Culture March 8, 2018

Mariah Carey doesn't 'give a damn' about Grammys, feels she's a songwriter first

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Mariah Carey may already have five Grammy awards under her belt, but the singer and songwriter said in a new interview that she doesn't care about the accolades.

"In the music business, if you care about the Grammys and submitting your stuff before a certain time frame, you want a single out in the summer and then you want to have your record [out] before the Grammys [consideration] deadline, which has changed. Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn," she said in a candid interview with V magazine.

"I mean, I have five Grammys. That’s cute," Carey, who's been nominated 34 times continued. "There’s people that have been doing this half the time that have twice as many."

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Singer Mariah Carey poses with her Best Female R&B Vocal Performance, Best Contemporary R&B Album and Best R&B Song awards in the press room at the 48th Annual Grammy Awards at the Staples Center in this Feb. 8, 2006 file photo in Los Angeles.
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Carey, 47, added that after winning two Grammy awards during her "first year" as a debut artist, she said the Grammys told her, "'We don’t go with the people that are selling a lot of records and are popular; we’re gonna go the opposite way.' So I got screwed out of certain years."

I look at myself as a songwriter first, and then a singer.

"I wasn’t bitter about it. I was just like, okay, well, I guess I’m not standing here barefoot onstage singing and trying to go a certain way. I’m just me," she said.

Awards talk aside, Carey said fans can expect a new album soon now that she's linked up with Roc Nation, the Jay-Z-led label and management company.

Bennett Raglin/Getty Images, FILE
Singer Mariah Carey performs on stage during the 2016 Essence Festival at the Louisiana Superdome, July 2, 2016, in New Orleans.

"I’m in the studio starting a new album of regular music," she said, "meaning it’s not a Christmas album."

As usual, she'll be writing the majority of her album -- an aspect of her artistry that she says is often overlooked.

"It’s something that I think a lot of people don’t give women enough credit for, unless they are known visually as someone strumming a guitar, or they’re behind a piano most of the time," Carey said of her songwriting.

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Mariah Carey attends the 75th Annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton Hotel, Jan. 7, 2018, in Beverly Hills, Calif.

"I also have that diva thing attached to me; I mean, I’m sitting here doing an interview in lingerie," she admitted. "But I was just like, you’re totally gonna understand that this is what I’m gonna wear! Why should I wear something uncomfortable? This is what I like."

Carey continued, "They see this diva; they see hair, makeup, bod, clothes, whatever it is -- and hand gestures -- and they’re like, oh. They don’t think songwriter. But I look at myself as a songwriter first, and then a singer. That’s what I love to do the most."