The Favorites Series: Singer

Anomalies, we made it. Whew! What a week, what a world.

For some reason, this topic has been on my mind all week. I've observed that when people find out you're a musician, singer or into music in some way, they proceed to show you all the stuff they're listening to (or what I call the shove-things-down-your-throat-show) but rarely ask what you're listening to, who your inspirations are or about your musical journey in general.

Another thing that cracks me up is when people ask you to put on one of your songs and then they say oh you sound like this or you remind me of this and before you know it, you've listened to an entire album of some other artist and your Spotify plays are still at 0 monthly listeners.

Anyway or anyways like we said in the 90s, in this series, I'd like to share some of my favorites and "borrow" from YouTube since my VCR player ain't working these days.

My favorite singer used to be Fiona Apple. From the first time I heard Sleep To Dream on her debut CD that my bro Naje bought me, I was pretty sure that she was to me what Chaka Khan is to my mom. I listened to Tidal over and over and over again, memorizing all my favorite songs and learning Never Is A Promise on piano. My mom loved hearing me play that song. I remember wanting to be her and knowing that there was a place for an alternative singer who played piano because she was there. There are many who paved the way (Tori Amos for example) but Fiona was closer to my age and at that time, seemed like a big sister or someone I could relate to in my teenage angst years.

Then came When The Pawn which literally changed my life. I played that album on repeat and Fast As You Can was on rotation daily. After that she went on hiatus and when Extraordinary Machine came out, I waited until the LAST minute to buy it. I was working on an album at that time and knew that if I listened to it, I would think my songs were shit and become extremely critical. I waited a couple of years before I finally got it and I'm glad that I did. It is a lyrical masterpiece.

So a couple of paragraphs ago I wrote that Fiona Apple used to be my favorite singer. This past year, I was having a conversation in my head and I realized that it's her songwriting that is what I admire the most. The way she twists and bends words and makes me grab a dictionary to understand - it's almost like being in an English literature class. Then the darkness and willingness to reveal the depths of her soul in a way so openly and vulnerably is what I will treasure most about her artistry. One of my all-time favorite lyrics is "I don't want a home I'd ruin that. Home is where my habits have a habitat."

So having written all of that, in this conversation in my head, I asked myself - Well, who is your favorite singer? Who is the singer that when you hear their voice, you immediately get chills and are just in awe of their vocal ability? After careful contemplation, I concluded that that the singer is Mariah Carey. I'm talking 90s Mariah: Vision of Love, Vanishing, Hero, My All, I Don't Want To Cry, Butterfly, All I Want For Christmas...

My mom played A Vision Of Love for the first time when I was a kid and I remembered just being in awe of her vocal ability. She was a force that was so strong. Whitney Houston, of course, is The Voice but there has always been something about Mariah Carey's delivery that tugs at my heart strings.

Her falsetto is flawless - it's raspy, angelic, beautiful, effortless and her breath work is an art within itself. Then when her chest voice and belting come in, that's when I swear the tears start coming down. There are only three people on this earth who can make me cry when they sing and that is her, Celine Dion and my mom. It definitely has to do with when they take a song to another level and their vocal prowess is at its best.

My favorite song by Mariah Carey is My All and it is something that to this day I struggle with singing. It's soooo hard. It seems simple but all of the runs and inflections and then that last verse when she takes it home is just brilliant vocal work. it's soooo hard, didn't I already write that?

The song I "borrowed" from YouTube to share is Butterfly. Like all iconic ballads, this song begins softly and draws you in delicately. Then when the bridge kicks in her belting is unleashed and she takes the whole song to another level. If I listen to any Christmas or church songs on YouTube, I immediately start crying. Today's Mariah Carey is different than the one she was but I will always have respect for her contribution to music and to the future generations of singers who have tried their best to emulate her and fallen short.

Well, thanks for letting me have my shove-it-down-your-throat moment.

The Anomaly