Mariah wins her wings

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Daily News:

Mariah wins her wings

The singer returns with a new sense of freedom
- and a record that reflects it

BY REBECCA LOUIE

For every high note she has hit and every record chart she's topped, Mariah Carey has had a basin full of heartbreak.

She struggled through a hard-knock childhood, a stifling marriage and turbulent divorce, a movie flop, a record-label dismissal and an emotional breakdown that landed her in hospitals in Connecticut and California in 2001.

However, with the release of her CD "The Emancipation of Mimi" on Tuesday, the 35-year-old singer sets out to prove she has freed herself of her dramas and taken life by the reins.

"This album is about being emancipated from feeling compelled to second-guess everything that I do, to edit myself too much, to just feel insecure about my gut instincts," she says. "There was nobody looking over my shoulder telling me I had to write 'Hero' part seven" - a nod to her self-affirming No. 1 single from 1993.

"This is the record I have always wanted to make."

"Emancipation" is the first collection of original songs Carey has delivered since 2002's tepidly received "Charmbracelet." Typically, it's packed with power ballads and club-banging collaborations with hip-hop heavyweights Nelly, Snoop Dogg, the Neptunes, Kanye West, Twista and Jermaine Dupri.

Carey has always written her own songs, including those on her first demo, which she famously slipped to future Sony Entertainment CEO Tommy Mottola at a party when she was 18. Mottola, of course, became her mentor and husband, and her career soared.

This time around, she spent a year and a half composing "Emancipation" during late nights at her Tribeca penthouse, on holidays by the ocean and during those rare moments she had alone talking walks or in the bath.

While Carey takes pride in being acclaimed as a performer, it frustrates her when people don't recognize her other talents.

"So many people, after all of this time, are like, 'Oh, you write your songs?' It is so irritating, I'm just like..." She finishes the sentence with a growl.

"I mean, I do play into the diva thing because it is fun to dress up, put on a gown, and sing a song," she continues. "But if Elton John wanted to dress up" - a not unusual event - "he would still be recognized as the artist he is.

"When it comes to females," she explains, "it's different. Unless you're sitting behind a guitar or a piano, people don't look at you as a producer, an artist, a writer."

Carey's lyrics often provide insight into her state of mind. Uptempo party jams, like her current single "It's Like That," tell the world where Carey's happiest these days - in the clubs, hanging with friends, having fun. Laments about no-good players - such as "Shake It Off," "Stay the Night" and "One and Only" - reveal her wariness about romantic relationships.

"There are a lot of trust issues that I have with men," she says. She greets a question about her current relationship status with a small laugh. Supposedly single, she recently claimed she has slept with fewer men than she has fingers on one hand.

"A lot of people want to hang around with you, whether it's to be with a celebrity, eat and drink for free, or go to a club and get a good table," she comments.

"I am very sensitive to that, and cautious about men. But trust has always been an issue for me, and not [only] since I have been in the public eye. I think it's because of the way my life was as a child."

TROUBLED MARRIAGE

She was raised in Long Island by her mother, a singer who was rarely able to make ends meet.

"I had divorced parents from the time I was 3, I moved around 13 times, I was feeling unsafe in a lot of ways," Carey says. "If I go too deep into it, my mom gets mad at me and writes me a [long E-mail]. I will say that, also, the relationship I had right out of adolescence would not promote trust for other people."

With two Grammys under her belt but little experience with love, Carey married Mottola when she was 23 and he was 43. They bought an opulent mansion in Bedford, NY. Carey paid half the $10 million cost to maintain her independence, but she still felt confined there. Meanwhile, Mottola steered her career with controlling zeal. She has said she was unable to dress and behave as she liked.

"It's hard for me to talk about my life without talking about the eight-year period I was in a relationship with someone we all know," she says. "I was doing well with my career but living vicariously through the [happy] girl in the videos. In my private time, I was really miserable. I was, like, you have this career, your dream, so if you are unhappy and not fulfilled at home, whatever. Deal with it."

Instead, she broke free. After the couple divorced in 1998, Carey had relationships with Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter, then Mexican crooner Luis Miguel, with whom she spent 3%BD years.

In 2000, Carey signed a record-breaking five-year contract with Virgin Records that made her $117 million. She seemed on top of the world and embarked on her first lead actress role in the semi-autobiographical rags-to-riches movie "Glitter." But the movie tanked.

"Maybe she bit off more than she could chew in doing 'Glitter,'" says actor Terrence Howard, who appeared with her in the film. "But I think that had more to do with the direction. She did her job, and I believed her in that role."

He also admired her energy. "When she talks to you, it's like five people talking to you at once - that is the magnitude of her presence," Howard says. "She's probably made one of the biggest impressions on me above anybody else I've ever met."

In July 2001, Carey was hospitalized for exhaustion. She was clearly out of sorts. Two months before, she had reportedly tussled with co-star Mira Sorvino on the set of "Wise Girls." Then she performed a questionable striptease, revealing a skimpy tank top and shorts, on MTV's "Total Request Live." Just before entering the hospital, an anguished Carey wrote on her Web site that she was in "a bad place." Reps denied rumors that she had tried to commit suicide.

The failures of the film and its soundtrack album led to a second hospital spell that September. In January 2002, Virgin terminated her record deal with a $28 million payoff.

"All of a sudden, she's tired and doesn't have a hit and the world called her crazy," says Michaela angela Davis, an executive editor at Essence magazine. "People wanted to dismiss her. Nobody said, 'Hey, you work hard. Take a rest.'"

While some stars lose their shine once they're pegged as unstable, some musicindustry insiders feel that Carey's honest response to her trials has positioned her for a strong comeback.

"Mariah has acknowledged the things she has done in the past, and Americans love that confrontation," says Michael Paoletta, senior writer and reviews editor at Billboard. "They can say, 'I have been there, too,' and it makes her more human, it makes kinship. This album puts her in a good spot; it showcases what she's about."

BATTLING THROUGH

As Carey declares on "Fly Like a Bird," the CD's closing track, she's determined to overcome the odds - and trusts she'll get some divine help.

As she says: "If I didn't have the ability to say, 'Okay, God, get me through this,' I wouldn't have gotten through it - the rumors, the speculation, the criticism and ups and downs, whether I am battling a record company, an ex-husband, this, that and the third! I'm not trying to get on a soap box and preach. It's just important for people to know where I am coming from."

Songbirds with ruffled feathers Oh, the siren song of a diva in distress! It has been decades since Tina Turner rolled with Ike's punches and Marianne Faithfull landed in a drug-induced coma following her split with Mick Jagger. But today's singing drama queens still drown in dire straits.

# Courtney Love In January, the mic-stand-wielding mom finally won custody of daughter Frances Bean. Let's hope she stays out of court and hospitals, away from drugs — and off Dave Letterman's desk without her shirt. Janet Jackson Secret marriages, weight fluctuations, battles with depression — and a wayward bra! But now brother Michael's legal woes are grabbing the spotlight.

# Li'l Kim The rapper got her start as the Notorious B.I.G.'s protégée and mistress. Following her recent trial, she faces a possible 20 years in prison for perjury and conspiracy. It's a good thing jail time can boost record sales.

Gloria Trevi The Mexican pop-rocker, arrested in 2000 on charges of procuring underage girls for her ex-husband and manager, Sergio Andrade, was acquitted of rape and kidnapping charges last fall. Now she's on her "Trevolution" comeback tour.

# Whitney Houston The troubled warbler and wife of bad boy singer Bobby Brown landed in rehab for drug abuse last month. Her first attempt at detox was last year. Hey, Whitney, don't forget: "Learning to love yourself is the greatest love of all."