While she doesn’t “give a damn” about the Grammys, 5x Grammy Award-winning artist and R&B legend Mariah Carey has officially been inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame! And during her speech, she admits that she still has to constantly “remind people” that she’s a damn songwriter!
Mariah Carey Is Inducted Into The Songwriters Hall of Fame
As she was joined by fellow inductees like The Isley Brothers, The Neptunes, Li Nas X and more, Mariah has been recognized by a relatively small group of songwriting and music-publishing peers for her latest career achievement.
Unlike many other female pop stars and R&B/Soul singers, Mariah writes her own music. Like Taylor Swift, who is one of the most talented pop stars in today’s music, Mariah is often faced with skepticism and criticism about her songwriting.
Mariah — who was inducted in the 2020 Songwriters Hall of Fame, but now celebrating in 2022 due to the pandemic — had the last laugh during her speech. The Queen of Shade made sure to let off a couple shots while accepting her newest award.
Firing back at memes mocking her songwriting capabilities, Mariah began,
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Mariah Carey Admits She Has To ‘Remind People’ She’s A Songwriter At Hall of Fame Induction
“So anyway! Thank you to everyone in this room. First of all, it’s incredible that there’s even a show honoring songwriters, right? Give yourselves all a round of applause, because this is a big. deal.
I mean, obviously, thank you to my friend Ahmir, as I said, Oscar-award winner and winner of all awards, but thank you for that introduction, and … I missed the first half (adopts Blanche DuBois voice), I don’t quite recall. Anyway, and also congratulations to my fellow inductees! I remember when I inducted Jermaine Dupri, before COVID like three years ago, I was like, “Jermaine, you know what? I’m really pissed at you that you’re getting inducted before me” — but that’s a whole other story, hopefully someone will (air quotes) post that clip, maybe it will come back to me.
Anyway, it’s not the easiest profession in the world. Between — this is a word my friend said to me the other day — the facocta lawsuits, and the business side — no offense, we love business people, we really love the business people, they’re our friends, they’re our best friends, and we love it.
But I just want to say, my whole journey — because Ahmir actually kind of touched on all this stuff — started with poetry, in my childhood. And then — well, actually, I believe melodies came first. And then I started writing these poems, and people were like, “This girl has kind of a dark vision of the world at six years old.” And I did, because I came from this incredibly dysfunctional background. And it was this whole thing, music, and walking by myself and coming up with melodies and writing words in a book — Oh, by the way, here’s my old-school… (Pulls out sheets of paper while mask dangles from her wrist)… Tangent for a second… here’s my mask! … This was literally me writing down my … I just want to show you, because I don’t write in my phone, I don’t like the noise because you get alerts… I know there’s a thing you can shut off, but whatever: (Holds up sheets of paper) These are, legit, my notes!
I constantly have to remind people that I’m a songwriter. It’s become a joke, to the point where … because they’re all into the diva thing, it’s like, “Oh my gosh, she’s a diva, wow, diva. (Puts on glasses and preens, crowd laughs) You may be somewhat familiar with the meme of me going over and over, “As a songwriter, as a songwriter, as a songwriter, as a songwriter!” So hopefully tonight, we can create another meme, AS. A. SONGWRITER! (Holds up award and smiles)
Just to touch on something I kinda never got to say in public: In my early teen years, I told nobody that I wanted to be a singer or aspire to do this. And I just always assumed the person that you’re listening to on the radio — because you listened to the radio back in the day — was the one who wrote the songs, so I didn’t know there was a differentiation, I would just be like, “Obviously this person wrote the song.” But to know the people that are the unsung heroes of the whole thing — it’s an amazing situation, so please one more round of applause for yourselves! (Applause)
I’m gonna discuss my little teen moment with you, and see what you think. In high school, I was always late — that’s why there’s this whole thing about “Mirage” being my little nickname because I was never there: I’d be working on my demo tape — demo tape, there was a thing called tapes, they existed and you had to like… this is a long story but anyway, [I’d be] driving around in my mother’s piece of crap Cutlass Supreme, and I was always getting lost. I lived in 14 different places, always getting lost in the Bronx, I would get lost in some obscure part of Long Island, anyway I’m thankful that’s gone — I don’t drive anymore, luckily for the world!
So I told nobody that’s what I was doing. They just thought I was never in school, “She just doesn’t care about it.” And, you know, a lot of … my friends, I guess we can call them friends, they told their parents that I wasn’t going to college, and their parents were shocked. They would sit there, if I was deemed appropriate to be invited to someone’s house — that’s in [her biography] — “Does your mother know you’re not going to college?” I was like, “I don’t think my mother ever said the word ‘college’ to me.” But it doesn’t matter.
And then there would be the occasional jock at school who’d be like (thick Long Island accent), “Yeah, you’re gonna be workin’ at HoJo’s [Howard Johnson’s] five years from now.” So I think everyone in this room can appreciate that a year after the HoJo’s comment — no offense to anyone from HoJo’s, by the way, it’s a job and it pays, so yay everybody, but it wasn’t my aspiration — I was offered … drumroll, I don’t have one, but drum roll? (House band drummer plays drum roll), thank you … five thousand dollars for my [songwriting] catalog! (Cymbal crash)
So I didn’t take it, even though at that time, like $1 was everything. Like, did I get on the subway or get an H&H bagel? They have now closed that location, I’m very upset. But you know what I’m saying — it was $5,000. Thank God I didn’t take it — not that [money] is all it is, of course it’s about the craft and self-expression and the connection, it’s channeling, it’s the whole thing.
But to quote my friend who was here earlier, [top music attorney] Alan Grubman, “It’s not about the money — it’s about the money!” (Laughter) So thank God I didn’t do that.
Thank you all for listening to my tangents. But I just want to end on this note: I read that out of the 439 total inductees into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, only 32 have been women — until THIS MOMENT. And now I’m gonna be 33!
So as my father once told me, “Ya did good, kid.” Thank you so much! I did good!”
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