I've talked to a few people close to her and maybe an ex-boyfriend, who attributed her lack of vocal strength to her love of vino. I'll say that I definitely enjoy a glass of red and know that it can def dry out the old cords!
If you listen to the TMZ released isolated vocals from her performance last night, you will hear that her biggest struggle came when she tried to go into her falsetto:
http://www.tmz.com/2014/12/04/mariah-carey-unedited-isolated-vocals-nbc-all-i-want-for-christman/
I know first hand that when I had nodules at one point and ruptured my vocal cord at another point, my falsesetto range was the first to go. Nothing in the world is harder than being a singer that knows what your capable of yet your body does NOT want to be nice to you. Maybe cause you weren't nice to your body. It's a relationship that forces mutual reciprocation.
Before you cast a stone at our beloved diva, or in this case a large brick, take a minute to sip in a dose of kindness to better understand why she is struggling and why we should not give up on her!
10 reasons why you should take it easy on Mariah:
1: Listen to the Music Box record. It is ranked one of the best selling records of all time at 32 million sales.
2: There isn't a female Christmas record that came out after hers that doesn't channel one of her vocal runs. PERIOD. From Kelly to Christina, they rip off everything from the classic "Oh Holy Night" opening, to the Walter Afanasieff co-written HIT "All I want for Christmas is you".
3: A ton of hit songwriters aren't the worlds best vocalists. Take out the fact that Mariah has been a world class singer, she is a HIT songwriter!!!! She WROTE the now classic song "All I want for Christmas is you"! That alone is a reason to celebrate the artistic work of this woman. SHE. WROTE. IT.
4: Did you also know she wrote the song "Where are you Christmas" from the "Grinch who stole Christmas" movie? The song was performed not only in the movie by actress Taylor Momsen, but also Faith Hill.
5: You. Are. Still. Talking. About. Her. She has obviously remained relevant. We don't know if she is 44 or 45....but that is such a hard thing to maintain in this ever so fickle industry, relevancy.
6: "One Sweet Day" the longest running #1 in history. 16 weeks. Bye.
7: She signed a 100 million dollar record contract with Virgin. Did you? As you are laughing at her from the backseat of your Aunt's mini-coop, take that in.
8: Because she gave timeless classics to us!!! We will forever sing along to "go back like babies and pacifiers" and " Always be my baby" because this woman contributed this amazingness to our lives.
9: She is a Mother and a middle aged woman that is HUMAN! Yes, HUMAN people!!! We are all so quick to point and judge but what have we done that's nearly close to this.
10: Because you want to be different. Because you don't want to hop on the train of judgement with the rest of America that destroys anyone and everyone that shows an ounce of imperfection. It's almost like we love it and wait for it. We feed off of it and it makes us feel better. Well, STOP!
Take a second to pay tribute to one of the finest contributors of pop music in all of history.
When you bounce around Target to "Santa Claus is coming to town", give yourself a tiny hand slap for being so mean to this Pop Princess! Now go warm up some cocoa and put on the best Christmas album of all time!!!
