Mariah Carey season is almost upon us, folks! (Whether her kids like it or not.) Some celebrate November 1 as part of Day of the Dead. Some mark it as All Saints Day. Since 1994, a growing legion across the globe heralds the first of November as the beginning of Mimi season, for it was on that day 30 years ago (yes, it’s really been 30 years) that Ms. Carey gifted the world with the chart-topping Christmas hit “All I Want For Christmas Is You.” Sure, the song was dethroned for a chunk of last winter by Brenda Lee’s 1958 classic “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree,” but Mariah was gracious in defeat then, so I have every confidence she will be again this year should the pattern hold. As long as she has proper lighting, that is. You see, Mariah was recently on the Las Culturistas podcast, and our holiday diva got on a tear about how she is “the most tortured” by hideous lighting in daily life. The struggle is real.
All Mariah Carey wants for Christmas is to look her best at all times.
In a clip from her appearance on iHeart Radio’s “Las Culturistas Podcast,” the superstar singer shared her dislike for the lighting in public spaces, which she finds less than flattering.
“I can’t with the overhead lighting,” Carey said. “Why do they do it to us? I shouldn’t say us, it’s not us, it’s me.”
According to the 55-year-old legendary singer, “I’m the one who’s the most tortured by the hideous lighting in elevators, doorways, gyms.”
“Not that I got to the gym,” she added. “I’m just saying.”
“It’s hideous lighting,” she said. “The sun is okay if it’s sunset, I’ll gladly go outside and put a little hat on or whatever and that’ll be pretty because the sunlight caresses your skin.”
Although sunlight, Carey pointed out, also has a downside.
“It’s bad for you so you have to be careful,” she said. “But overhead lighting, I don’t think so, honey.”
And lest you think she wasn’t serious about her dislike for overhead lighting, Carey added one more thing.
“It makes me sick,” she said.
You guys, she just can’t with the overhead lighting! I love everything about this story. I love that Mariah Carey is probably a mix of deadly serious and somewhat laughing at herself, but we’ll never really know to what extent she’s playing up the diva behavior. I love that she seamlessly pulls off a “JK, I don’t go to the gym,” with Martha Stewart-caliber insouciance towards activities of the peasants. I love that she dismisses this issue as a universal problem, and instead re-centers it as acutely devastating for her. I love that the sun — the sun! — almost gets a free pass, but then still gets qualified by Madame Butterfly. And yes I also love that august news broadcaster CNN is reporting on this breaking story. All I want for Hanukkah is more of Mariah Carey unabashedly being Mariah Carey. Well no, I want Kamala Harris to decisively win the election more than I’d like to get more Mimi presenting peak diva in peak Mimi season, but I really appreciated this moment of levity. And hilariously intense affect aside, Mariah is not wrong about bad lighting!
So a white dude and an Asian dude head a podcast called Las Culturistas and… I’m the only one with a problem with that? Yikes.
I do love Mimi though
Don’t really see the issue with ethnicity. Spanish is a language, which is spoken by many ethnicities and cultures. But the translation is Female Bodybuilders. Presumably they thought it was funny that it doesn’t mean what people might assume. Which is a little off.
“Oh, I don’t think so, honey.” Is going to be the new “I don’t even know her.” Gotta love Mimi for playing into the diva.
On the other hand, only going out at sunset and then only with a hat? Doesn’t she need Vitamin D?!!!!
Thanks for the fun and light article. I needed a little laugh because this election is causing me a lot of anxiety.
“I don’t think so, honey” is a regular segment on the podcast. These guys are quite funny and the whole point is to discuss what culture means to the guests.
I don’t find it problematic at all, but that’s just me.
“Not that I go to the gym, I’m just saying”. This is so perfect! After all, what diva goes to the gym? Did Callas? Did Jenny Lind? Of course not! Mimi is meant to recline on satin pillows, with perfect lighting! No calisthenics or peloton for her.
While I love the old Christmas classics – Silent Night, Oh Holy Night, Oh Come all Ye Faithful, The Lttle Drummer Boy original (but the remix with Bieber and Busta Rhymes is amazing) – if “All I want for Christmas” comes on randomly in August, I will happily sing along to it.
This is why I don’t worry about bad zoom lighting or extra makeup for virtual work meetings with my team. I work in a hybrid setting and that’s probably what I look like under the hideous office overhead lighting anyway. Sigh.
Sometimes it’s good to just accept you might look more like a bridge troll than you would like, but your colleagues appreciate you anyway 😂
I refuse to accept that I look like I do under the work bathroom fluorescent lighting though! It’s a good way to spot emerging gray hairs, and that’s the only good thingI can say about that.
As a fellow overhead-light-hater, I support this message. We will no longer sit in tortured silence!
Hahaha. She’s not wrong about overhead lighting though. It’s very unflattering. Because my hair is thinning, it makes my scalp look shiny, and every skin imperfection and eyebags look more obvious.
Some restaurants get it so, so wrong with the lighting.
It’s too bad that the word “diva” has acquired a bad reputation; but our Mimi is a diva in all its glory.
Mariah is 1000+% right. I can’t with overhead lighting. Not only it gives you a bad glow, it is visually so bad. My vote goes to BIG HUGE LAMPS EVERYWHERE
Lol, I remember telling my mother how Mimi had an assistant who would hold her beverage and straw whenever Mimi wanted to take a sip – my mom snorted and said “they do the same thing in nursing homes, only it’s not so glamorous.” Mom was the diva of logic.
Awesome. My mother loved how she looked by candlelight; was always hoping the electricity would go off.
Haha, your mom was right! And funny 🙂
In the craziness of life and the election so close (date and who will win), I needed this article. Thank you!
I always get the neon above my work desk taken out. I hate bad, cold, powerfull headlight.
Gosh I have worn an accountant green visor to work! My ADHD makes headlights fell like an occular assault.
I am with her, overhead lighting without dimmers is the devil’s work. I absolutely hate it. It’s not just her.
Harsh overhead lighting just messes with me. Makes me feel overstimulated. Hate it. Never have much thought about how bad it would make me look so yay now I have another reason to hate it. Thanks, mimi! She’s funny. After she did that podcast episode with Meghan about divas, I got her memoir and it was really good. Recommend the audio version.
I’m with her on overhead lighting and fluorescent lights. The lights at Walmart give me a headache in addition to being unflattering. I hate it there.
I have wondered for years why so many shops have hideously unflattering overhead lighting in the changing (fitting) rooms. Why???
I feel you Mimi and the older I get the more strongly I agree with her sentiments!
She SO right about this. Some of the overheads give me migraines.