"Except this time around I see Usher and Mariah [Carey] coming out of the studio and I say, “Okay, wait, aren’t you supposed to be working on my stuff? We’re supposed to be doing our stuff together.” And he goes, “Well yeah,” and I’m like, “Why are they here, don’t I come before them when it’s time for the album to be released?” But it’s all good."
Source: SOHH
Posted on December the 31st.

It's the most exciting week of the year so far. I love Christmas - I'm a big kid! I took Trevor Nelson to Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park to record THE LICK, joined hundreds of you at the South Bank to honour the UK grime soap Dubplate Drama and then went to Usher's fragrance launch party to watch the R'n'B prince add yet another level to his world domination. Usher's tagline was: "It's not about being famous - it's what you're famous for." I loved that! 

Last week, I watched the movie Elf with some people. I'd like to tell you they were kids. But no - we were all adults and we screamed and clapped all the way through it. (It's also one of Mariah's favourite movies - she got me into it!) 

As you read this, I'm in Aspen - probably doing one of the following: eating my body mass in weight worth of pancakes, waffles, sweet potato or turkey; terrorising people and embarrassing Mariah on the slopes with my skiing, whilst she does stuntwoman-like snowboarding, which has to be seen to be believed; encouraging Mariah to get up to no good by messing with the paparazzi; playing with lots of kids and Santa; drinking champagne at Joan Boyce's diamond store; or helping everyone in the house wrap their 20 million gifts coz they haven't managed it yet. (I always wrap a week ahead, and if you're reading this on Christmas Eve between midnight and 6 a.m., I can guarantee that's what myself and MC are doing right now!) 

But before I jumped on MC's private jet...

I hope you are all enjoying the holiday break. I know Christmas is different for us all depending on what we are experiencing in our lives. But whatever your vibe is like this week, I wish you all the best. Whatever Santa fills your stocking with - I hope it's all good. (Pity it can't be Morris Chestnut filling my stocking.) See you in 2008!
Source: Jasmine for The Voice
Posted on December the 29th.

Since they already would be here, why not do some shows? Beyoncé announced a Sunday encore of the concert she brought to the Strip in late August. Jay-Z waited until Dec. 15 to put tickets on sale for a Saturday show at the Palms.

The two also are expected to perform together during the two-night kickoff of the sports-themed 40/40 Club on Sunday and the club's official New Year's bash on Monday.

Competition on the club scene results in a crush of celebrity-hosted events. They make it confusing to sort out who's in town for a traditional show and who isn't.

Pop queens Mariah Carey and Avril Lavigne both get top billing, but for club promotions, not concerts. (Carey at Tao, Lavigne at Planet Hollywood's new Privé.)

3 Doors Down? Concert at the Hard Rock Hotel. Backstreet Boys? Club promotion at the Hard Rock Hotel.

Pamela Anderson? Used to do a show here, but it wasn't as riveting as her offstage life, which may get more lurid still, depending on which ex- or current husbands surround her at Pure on New Year's Eve. 

Among those who plan to make money the old fashioned way, Kanye West should feel the love at the Palms on Monday. 
Source: Las Vegas Show Guide (All rights reserved)
Posted on December the 28th.
Heroes note: It's almost sure Mariah will attend the opening of Jay-Z's Club (not the New Year's party)
Posted on December the 28th.

Mariah Carey is a five-time Grammy® Award-winning artist and has recorded more number-one singles than any other female solo artist, according to the Recording Industry Association of America. In addition to being one of the top female singers of our lifetime, Carey is also an accomplished songwriter, producer, actress and entrepreneur.

Tickets are now on sale for the New Year’s Eve celebration at TAO Asian Bistro and Nightclub. All guests will be required to purchase a ticket for entry into the venue for the evening. Doors open at 8:30 p.m. on Monday, December 31 and entry will include complimentary hors d’oeuvres and open bar from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m.

For those craving a high energy, DJ driven atmosphere, the 10,000 square foot TAO Nightclub is the place to see and be seen, with three full-service bars, two main rooms playing a variety of hip hop, house, rock and mash-ups, and a state-of-theart audio and lighting systems. For guests seeking ultra-VIP treatment, the nightclub offers eight private skyboxes, each featuring European bottle service, mini-bar, an espresso machine and banquettes with secured purse drawers. A voyeuristic design throughout, the nightclub allows people to see the entire venue from almost every point in the room while sexy performance vignettes, including nearly nude bombshells taking rose petal baths, can be seen nightly. The nightclub also boasts a 40-foot long outside terrace with awe-inspiring views of the famed Las Vegas Strip.
Source: Las Vegas Show Guide (All rights reserved)
Posted on December the 28th.

On December 21, member duffbfly posted the following message on MariahCarey.com's message board:
"Today, Mariah is picking up children from a Social Services building in Denver and is taking them to Aspen to spend the day with her snowboarding. She is going to be purchasing them all the necessary snowboarding gear, buying them dinner, and who knows what else is in store for them for the day. 
A bus is picking them up at 9:30 a.m. and will be returning them around midnight. They get to spend the whole day with her!"
Thanks to MariahDailyJournal for the info.
Posted on December the 24th.

We have long believed in the magical powers of Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas Is You." Released 13 years ago, it's the only Christmas song to reach iTune's top 10 most downloaded list, and it continually tops Billboard charts every December. Love Actually, one of our favorite holiday movies, seems to be based entirely on this song.

If commercial success weren't enough, there's that warm fuzzy feeling we get every time we hear the simple chimes of a xylophone at the very beginning of the song. It gives us just enough time to shush everyone so they can enjoy the greatness about to play out.

From there it just gets better, the slow start, the piano that speeds the song up, the backup vocals, the lamest bass line ever, the jingle bells, Mariah's voice reaching octaves inaccessible to humans and, most of all, the title lyric that fills our heart with love for love.

We thought this song was enough to cure even the most extreme cases of bah humbuggery. But something happened this past weekend that changed the world as we knew it.

While at a deejay-it-yourself holiday party, we thought it would be okay to bring on the Christmas cheer with the best holiday song ever...because we attended the holiday party to celebrate the holidays, right? But no, completely shut down. It was exclusively a Neutral Milk Hotel kind of night. No festive songs at all. 

Based on experience, it looks like the win goes to the Scrooges. 

Honestly though, we don't want to live in a world where there's no "All I Want for Christmas Is You" at holiday parties. We're going to go on naively believing everyone is as into this song as they should be. In fact, we bet Mariah sends plenty of indie-Scrooge hearts aflutter when there's no one else around.

Are we wrong? Are there any other songs out there that you believe can warm the coldest of hearts? Has anyone else unexpectedly experienced the Mariah Carey backlash? Let it all out in the Comments.
Source: E!Online (All rights reserved)
Posted on December the 22nd.

Mariah Carey............................. ................... page 15
The extremely anticipated work from Mariah Carey after her previous multiplatinum disc. In this new album, her concept is much more femenine and romantic, but with her same style as always. The producers are Bryan-Michael Cox, Jermaine Dupri, Nate 'Danja' Hills, The Runners, Will.I.Am. and DJ Toomp, among other. The album with also be released in a USB format in the shape of a butterfly. 
Provisional Release Date: 25 of March
Click here to download the scans Mariah is on page 15
Source: Jeremy from AveMariah
Posted on December the 22nd.

France
- #1 - All I Want For Christmas Is You
Top Holiday Album
- #9 - Merry Christmas

Thanks to TheLittleLambOfMimi on our forum
Posted on December the 19th.

Today, Creative Loafing Media quotes:
Def Jam, the leading force in the rap industry, offered a production deal calling for Toomp to create 10 to 20 songs for the label roster.
"I always knew Toomp was on the verge of exploding" as a major talent, says Def Jam's Shakir Stewart, who helped broker the deal. He points out that the song deal didn't guarantee studio sessions with top acts; it was up to Toomp to network and capitalize on the opportunity.
West and Toomp's "Good Life" single sits at No. 7 on the Billboard singles chart. Jay-Z's American Gangster, released Nov. 6, opened at No. 1 on the album charts, and Toomp's "Say Hello" is one of its highlights. In the coming months, he's slated to go into the studio with Nas and Mariah Carey.

Toomp's next goal is to secure a deal with Def Jam for his production company, NZone Entertainment. He's grooming a new crop of acts, including the songwriting team Six20, and rappers Kenoe and Suga Suga. "Hopefully we can do even bigger business," Stewart says. "If Toomp brings in the right artist that fits our machine, I would eventually do a record label with Toomp, if it made sense."

A few weeks later, Toomp gets the really big news – confirmation that after two decades as a journeyman, he's as hot a commodity as he's ever been: The Recording Academy announces Dec. 6 that Kanye West is up for eight Grammys and, for his work on Graduation, Toomp has a share in three of the nominations.
Click here to learn more about DJ Toomp
Source: Creative Loafing Media (All rights reserved) (extract)
Posted on December the 19th.

America's cell phones are ringing with the seasonal sounds of holiday ringtones from SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT's Commercial Music Group (CMG) with Mariah Carey's yuletide classic, "All I Want For Christmas Is You," leading the pack with sales of more than 1.2 million and a new RIAA platinum certification. Last year, when the track struck Gold status, Mariah's holiday gem became the very first seasonal Mastertone to be awarded an RIAA certification.
In 2006, the Top 5 Christmas songs from the CMG accounted for 49% of all Christmas Mastertone sales. Last year, Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas Is You" brought home an astounding 23% of all seasonal Mastertone sales and 56% of all holiday Ringback sales.

Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas Is You" is the highest charting Christmas release so far this year on the Billboard Hot Ringmasters chart, where it has reached #3. The song is currently #8 on the Nielsen SoundScan Digital Songs chart and #7 on the Nielsen SoundScan Hot Digital Tracks chart.

"All I Want For Christmas Is You" was first heard as a key track on Mariah Carey's Merry Christmas album. Originally released in 1994, Merry Christmas has gone on to become one of the top-selling holiday collections of all time, selling more than 11 million copies worldwide while earning 5x platinum certification from the RIAA.
Source: Legacy Recordings - PRNewswire - Yahoo! Finance (All rights reserved) (extract)
Posted on December the 13th.

But according to vendors like BlueBlastMedia, this kind of creative is also having an effect on the industry as a whole--helping to bring a more concrete sense of interaction and metrics to out-of-home (OOH) ads.

BlueBlastMedia is a vendor of the Holosonics technology that enables billboards to transmit the "audio spotlights," or sounds that can only be heard by people within a predefined vicinity. The New York-based firm has powered Holosonics wallscapes for Target and smaller, poster-sized "wild postings" for Mariah Carey's new fragrance (via Elizabeth Arden), in addition to the "Paranormal State" campaign.
According to JP Freeley, director of BlueBlastMedia, part of the allure of these kinds of non-traditional OOH ads is that his firm can provide "hit reports" tied to the Holosonics data. "It's almost like CTRs for online ads," Freeley said. "Since wild postings are motion-activated, we can keep a log of how many times the message is triggered. And all of the audio spotlights allow agencies to measure what times of day or day of week are getting the most traffic." 

While Freeley admitted that the technology couldn't actually measure how many people acknowledged the message or looked at the poster, he said that it could help agencies figure out whether a billboard or poster was placed for maximum exposure, and whether it would be worth their client's dollars the next go-around. 

Source: MediaPost Communications (All rights reserved) (extract)
Posted on December the 12th.

This year, the labels somehow forgot to do even that. And they also forgot to have a hot release ready for the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, a day that usually earns the Super Tuesday distinction, since it's so heavy with big releases. Last week, the highest new entry on the Billboard 200 came in at a lowly No. 50. 

Just three years ago, the fourth quarter was packed with new releases from the likes of Eminem, U2, Gwen Stefani, Shania Twain, Rod Stewart, R. Kelly, Jay-Z/Linkin Park and Kelly Clarkson.

Merchants are crying the blues, but at least they'll have some big releases for the first quarter for a change: So far, Mariah Carey, Lil Wayne, Rick Ross, Lenny Kravitz and Sheryl Crow are due out in the new year.

One independent retailer suggested, however, that without big releases in the fourth quarter, his store might not be around in the first quarter.
Source: Billboard - Yahoo!Music (All rights reserved)
Posted on December the 10th.

The Adventures of Mimi Tour Documentary which features behind-the-scenes look at Mariah’s hugely successful and extravagant tour to support her Emancipation of Mimi album will also be airing on TMF at the following scheduled times:
- Sunday 16 December
4:00pm - 5:00pm
- Saturday 22 December
6:00pm - 7:00pm
Source: MariahConnection
Posted on December the 10th.

On Dec.2 I posted the info asking for you guys to vote, sent out a newsletter and Kinou posted it on HBF  , Mariah fans don't hijack, they vote!!!!!!! 

Two weeks ago the Echo's website launched an online poll asking the people of Lincolnshire what their favourite Christmas song was.

All the classics are listed, from Bing Crosby's White Christmas to The Pogues' Fairytale of New York.

But one Echo reader decided to make Carey top of the pops.

After voting for her hit All I Want for Christmas is You, the fan posted details of the survey on the star's official website.

Fans from the US, South America, Australia and across Europe then logged on to the Echo's website to place their vote.

Within 24 hours the previous poll leader Fairytale of New York had been knocked into second place.

As things stand now Carey has a whopping 54.3 per cent of the vote, with the Pogues in second place with just 15.3 per cent.

Die-hard Pogues fan Michael Donaghy (35), of Winn Street, Lincoln, said he was disgusted.

"What a joke," he said.

"I'm going to get all my mates on the case - we'll soon get Shane back up there."

But Carey fan Liz Wood (32), of Nettleham Road, Lincoln, said the singer deserved to streak ahead.

"This just shows how huge she is worldwide. She has an amazing voice and it's a great song - vote for her."
Source: Lincolnshire Echo (All rights reserved)
Posted on december the 7th.

That all depends on your wallet and the value of your guest's star stock. In the thriving rent-a-celebrity business, the price tag for having a celeb drop by is a telling barometer of who's hot and who's not. 

This week, the going rate for Tara Reid, the chaste blonde from the teen cult-classic "American Pie," fell precipitously on the private party circuit. Her asking price dropped from $35,000 to appear at a "Hooker's Ball" with shirtless cowboys to $3,500 for some private parties, according to Australian tabloids. 

"The people who used to be in demand are the good deals today," says Dan Barrett, entertainment producer for Millionaires Concierge, which calls itself the "yellow pages of the rich and famous." 

Jessica Is Down
Reid is in good (or bad) company. Demand for Jessica Simpson and former husband Nick Lachey has gone the route of their three-year marriage -- down the tubes. 

In an US Weekly survey of celebrity bookings in 2006, Simpson could command up to $400,000 for a private performance, and her ex went for $100,000. Today, the actress's price has fallen to $75,000, only a little more than Lachey's $60,000 a gig, according to Star Link Productions, which books celebrities for fundraisers and private parties. 

Similarly, R&B and pop artist Usher, who once earned $1 million for a private appearance, can now get only $175,000, booking agencies say. 

An increasing number of celebrities are relying on the private party circuit to enrich their paychecks. But as some, like Reid, see their star stock plunge, others are soaring in the lucrative and growing celebrity-for-rent business. 

The hottest names garner the biggest price tags. 

Mariah's on Fire
Mariah Carey earns a cool $3 million for a private appearance, up from $1 million in 2006, and Pamela Anderson's price has ballooned from $75,000 to $250,000. 
Source: ABC News (All rights reserved) (extract)
Posted on December the 7th.

- Oh grand Saint Nicolas, patron des écoliers, apportez-moi des pommes dans mes petits souliers, je serai toujours sage comme un petit mouton, je dirai ma prière pour avoir des bonbons, venez, venez Saint Nicolas, venez, venez Saint Nicolas, venez, venez Saint Nicolas, tra la la.
- Sinterklaas kapoentje, leg wat in mijn schoentje, leg wat in mijn laarsje, dank u Sinterklaasje.

Posted on December the 5th.

"It's hot," Jackson said on Seacrest's KIIS-FM radio show, while declining to provide many specifics about the collaboration. (Listen to the full interview.) 

Other guests on the album, dubbed Randy Jackson's Music Club: Vol. 1, on which Jackson will arrange and play instruments, include Richie Sambora, Mariah Carey and Joss Stone, Jackson said.

The album is slated for release in weeks, to coincide with the start of the new season of American Idol—which both Jackson and Seacrest agreed is shaping up to be the best yet.
Source: E!News
Heroes note: The album is produced with the help of Danish Deekay songwriters/ producers Lars Halvor Jensen, Martin Michael Larsson, Obi & Josh and Tim McEwan.
Posted on December the 5th.

Please contact me by e-mail at staff @heroesofmariah.com to be part of  the "Mariah Christmas Force".
Please if you're a webmaster post this info and if you wanna be part of the project, drop me an e-mail too.
Posted on December the 4th.

While various subcategories of the fashion and beauty industry struggle to survive, the fragrance sector continues to see steady growth. A flood of new celebrity scents fueled that growth in 2007, while luxury and designer brands reasserted their long-held position in the marketplace with numerous launches.

Personal fragrance is still big business, with the prestige market alone approaching $2.9 billion annually, according to The NPD Group, a 40-year-old, New York-based market research firm.

The key to the fragrance industry's success may be the rapidly expanding number of options for consumers. There's no shortage of scents old or new at retail, with special gift sets at Christmas and other major gift-giving holidays bolstering sales.

Visit any department store and you'll find the rising number of celebrity fragrances eating away at display space. A signature scent, it seems, has become the ultimate vanity product for stars. Beyond keeping a name in the forefront, a namesake fragrance can generate a significant revenue stream that continues to flow long after the luminary's lustre has begun to fade.

Unfortunately, celeb scents veer toward the cliched and redundant, been-there-smelled-that shadows of better scents already on the market. Many of this year's launches are either too raw and grungy -- like men's scents KISS (after the face-painted rock group) and David Beckham's Intimately Beckham -- or overly saccharin, such as Usher She and L, a L.A.M.B. fragrance by Gwen Stefani.

Can Can Paris Hilton, the ubuiquitous heiress' newest offering, is downright cloying in its floral sugary sweetness. Like so many other women's fragrances by celebs, it's not much more than a good starter fragrance for a 12-year-old.

Among the crop of celeb scents introduced in 2007, M Mariah Carey may be the most interesting. The eau de parfum opens with the sweetness of the living Tahitian tiare flower and unfolds into a warm, nuanced scent with whispers of toasted marshmallows and incense.

Source: Pittsburg Post Gazette (All rights reserved) (extract)
Posted on December the 3rd.