For Mariah Carey, the 2026 MusiCares Person of the Year ceremony held at the Los Angeles Convention Center on January 30, was a very special evening, with peers such as Adam Lambert, Jennifer Hudson, John Legend, Kesha and Busta Rhymes celebrating her career with unique performances of some of her best-known songs.
“When I was a little girl scribbling lyrics in my notebook late at night, I could only dream of someone hearing those words and singing them," Carey told the star-studded audience gathered in her honour. "Never in my wildest dreams did I think I'd be here with all 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."
The biggest surprise of the night, and one which visibly delighted Carey, came when Foo Fighters and and guest vocalist Taylor Momsen took to the stage to perform two songs from Someone’s Ugly Daughter, the 'secret' alt. rock album Carey wrote and recorded in 1995, and released under the band name Chick.
The R&B/Pop superstar recorded the album, inspired by artists such as Hole, Alanis Morissette and Veruca Salt, while 'officially' working upon her fifth studio album, Daydream.
"I was exploring my musical range, but I was also filled with rage," the singer revealed in her 2020 memoir The Meaning Of Mariah Carey. "It’s always been a challenge for me to acknowledge and express anger. My personal life was suffocating during Daydream, and I was in desperate need of release."
“I was playing with the style of the breezy-grunge, punk-light white female singers who were popular at the time," she explained. "You know the ones who seemed to be so carefree with their feelings and their image. They could be angry, angsty, and messy, with old shoes, wrinkled slips, and unruly eyebrows, while every move I made was so calculated and manicured. I wanted to break free, let loose, and express my misery - but I also wanted to laugh.”
As legend has it, the laughter stopped when news of the project reached Carey's label, Sony Music, run by Carey's then-husband Tommy Mottola. Carey was informed that there was not a chance that company would release the album in its original form, with label bigwigs insisting that the recordings, which Carey described as "irreverent, raw, and urgent" would damage her image. As a compromise, Carey persuaded a friend, Clarissa Dane, to re-record her vocals on every track, and the album was sneaked out on Epic/550 Records, with no fanfare, and zero mention of Carey's involvement
"I got kind of in trouble for making this album – the alternative album – because back then, everything was super-controlled by the powers that be," the singer confessed to Zane Lowe in 2020.
