Friday, March 17, 2000 | 8:36 a.m.
Who: Mariah Carey.
When: 8 p.m. Saturday.
Where: Thomas & Mack Center.
Tickets: $27.50, $49.50, $65.50 (plus $9 convenience fee per ticket).
Information: Call 895-3900.
Mariah Carey has been called a lot of things: pop superstar, diva and, during her short marriage to a record industry executive, Mrs. (Tommy) Motolla.
But elder states-woman?
The title seems fitting these days for 29-year-old Carey, who performs Saturday at the Thomas & Mack Center -- her first Las Vegas gig.
It's a stop on "Mariah's Rainbow Tour -- One Night Only!" promoting her latest CD, "Rainbow," which has spawned the hits "Hearbreaker" and "Thank God I Found You."
A decade since she burst onto the music scene with her chart-topping single "Vision of Love," Carey finds herself, as of late, in much younger company on the pop music charts and the radio.
Current female teen screams include: Britney Spears, who will take the stage at the MGM Grand this summer; Christina Aguilera, recently awarded the Grammy for best new artist; Mandy Moore, whose pop debut also landed her a part-time host spot on MTV; 19-year-old Jessica Simpson, another blonde babe making her way up the charts; and several "girl bands" with such names as Nobody's Angel, M2M and B*Witched.
Then, a bit further beyond puberty, there is actress-turned-singer Jennifer Lopez. The 29-year-old has made headlines recently with her high-profile beau (rapper Sean "Puffy" Combs), low-cut fashions, oh, and her dance singles "If You Had My Love" and "Waiting For Tonight."
But those in the music industry know say Carey needn't fret over the competition.
Just look at her track record: 15 No. 1 singles (more than any other female artist) including "I Don't Wanna Cry," "I'll Be There," "Dreamlover" and "Honey"; one No. 1 single for every year of the 1990s; eight albums certified triple-platinum or better; a pair of Grammy awards and a slew of other awards; and she's sold more than 128 million records worldwide.
"They're certainly not hurting her," Paul Grein, a pop music industry analyst based in Los Angeles, says of the teen artists currently inhabiting the pop charts.
Of Spears and Aguilera, he says, "I suppose they're competition, but I think they're more competition for each other and (boy bands) 'N Sync and the Backstreet Boys. Probably, you're not deciding, do you want to buy the Mariah Carey album or the Britney Spears album, you're deciding between Britney and 'N Sync."
David Adelson, executive editor of Hits magazine and music correspondent for E! Entertainment Television (Cox cable channel 36), agrees.
"If anything, (Carey) has been able to generate a new fan base as she's progressed, which obviously is the most daunting task that faces the teen bands," he says.
Carey's ongoing reinvention -- from a pretty face with an enormous set of pipes (she has a seven-octave vocal range) to, most recently, a pop queen with obvious hip-hop influences -- has likely been the basis of her success.
"What we did is we watched Mariah change and evolve over a period of time," Adelson explains. "It was obviously something that the public did not conceive as being contrived. ... It wasn't like she decided, 'I'm Mariah No. 1, I'm turning into Mariah No. 2.' Here was a young woman thrust into the spotlight who then proceeded to grow up in the spotlight and the public related to the changes she went through."
Among those changes: The conversion, beginning in 1993, from Ms. to Mrs. and back to Ms. again (in '97) when she wed -- and then divorced -- Motolla, the Sony Records bigwig who discovered her and set her career in motion.
The marriage-not-made-in-heaven (it's been reported that Motolla had a Svengali-like hold over Carey) was the source of rumors that her hubby's industry influence was the reason for her success.
"Some people say that enormous Sony machine is behind her and was able to buy her success," Grein explains, "or that her husband at the time was the most powerful person in the music industry so he was able to pull the strings.
"That would work for one hit, but it wouldn't work for all of these No. 1 records and multiplatinum albums. So obviously the public likes her, and she's proved to be smart and able to adapt and adjust and evolve."
During the evolution, Carey made some new friends -- among them, some of the biggest names in rhythm and blues and hip-hop music -- who also collaborated with her, including Boyz II Men (1995's "One Sweet Day"), ODB ("Fantasy," also in '95), Whitney Houston ("When You Believe" from "The Prince of Egypt" soundtrack), and Mase ('97's "Honey," produced by Lopez's boyfriend Combs).
Rappers Missy Elliot, Jay-Z, Da Brat and Snoop Dog lent their voices for tracks on "Rainbow."
"The marketplace completely embraced this record and it shows," Adelson says of "Rainbow." "Obviously the single ('Heartbreaker') was immensely successful; the album sold a huge number of records; the record company is thrilled.
"The amazing thing is that after a decade of being out there, the anticipation for a (new) Mariah album is immense. Any new project, any new tour, there's still an immense anticipation for it, and for an artist to do that in today's music business is really an accomplishment."
Carey is also more free-spirited with her fashion choices these days, evidenced by the tiny top and skin-tight jeans she donned in the epic-like video for "Heartbreaker."
"I think when I do something, it's taken as twice as risque as when, like, Madonna or Janet Jackson does something even more out there," Carey told USA Today. "People still want me to be the girl next door."
Even her mother, opera singer Patricia Carey, has noted the change. She told Rolling Stone magazine, "She's certainly more content with herself, and there's a peace that she has now that she didn't have for a long time, that she certainly didn't have when she was married."
Maybe that has something to do with her daughter's new love, Latin sensation (and frequent Las Vegas headliner) Luis Miguel. The two have been dating for a year.
"We've been in 26 cities together," Mariah Carey told USA Today. "It's really interesting for me to be in a place where there are thousands of girls running up to him, speaking in Spanish, and I'm not the focus of attention -- I can just enjoy it."
New music, new clothes, a new man. Chet Buchanan, host of "The Morining Zoo" on KLUC 98.5-FM, says, "I think she's definitely taking more chances.
"I think there was a time when she was with Tommy Motolla when she felt like she was under his thumb, and I think now she's throwing off the shackles and saying, 'Hey, if I want to work with hip-hop artists, I'm gonna work with hip-hop artists.' "
Buchanan, who recently interviewed Carey for his program, says, "The one thing she said (was), 'I don't care what people say about me. I go out and wear what I want to wear, I do what I want to do. I eat, drink, dance, whatever.' "
"Whatever" includes taking her career in a different direction, namely onto the big screen. Carey is slated to begin filming "All That Glitters," a flick in which she portrays a singer, this spring (she'll also star on the soundtrack).
Her name is also among those being bandied about for the female lead in Oliver Stone's upcoming remake of "A Star is Born."
"I always wanted to act as a little girl," Carey told cable music channel VH1. She's been studying for 2 1/2 years with an acting teacher. "And it's been really rewarding to me as an artist and just as a person."
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