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About Randy from USA: MC is my favorite artist of all time and I love her songwriting skills on her introspective songs. My favorite album: Butterfly. My favorite song: Right To Dream.

Robby, Andrew, webmaster and others (58,318) by Randy from USA Let me start off by saying this. I am a fan. I love MC. Her music has really helped me through some rough times. I don't think a lot of you really could understand that looking at my posts. It takes time out of my life to check and see what she's doing and where she's performing and to be on this site. I am not hating on her. But I am frustrated. I am convinced something traumatic happened after that 1996 Tokyo Dome performance and before the 1997 Oprah performance that was never addressed and as a fan all I have gotten is trickery and deceit. MC has never acted like anything happened because her so called real fans, or lambs, defend her with excuses at all costs as if they are a bunch of Annalise Keatings. But for someone who is considered by many to be the best vocalist in the world, there are hardly any trustworthy receipts outside of the studio after 1997, except a brief period after the Glitter meltdown, the impromptu for the fans at Jimmy Fallon, and that wonderful duet with John Legend in 2005. I know this because I know every US live performance because I am a fan. I don't go into performances looking to criticize her and I don't want to hate on her. I want the real truth about what happened between 1996 and 1997. No one can do what MC can do as far as crafting a song or an album, lyrically or vocally in the studio. But vocally the magic is left in the studio and to me that's fraud. As far as Andrew. I do think he is harsh and comes off sometimes as hating MC, however, he is entitled to his opinion since he is on a MC messageboard and has a very knowledgeable base of her work and live performances. The webmaster allows us here to provide a difference of opinion. I wish so much that some of you could spend the day in Atlanta with me while I prove my case about deceit, smoke and mirrors, trickery and fraud on stage. I can also prove that other singers have held on to their voices longer than she has been out and that their songs are just as difficult to sing. I can also flip the script and use her lyricism and her studio vocals to prove she is the greatest all around recording artist of all time. (Thursday 10 December 2015; 1:15)

Darren (58,278) by Randy from USA You're right about the pitch thing. I should have used something else to describe her issue. But I will disagree with you with studio versus live. When she first started singing she sounded the same if not better than the studio versions of songs. Listen to "If it's over" and tell me she sounds that much different in live performances. Yet look at the DFAU and the "live version" on the AMAs. Besides when she lipped the high voice belts the versus were awful. That, to me, is her worst live performance. Something "magical" is happening in the studio and it's more than her recording her best takes. (Tuesday 8 December 2015; 21:12)

Performance with Busta (58,263) by Randy from USA She didn't sound bad. I can't even criticize her considering how bad she has sounded in the past. My problem is for someone considered the best singer in the world because of what she does in the studio, this was dreadful. And I'm tired of the excuses, she's been singing for 25 years, she just got out of the hospital, she couldn't hear herself. She started this scratchy pitchy live foolishness on Oprah 1997 and has been pretty consistent since. (Monday 7 December 2015; 23:19)

Adam (58,124) by Randy from USA I disagree. She was awesome in Precious and in The Butler without a speaking part. She wasn't bad in WiseGirls. She can act if handled by the right people. (Tuesday 1 December 2015; 2:32)

Travon and GMA (58,095) by Randy from USA I am so sorry about the name thing. And she did have a forced smile and sad look when they showed that clip. I feel bad for her. A meme came up on my timeline saying "All I want for Christmas is my voice back". I feel like if she could hit award shows the way she hits concerts she would silence the haters. And she has looked stunning lately. It's frustrating when you're a superfan like me and have seen every interview so we know it all. I'm sure several of you will agree, if we hear that beauty school dropout story one more time, we're going to glitter the elusive chanteuse with a whole bunch of butterflies without emancipation. (Sunday 29 November 2015; 19:37)

Travis (58,077) by Randy from USA I think as negative as Andrew, and Adam may be, they bring up valid points and you can love an artist but not everything about them. My least favorite thing about MC: the smoke and mirrors around her live performances. My favorite thing: her songwriting. And the producers I want her to work with: none. I want an album full of stripped introspective songs about the divorce, her kids, Morgan and Allison etc kinda in the vein of Right To Dream, Close My Eyes and Languishing. Keep the vocals constrained to things she can always sing on stage without lip syncing or straining her voice. (Sunday 29 November 2015; 5:38)

Morgan and Allison (58,000) by Randy from USA What saddens me is how people in her family should've been in her corner and how they betrayed her. Are paid spots on Entertainment Tonight and in tabloids worth selling out your sister, who by the way has enough money to give you the world? After Tommy and now Nick's betrayal who humanly does she have to turn to? I criticize MC over her live performances but recently I've began to feel sorry for her. Who does she have? (Thursday 26 November 2015; 19:15)

Melt Away (57,942) by Randy from USA Am I the only one who feels this belonged on the Waiting To Exhale soundtrack? Dammit Tommy and Clive for creating a rivalry. Where on the soundtrack sequence do you think it belongs? (Monday 23 November 2015; 19:16)

Good Morning America (57,926) by Randy from USA Why is she not singing? Please don't let it be a new cosmetic product. (Sunday 22 November 2015; 19:29)

Watch What Happens Live / T Pain (57,859) by Randy from USA I don't know if any of you caught it but Sunday T Pain was on Andy Cohen's Watch What Happens Live. He was asked by a fan on twitter what it was like working with MC. He said she gets drunk off a very little bit of wine and she was in the booth made for one with him while he was trying to record his verse for Migrate and to me in my opinion he was making it seem like something happened in there. Did anyone else catch it and feel like that? (Wednesday 18 November 2015; 12:08)

Oh the insanity (57,687) by Randy from USA I've held my tongue for awhile on this Adele topic, but now I will speak. I agree that MC has been lip syncing the high full voice belts since that fateful day on Oprah in 1997. After Charmbracelet, when she knew we had widened up to it, she started recording a scratchy track to match the tone of the current state of her voice but when she starts flailing those arms, turning her head she ain't a bit more singing than the man on the moon. Now what I will say is whatever she does in the studio is more difficult than what Adele does, however Adele can replicate her magic live and MC refuses to. I agree with Andrew she needs to sing in her current range. Why can't she sing songs in the same register as Right To Dream, Help Me Make It Through The Night and Languishing. I doubt she can't sing those live. In addition, you guys wanna talk Macau, Vegas and Jimmy Fallon impromptu where her voice is great. But why she can't do the same for American television is beyond me. She always chokes at awards shows or again, lip syncs. Now about Adele, I love Hello but to be honest it is not anywhere near a quality a song or vocal as MC's best, Vision Of Love, Vanishing, Looking In, Outside, Close My Eyes, Butterfly, My All, Petals, Through The Rain, Reflections (Care Enough), Twister, Never Too Far, Through The Rain, Right To Dream and Languishing. None of Adele's songs match any of them. In fact, those songs in my opinion make MC the greatest singer-songwriter of all time. Some of those songs are better than anything the revered female singer-songwriters: Alicia Keys, Joni Mitchell, Lauryn Hill, Sarah McLachlan, Jewel, Carole King, Diane Warren have ever done. Which is why I'm still invested despite the smoke and mirrors surrounding her live performances. Adele is great but please don't think MC can't sit with paper and pen with Big Jim Wright at the keys and not come up with an emotional, timeless masterpiece better than Adele's entire catalogue, in less than thirty minutes. MC still has that capability, she just chooses not to use it because she hates "always" doing ballads. (Saturday 7 November 2015; 18:37)

Adele and Macau (57,553) by Randy from USA I have to admit, when I first heard Hello, I was instantly smitten and I do think she makes all the right moves. The lyric, vocal and video are perfection. But a lot of you wondered why MC can't do the same. She can do stripped down, lyric driven music if she wants to. She just doesn't enjoy being in that box. She said herself she's not one dimensional. Adele is one dimensional. However Adele sells records so that is what people like. MC makes music for herself because she used to make it for the public and was unhappy. MC knows what will sell but that no longer matters to her. As long as we get one stripped, lyric driven, introspective song like Languishing, Cry or Camouflage per album, I'm good. About the live Macau performances. Everyone knows how critical I have been of MC's "live" performances. She sounded very decent and it infuriates me she can't do this on American television or at award shows when it counts. She folds like a card table. (Thursday 29 October 2015; 11:53)

I'll shut up for now / my favorite things (57,454) by Randy from USA Andrew I hate beer and love liquor. And Bino and Lamb O Chop I have been screaming this stuff from the top of my lungs for ever, I'll move on. Do you guys think with all of this Christmas hoopla, she will record and finally release a cover of "My Favorite Things"? Maybe as a stand alone single or to go with her movie. She said a long time ago it was one of her favorite songs of all time. When she released MCIIY I just knew it would be on there. (Thursday 22 October 2015; 1:54)

I'm a broken record for live audio debates (57,434) by Randy from USA I thank everyone for their comments: good, bad and indifferent. I also thank the webmaster for posting my last message in its entirety. I read this board often and pay attention what people say. I have emailed a few of you back and forth and we've discussed how people on this board turn any criticism of MC turns into the criticizer being a hater. A lot of you don't understand how MCs music helps me through life. When I am feeling alone, I listen to Right To Dream, the saddest song ever written about having hope. When I am feeling devastated, I listen to Languishing, and wonder who is really there for me. When I'm feeling different, I listen to Outside. My All is one of the best love songs ever recorded. To me there is more emotion in that final hook than in Whitney's IWALY, Toni's UMH and Celine's MHWGO combined. I think lyrically MC is up there with Jewel, Sarah Mc, Lauryn Hill and other introspective songwriters. She deserves a lot of respect. But all the number ones in the world though can not make one a performer. So you all are ok with people saying, she's a studio singer? All the excuses in the world, divorces, nodules, sensitivity of voice, earpieces does not negate fact. When MCs voice changed and I heard her in 98, I figured that was her new sound and I went with it. So did she. Notice the full voice belts on SH, ISB, and WYB were lower and she sung all of them without lip syncing, live. But beginning with Rainbow she would struggle through the verses and then magically belt the high parts sounding exactly like the records. Was I the only one disgusted in 2003 when MC released one of the best songs of her career TTR, with no background vocals on the record, but whenever she performed it live there was a wall of background vocalists? Check out her AMA, Oprah, MTV performances. I paid to see her in Columbia MD in 2003 during the Charmbracelet show and she lip synced most of it. Who sings songs on record that can't be sung live? It infuriates me so much because I feel like I am the only fan looking behind the curtain at the Wizard of Oz and then I get beat up for doing so. MC will get millions of dollars to perform NYE. I can guarantee a lot of it will be lip synced. Where is that right for the best vocalist in the world? I have nothing but love for MC and could care less about the ensembles, the diva antics and other things most of you criticize as long as she walks on stage and kills it without lip syncing. She hasn't done that in awhile and gets a free pass. No wait a multi million dollar pass. (Wednesday 21 October 2015; 2:10)

I'm going to reply (57,403) by Randy from USA I normally don't reply on this board when I say something that is easily proveable and get called names, but this time I won't be silent. Someone brought up the Divas 98 topic and said that MC held back because she had class and Celine didn't which made my blood boil, so I responded. I didn't start this topic. I'm starting to realize maybe it's a misunderstanding of culture. Among black gay men on the East coast we argue our favorite divas like guys argue over who's the best on football teams. We have YouTube viewing sessions, we argue sales, relevancy and cultural impact. There are groups on Facebook like The Legends Panel designed specifically for these debates. When there's a spades (card game) party or an awards show, many of us gather and argue. I am a Mariah fan. Have been since the beginning and when we have these debates about Whitney, Beyonce, Patti, Aretha etc. The #1 thing agreed on by others, is that MC cannot perform live. When I argue differently, I am asked for receipts. Receipts mean proof. I have seen every American live televised performance by MC period. When my friends play certain years 1998-2015 of their divas, especially Patti, Aretha and Celine I am hard pressed to find a performance by MC that wows and does not have the full voice belt notes lipped. The Glitter performances of 01 and that impromptu for the fans backstage at Jimmy Fallon are my exceptions. Did you know that there are YouTube videos that go through note for note that she lip syncs based on whether she chose the album track to pull select notes from or a prerecorded vocal that she uses for multiple performance that matches the rasp in her live voice? Probably not. I think when you are a fan sometimes it's hard to objectively hear your artist. I wish Baby and Gino could sit with me in Atlanta one afternoon and go through MC performances. I have plenty of evidence that the voice went through something post 1996 and there's been a lot of smoke and mirrors to cover it up. And the whole argument about well it's 20 years later she can't sing like she used to? Check Patti Labelle singing You'll Never Walk Alone in 1983 at Motown's 25th and then 32 years later at Divas 2004. And Patti didn't start in 2004. But I hold onto that from 1990-1996 MC was quite something and even now she can write anyone under the table. But don't go there with me about live performances. (Tuesday 20 October 2015; 0:38)

VH1 Divas Live 1998 (57,382) by Randy from USA I was mortified when Celine went up against Aretha. I was like where is MC? People always say, well MC doesn't have a gospel background and she's a studio musician so she can't "show off" live. I called pox on all of that because listen to the "Jesus" chorus at then end of Jesus What A Wonderful Child on the Christmas album. That was MC going off and I loved it. All she had to do was replicate that and the audience would have been wow'ed. But only 4 years later, when Aretha called MC out and said help me lift him, MC vocals were strained. Celine stood up next to the queen of soul and matched her note for note. I was mortified as a MC fan. But I forgot, MC didn't get enough rest the night before, her earpiece monitor wasn't working, there wasn't enough humidity in the venue, she was sick, she was a last minute addition to the show, she was nervous, she was upset, you know the usual excuses for someone that is considered one of the greatest vocalists of all time. I will excuse MC for not singing well in 2015 but not in 1998. Which again begs the question that no one has answered, what happened between that Tokyo Dome Daydream performance (her best) in 96 and that Oprah 1997 performance that caused her voice to change dramatically forever? And don't attack me folks, do your research. (Monday 19 October 2015; 12:29)

I've always wondered (57,228) by Randy from USA What 1990 MC would think of 2015 MC? (Sunday 11 October 2015; 20:27)

5 Questions (really 10) (56,700) by Randy from USA Amazing topic but I would have to go tough and light: Tough questions: 1. What happened to your high full voice notes starting in 1997? 2. Why do you continuously sing songs on wax with high full voice notes that you cannot replicate live? 3. You are 45 years old, when will you stop collaborating with younger hip hop artists? 4. How long is your natural hair without extentions? 5. If you claim to be over the Tommy era of self-consciousness, why do you still claim to have a good side and need good lighting? Light questions 1. Who is dandelion, little sister and little brother in Petals? 2. Will we ever hear the song "Crave"? 3. You said you would remake "My Favorite Things" and put it on a Christmas album, you never put it on Merry Christmas II You, will we ever get to hear it? 4. Glitter is a masterpiece, were you told by your management to dismiss it as a soundtrack and a concept record during your Charmbracelet promotional tour because it didn't sell? Or do you not stand behind the record? 5. What would it take for you to collaborate with Walter A or Ben Marguilies again? (Wednesday 16 September 2015; 23:48)

Edward (56,064) by Randy from USA I listened to a few moments of the "remix" and turned it off. I often just feel she's not making music for me anymore. That's ok. But I do wonder who is she making it for beside herself? I wonder how long this eternally 12, goddess in a mermaid dress that makes music with current hip hop artists can last. Not to be ageist but will all this make sense in 5 years at age 50? I'm not saying she should be put out to pasture but what she's been doing since 2009 can't last. PS I miss our private email MC debates. (Saturday 15 August 2015; 16:38)

Mariah's fans (55,253) by Randy from USA We do have varying tastes lol. Paul you nearly killed me when you said Right To Dream is among her worst. That's my favorite song of all time. Lyrics are perfection and the voice was raw and unadorned. The Beautiful Ones is another fave of mine especially towards the end. MC has never drawn a song out damn near 7 minutes like that before and I love the outcome. I have to agree Boy I Need You is awful. Among my least favorites are: All In Your Mind (though the vocal is sick), To Be Around You, The Wind, Now That I Know, I've Been Thinking About You, Long Ago, Irresistable, Your Girl, I Wish You Knew, OOC, The Impossible, Dedicated. (Monday 13 July 2015; 22:56)

Lee / Mariah's blackness (54,986) by Randy from USA This is just my opinion. I think the black community doesn't embrace MC because she has never really come out and said she's black. My best friend explained that she doesn't look like Halle Berry, Faith Evans or Barack Obama the other mixed celebrities who are considered black. My other close friend said she remembered MC saying early on in her career, during an interview, that she wasn't black. I searched and could never find such an interview, however what I did find was MC in 1991 at the Soul Train Music Awards winning an award and thanking the black community for embracing her. She has separated herself by holding onto the label biracial. Racist America has never had a biracial pre Civil Rights Era, everyone who had any black heritage was just that, black. MC should embrace all of her races. The final nail in the coffin, in my humble opinion, is while she has soul, Mariah's achilles heel is always going to be her live performances. If she "showed off" more like a Patti, Whitney, Chaka Khan, instead of standing still and singing the songs like the record and in some cases lip syncing the high full voice belts, she would have gotten a lot more respect from the black community as a vocalist because of the impromptu belting, scatting, riffs and runs that go along with singing live R&B and Gospel. I don't want to argue with anyone, this is my humble opinion. I answered a question and did not attack MC. It's sad that I have to end with a disclaimer to post here. (Tuesday 30 June 2015; 19:33)

Clueeey and Giovanni (54,662) by Randy from USA You need proof of vocal deterioration? Watch Mariah sing Vision Of Love after "the answer that heaven has sent down to me" until the end in 1995 at Madison Square Garden then go three short years and watch it become an epic fail at The View in 1998. Then watch it become an embarrassment at 2003 Shining Through The Rain and then watch it become a laborous strain to prove the point she still has a voice in 2005 at BET's Blueprint. All of these are on YouTube. Need proof of lip syncing? I have plenty of those. No one thinks it's odd she refuses to have anyone but the engineer in the room when she records her vocals? Delusion is very real on this board and it's getting old. By the way, before the nasty messages start, I'm not calling you two delusional. I don't know you as people to make that judgment. (Tuesday 16 June 2015; 5:43)

Special K (54,579) by Randy from USA Firstly, welcome back dahling. Your presence has been missed. You hit it right on the head. When MC performs at these awards shows and she is known for her voice, it is embarrassing how other female singers come up and look comfortable and blow. And don't give me that MC songs are hard to sing, or how long MC has been performing. (Friday 12 June 2015; 14:57)

B on behalf of those you call negative (54,453) by Randy from USA I never said MC needs to lose weight. That's a battle no one wins. Oprah has given up, Kelly Clarkson has given up and even I have gained a ton of weight since my breakup in May of 2013. My last post was a simple logical question: if Mariah is straining to hit notes and sounds incredibly cringeworthy at times, and she is 45 years old with 25 years in the game, shouldn't she take a break or start singing songs that are simple like Right To Dream or Languishing because she has 25 years more to go before she is Patti's and Aretha's age. What will she sound like then at the current rate of deterioration and difficulty? I don't think that's disrespectful or negative. I have gone through many emotions with MC over the years. I have been enamored, at times indifferent, a few years ago post GMA Touch My Body I was furious with her. These days it's worse. I look at LA Reid and JD's comments. I look at her live performances. I look at her personal relationships. I look at the music and videos she's putting out and I feel worst than anger. I feel pity. And if you guys want to know why myself, Andrew or whosoever you all think are critical of her it is because everyonce in a while there's a distant glimmer of hope. We all love MC and she has impacted our lives tremendously but to see her legacy being threatened due to very poor choices, we feel we have to speak up. P.S thanks for the compliment. (Tuesday 9 June 2015; 18:32)

B (54,421) by Randy from USA I don't address others in my posts. I don't insult MC in my posts. I ask logical questions based on what I see. Calling me a goat is an insult and I deserve an apology. (Tuesday 9 June 2015; 7:10)

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