{"id":267660,"date":"2026-01-31T20:38:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T20:38:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/267660\/"},"modified":"2026-01-31T20:38:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T20:38:07","slug":"mariah-careys-expansive-career-celebrated-at-musicares-gala","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/267660\/","title":{"rendered":"Mariah Carey’s Expansive Career Celebrated at MusiCares Gala"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tIt may be a few weeks past Mariah Carey<\/a>\u2018s signature season, but the Queen of Christmas<\/a> was celebrated for her decades of year-round accomplishments at the MusiCares<\/a> Person of the Year Gala on Friday night. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe signature Grammy weekend event, which supports MusiCares\u2019 work for the health and welfare of the music community, features cross-genre artists taking the stage to cover the honoree\u2019s hit songs; this year, Jennifer Hudson kicked off the concert with a medley of \u201cI Don\u2019t Wanna Cry,\u201d \u201cMy All,\u201d \u201cVision of Love\u201d and \u201cMake It Happen.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tThat was followed by a rather surprising entry from Carey\u2019s catalog \u2014 two songs from Someone\u2019s Ugly Daughter, a grunge album released in 1995 under the moniker Chick, which the star revealed in 2020 that she had recorded and co-produced decades earlier. Taylor Momsen and the Foo Fighters rocked out to the tunes as Carey sang along from her seat inside the L.A. Convention Center.<\/p>\n

\n\tCharlie Puth (covering \u201cI Still Believe\u201d), Kesha (\u201cObsessed\u201d), John Legend (\u201cHero\u201d), Laufey (\u201cIt\u2019s Like That\u201d), Adam Lambert (\u201cCan\u2019t Let Go\u201d) and Maggie Rogers (\u201cHoney\u201d) were also on the performer docket, with Babyface, SZA, Richard Marx, Rita Wilson, Kim Burrell and Gayle King appearing as presenters. <\/p>\n

\n\tStevie Wonder made a surprise appearance, telling Carey, \u201cThe greatest thing about you and I is we have respect and love for each other.\u201d And at a time when many artists are using their platforms to speak out politically<\/a>, he also told the crowd, \u201cWhen you speak, it\u2019s for free. When you talk, it\u2019s for free. When you sing, it\u2019s for free. It\u2019s been given to you, the gift of life, which is free. I say to all of you, not just here but throughout the world, never let anyone think they can take your freedom away.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tLater on, Busta Rhymes called Carey, \u201cQueen, royal empress,\u201d as he teasingly expressed his appreciation that she texts him back: \u201cI love whenever I need you, even when it\u2019s not the most convenient, you pull up for Busta Rhymes.\u201d He then performed their song \u201cI Know What You Want,\u201d followed by Billy Porter taking on her classic \u201cAlways Be My Baby\u201d \u2014 and stopping in the middle to joke, \u201cWhen you wrote these lyrics, did you realize you were serving stalker realness? But we\u2019ve all been there baby, that\u2019s why we love the song so much.\u201d Girl group Flo sang \u201cDreamlover\u201d and Teddy Swims took on \u201cWithout You,\u201d admitting that singing directly to the star \u201cwas terrifying.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tGetting to the award portion of the evening, Universal Music Publishing Group chairman and CEO Jody Gerson was on hand to present, emphasizing how Carey \u201cwrote or co-wrote virtually her entire catalog\u201d and blended \u201cpop accessibility with R&B, gospel and hip-hop songwriting traditions, in ways that open the door to genre-fluid pop, especially for female artists who follow her.\u201d Gerson also noted with how she expanded \u201cthe collective vocabulary of millions of fans around the world\u201d with her sophisticated lyrics that turned \u201cSAT words into chart-toppers.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cBefore Mariah emerged and changed the game, female pop artists were often viewed as interpreters rather than writers of their own work. Mariah shattered that narrative by pairing chart dominance with songwriting authorship,\u201d Gerson continued. \u201cShe helped redefine what it meant to be a female pop star as a self-directed artist. Mariah combined glamour and intellect, vulnerability and power, technical mastery and emotional storytelling. She is a symbol of resilience, reinvention and creative self-determination \u2014 and yes, she owns Christmas.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tCarey accepted her award to a standing ovation, as she joked she was \u201csurrounded by so many friendly and familiar faces \u2014 people I\u2019ve worked with, people I\u2019ve long admired, even people I thought I\u2019d never see again.\u201d (One of those faces was Anderson .Paak, who has sparked dating rumors with Carey and was spotted at her table.) <\/p>\n

\n\tThe star said, \u201creceiving this honor is one of the most profound moments of my life and career\u201d because of the long line of icons who have gotten it before her. \u201cTonight has been sublime. To hear my songs reimagined by some of the world\u2019s greatest artists \u2014 it\u2019s surreal. When I was a little girl scribbling lyrics in my notebook late at night, I could only dream of someone hearing those words and relating to them,\u201d Carey added. \u201cNever in my wildest dreams did I think I\u2019d be here with all of these magnificent artists singing my songs back to me, infusing them with their own artistry and giving them all new life. This has given me life, and I appreciate you so much.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe ceremony wouldn\u2019t be complete without a touch of that Christmas magic though, as Jon Batiste led a rendition of \u201cAll I Want For Christmas Is You\u201d to close out the show, joined by the night\u2019s performers against a wintery backdrop. Carey, who had already gone backstage at the time, came back out to finish the song before the Christmas Queen officially goes into hibernation until next season. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It may be a few weeks past Mariah Carey\u2018s signature season, but the Queen of Christmas was celebrated…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":267661,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[146,52559,14445,38161,85,46,2221,409,60738],"class_list":["post-267660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-grammy-awards","tag-grammys","tag-grammys-2026","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-mariah-carey","tag-music","tag-musicares"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267660\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}