Mariah Carey Talks Grammy Snubs: ‘They Scammed Me’
Mariah Carey released her first album in 1990, and even though she has more No. 1 songs than any solo artist in history, she has only won five Grammy Awards.
On the latest episode of Las Culturistas, Carey talked with hosts Bowen Yang and certified “Lamb” Matt Rogers about some of the most important moments in her career, even throwing some shade at the Grammys.
“You don’t have enough of those, by the way,” Rogers said, talking about how Carey has won only five Grammys despite 34 nominations. “They scammed me,” Carey replied. “They toy with me,” she added.
Carey won her first two Grammys in 1991 after being nominated for five. That year, she won Best New Artist and Best Pop Female Vocal Performance for “Vision of Love.”
However, her next Grammy win didn’t come until 16 years later in 2006, after losing 17 nominations in between. Even her 1997 album Butterfly, which she told Yang and Rogers was “probably my best album,” didn’t win any awards.
Carey’s fifth studio album, Daydream, included two of her biggest hits, “Always Be My Baby” and “Fantasy.” Both songs were nominated for Grammys, but neither won. That same year, Daydream also lost in the Album of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Album categories to Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill and Annie Lennox’s “No More I Love You’s.”
In 2006, she finally won two more Grammys for “We Belong Together” and Best Contemporary R&B Album for The Emancipation of Mimi. “Is this a real Grammy? I haven’t seen one in soooooo long,” she joked. “It’s weird. I don’t know. We’ll figure out what this is later.”
The conversation on Las Culturistas didn’t stop at Grammy snubs. Carey also mentioned the unreleased grunge album she recorded in 1995 while working on Daydream.
Billboard mentioned that the album Someone’s Ugly Daughter, and Carey recorded it in 1995. The album is credited to an artist named Chick and features her friend Clarissa Dane on lead vocals, with Carey providing backup vocals.
Two tracks from this album have been released on YouTube: “Demented” and “Malibu.”
“Can you drop that grunge album?” Rogers asked. “I know, right?” Carey replied. “I’m so mad that I haven’t done that yet … but who do I drop it with?”
Bowen and Rogers joked about starting their own label and suggested the “chic” idea of releasing it on “Garage Band or something, like, a grungy thing.”
“I could do that. It’s a good album,” Carey said.
