and the director only had 2 movies under his belt. I'm sure Stella came at a time when MC was down and she got used to the family moment. Even if Mariah thinks Stella might not be her best option now, I'm wondering if Stella knows to much for MC to risk letting her go. Simply because Stella loves drama. Maybe help give Stella her own reality show to keep her busy and only keep her around for anything not to do with music or management parts of career. If you want to hear what Mariah would sound like "winging it" than check out the 2014 debacle - that's Mariah singing deaf. She was off and on. That's why you can't sing as a professional singer while deaf. After that she's done over 100 great performances to redeem herself, but the gp doesn't notice. Because, Mariah's recovery has to be as grand and exposed as her fall. Mariah should open a major worldwide televised event with all the live if not acoustic bells and whistles completely by surprise when nobody knew she was even going to perform there. This was another Glitter moment, time to TEOM this s**t. (Friday 6 January 2017; 8:46)

New options for Mariah (70,739) by Nikki from usa They say the craziest thing is doing the same thing and expecting different results. Mariah is too trusting and very much co-dependent. If she wants things to go her way she needs to bring back that Aries fire of inspiration, creation, and passion. Stop letting others lead her around by the nose. When Mariah is passionate about something where nobody can tell her nothing and she pursues it with vigor she has overwhelming success 99.9% of the time. MC is good at making records or breaking them. Pick something MC. You could do a single concert on every continent including Antarctica each with a different setlist and different vocal arrangement that is on point. But, each location is somewhere you've never sang before. Do some grand showing like on HBO, but only for the very best concert. After a few repeats you can release the live dvd that is a compilation of all 7, like Butterfly, for sale. Take some of those songs (Close My Eyes, Butterfly, When I Saw You, Melt Away, Whenever You Call) or instrumentals of them to create actual music boxes that wind up. Never follow trends. Dig deep and come up with music that's epic and simply honest. Your pain, trials, and tribulations are your credentials - use them. (Wednesday 4 January 2017; 6:47)

99 problems but reality ain't one (70,738) by Nikki from usa I want to point out a few things I don't think anyone's considered about this decade about MC and also the media in general, especially TV. Remember when Adele didn't do so hot at the Grammy's, but it was blamed on the mic even though it just sounded like she was struggling vocally? The Grammy's took full accountability for it regardless. Now, remember when American Idol hired Mariah under false pretenses, blamed her for that year's ratings, and then blamed her for the shows entire demise 3 years later? Who does that? NBC Rockefeller is up next. They could've told her to buzz off and try again next year. Instead, she showed up to rehearsals as promised and delivered a lovely intro before they cut her ears. Mariah tried to "wing it' while deaf and they delivered isolated vocals all over the net the next day. Now, this has happened again at a much larger scale. Most people are aware that the music scene has changed where money/sales are concerned, but have you noticed TV has become more vicious? There are now thousands of channels fighting for viewership. Adele is a big name with a huge machine attached to her, so no one is going to mess with that. Mariah is a huge name with no machine attached to her. Nobody is scared of her or Stella and Mariah's proven she'll take crap without fighting back. Dick Clark used to be a shoo in for top talent, now their struggling to get headliners. It would make sense to do something to get a lot of views, so they can negotiate higher ad payments next year with more expensive talent, along with the added incentive of "show Mariah how it's done". Mariah can take the fall sense everyone thinks she's a diva and even if she outs them nobody would believe what she says. (Wednesday 4 January 2017; 6:10)

I smell a fox in my henhouse (70,737) by Nikki from usa ABC and the DCP aren't being on the up and up. I was following their statements at first when they claimed Mariah never showed up to rehearsals, but at the same time, I've seen very minor "tech difficulties" that resulted in a commercial break or Please Stand By screens until those were fixed. It doesn't make any sense that they kept that whole thing on air and refused to do any damage control. Anyone with any integrity whatsoever wouldn't do that. I believed MC's camp about that, but ultimately it was allowed to happen, because she didn't show up to rehearsals. Until I remembered her instagram account and recalled a picture she took. Sure enough, she was at rehearsals. That's when DCP claimed she was at rehearsals, but not soundcheck. This is just getting shadier. Since her 2014 debacle Mariah's been pretty meticulous about her sound whether lip or live. She's been doing great and even put in the effort to be early for her rehearsal spot. What doesn't make any sense is why they cut her short and only gave her 30 minutes to rehearse an elaborate 6 minute set. It sounds like she was rushed off. If she didn't do anything with "soundcheck" than she wouldn't have known about the ear pieces. I do think ABC was trying for headlines and views. (Wednesday 4 January 2017; 5:33)

Beyond weird (70,508) by Nikki from usa This is weird even for Mariah. I don't know if she planned on lipping or singing live or what "monitors" do that weren't turned on. She kept saying something about not being able to hear or turning something on, except nothing happened for both performances. But, Mariah showed up to rehearsals, did the work, and they went off without a hitch. Why did, again, everything fail during the live show? How was she able to stand there for 2 songs and nothing was rectified? I just don't get how nothing was wrong during rehearsals, but everything fell apart when it went live. (Sunday 1 January 2017; 6:29)

Mariah or Stella? (70,123) by Nikki from usa A manager: Accomplishes staff results by communicating job expectations; planning, monitoring, and appraising job results; coaching, counseling, and disciplining employees; developing, coordinating, and enforcing systems, policies, procedures, and productivity standards. Who's job is this? Mariah's or Stella's? A boss usually runs the business, but Mariah *is* the business. Her job as a singer is to maintain her vocal rest, practice and rehearse her music; rehearse for positioning on her stage and with her dance team, make up a setlist, and work with her engineer on the sound. As a boss she calls the shots, makes up the plan, makes the decisions; she needs to be informed of any business problems on how she'll handle it, and look for future prospect endeavors. If something's wrong with the stage she's performing on, she'll need to know. If 2 of her team are squabbling over transportation arrangements than that's not something delegated to the boss. The whole purpose of hiring a team is the expectation that they do their jobs, so she can do hers. (Tuesday 20 December 2016; 2:57)

Re: MAC collab (70,040) by Nikki from usa Yes, you missed quite a few things. Mariah had a major MAC coming out party and she invited a load of YouTubers with makeup tutorial channels. None of them are huge, but they all have a few thousand subscribers. Most of the collection has already sold out and apparently this is a limited edition. MAC had to do a whole restocking of items on the 15th for online and most stores, but again most items are going fast. The same thing happened for her HSN line. I actually emailed them a few years ago. Mariah's line sold out so fast I was waiting for news of a restock. I was hoping to get a pair of one of her boots the following year. They told me it wasn't restocked after the first year and aren't sure what happened. The demand was still there for more, but they stopped making it. Mariah seems to get engrossed in a project, go all gong ho on it, but then gets bored and moves onto a new project. That's when it pays to have a team in place to carry on what was already started. (Sunday 18 December 2016; 6:57)

Giving the people what they want (69,042) by Nikki from usa There's nothing more despicable than taking gossip as gospel without any context and decide you're going to judge people off that. It really wouldn't require much to turn anyone on Mariah, especially on this board where a good witch hunt is always welcome. When Mariah is sweet, charitable, and dresses like a Mormon nobody cares. She did a great deal of it in 2014 being fully clothed and the media as well as her fan base was nothing but crickets. Can you even name 3 extremely charitable things Mariah did in the past 5 years? Neither could the media because nobody cares. People will always come for Mariah because she's an easy target and there are no consequences. Mariah is known for her tardiness, so that's hardly news, and this guy is complaining about something that happened 7 years ago. Mariah's fiance dumped her and a month later she's "dating" someone else. Nick knocked up a woman he doesn't care about, better not mention that, or the pure hypocrisy that would envelope Mariah's life if she were the one pregnant by someone she didn't care about might become overwhelmingly apparent. What people seem to forget being caught up in the hype is the purpose for this docuseries. Mariah doesn't know when or even if she will ever tour again. She's giving you the best of the best of her live performances, creating music, what it takes to put on a tour, and even bringing back Bianca for kicks. You might find that there isn't staged drama as much as there are skits, you might even find its not Mariah who winds up with Tanaka if you're familiar with Heartbreaker. In which case, Mariah just played a lot of people like a fiddle who will soon find egg on their face. Mariah will get her say in this, so in true fashion, I guess you'd better not watch. She's not a gossip column. I wonder how much Mariah actually spent on the wedding and what that huge mansion lease with a staff of 50 will cost her after Packer left her with his bill? Wait, too much context. Mariah's a cheating golddigger who only cares about herself. She's not a good mom and everyone knows whoever lives with the kids can't date. (Sunday 4 December 2016; 4:41)

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