Mariah Carey provided a sneak preview of her upcoming memoir, The Meaning of Mariah, on Thursday morning (Sept. 17), revealing the critical role that the movie musical Fame played in her career. In a tweet in which she flips the book open to a page with a story about her early days soundtracked by the iconic Irene Cara ballad from the 1980 movie, “Out Here 0n My Own,” MC describes what it meant to her.
“The fact that I believed I could become a successful artist is one of my greatest strengths,” the page she revealed showed. “Around the same time, my mother entered me in a talent competition in the city, and I sang one of my favorite songs, ‘Out Here on My Own,” by Irene Cara. I felt ‘Out Here on My Own’ described my entire life, and I loved singing that way — singing to reveal a piece of my soul. And I won doing it. At that age. I lived for the movie Fame, and Irene Cara was everything to me.”
Carey, who has often spoken about what it was like growing up biracial, said she not only related to Puerto Rican/Cuban singer/actress Cara’s “multicultural look,” but she also appreciated her ambition and accomplishments: winning an Oscar for best original song for “Flashdance… What a Feeling,” which also won a Grammy, Golden Globe and American Music Award. “But ‘Out Here on My Own’ was such a pure song that touched my heart, and I couldn’t believe I won a trophy for singing a song I loved,” Carey explains in the memoir, which is due out on Sept. 29.
On Monday, Carey shared her excitement with opening up a box of the books and laying her eyes on the memoir for the first time. “Quite an emotional moment, seeing The Meaning of Mariah Carey in print for the very first time I’m so proud of it and I can’t wait for you to read it,” she wrote.
Check out Mariah’s tweet below.
Out Here On My Own… now with 🎶 #TMOMC #TheRarities pic.twitter.com/RsX4ygVPQQ
— Mariah Carey (@MariahCarey) September 17, 2020
