Mariah's Coming Back...Again

MCMariah Carey is a comeback queen and fans have clicked in to her new single “Obsessed” which went up for sale at all digital partners.  Yesterday, fans had their alarm clocks set for 12:01 am for their chance to buy her first single.

“Obsessed,” written and produced by Mariah, The-Dream and Tricky Stewart, is the first single pick from MEMOIRS OF AN IMPERFECT ANGEL, scheduled to arrive in-stores on August 25th.   MEMOIRS was executive-produced by Antonio “L.A.” Reid.

The video for “Obsessed,” filmed in New York City last week, was directed by renowned filmmaker Brett Ratner, whose videography with Mariah Carey stretches back more than a decade, to 1998’s “I Still Believe.”  Along the way, Ratner has directed videos for Mariah including “It’s Like That” and “We Belong Together” in 2005 (from The Emancipation Of Mimi), and last year’s “Touch My Body” (from E=MC²).

MEMOIRS OF AN IMPERFECT ANGEL is the eagerly anticipated follow-up to Mariah’s multi-platinum-selling album E=MC² (released April 15, 2008), and her worldwide 10 million selling The Emancipation Of Mimi (released April 12, 2005).  Both were Sound­scan #1 debut albums that made chart history for Mariah in the U.S. and numerous territories around the globe.

 The Emancipation Of Mimi, which I still play from front to back today, generated three Grammy awards (including Best Contemp­orary R&B Album), two #1 singles, and countless more honors during its 18-month chart stay.  The album debuted at #1 on first week sales of 404,000 copies, Mariah’s highest first week   sales total (until E=MC²).  Soundscan’s biggest-selling album of 2005, Mimi featured “We Belong Together” (Grammy winner for Best Female R&B Vocal and Best R&B Song) and “Don’t Forget About Us,” Mariah’s 16th and 17th  #1 career singles respectively.  They tied   one of the most enduring chart records in Billboard Hot 100 history, Elvis Presley’s 17 #1’s.

Three years later, E=MC² debuted at #1 on first week sales of 463,000 copies, which now stands as the highest first week sales total of Mariah’s career.  The album’s success brought total sales of Mariah’s albums, singles and videos to more than 160  million worldwide, distancing her even further from the pack as the top-selling female recording artist in history.

E=MC² spun off four singles: “Touch My Body,” “Bye Bye,” “I’ll Be Lovin’ U Long Time,” and “I Stay In Love.”  Of these, “Touch My Body” made history when it became Mariah’s 18th #1 Hot 100 hit, thus surpassing Elvis Presley.  “Touch My Body”’s two weeks at the top also marked Mariah’s 78th and 79th cumulative career weeks at #1, which tied Elvis’ long-standing all-time high of 79 weeks at #1, as calculated in Billboard.com.  At the same time, Mariah is now positioned as the only active recording artist in the 50 years of the Hot 100 (which began in 1958) with the potential to surpass the Beatles’ all-time high of 20 #1 hits.

Are you ready for Mrs. Cannon to blow again?!