At the risk of sounding like a bitter old hag

Mariah Carey was on Oprah earlier this week. This is her big comeback. She has a new album coming out, she’s lost a lot of weight, she’s back better than ever. I’m not the biggest Mariah fan but I do like her music. I won’t even get into her movie Glitter.

What bothered me was that Oprah teased the show saying that Mariah had just made history by breaking one of Elvis’ records. Big deal, right? Don’t you want to know more? Don’t you want to hear all about her journey getting there, writing songs, performing, failures and successes?



No, Oprah had to spend the first segment asking Mariah about her weight loss. We got to watch Mariah showing Oprah her kitchen and her French chef/trainer. (I was confused by the two in one too, but the same woman cooking some chicken with no butter or fat for Mariah is also telling her how to exercise!)

I pretty much checked out after a few shots of Mariah and the French lady working out and the sad little chicken pieces Mariah has to eat to keep her skinny body.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for health and weight loss. I’ve been trying myself to exercise more and eat less. But I don’t think that’s the most fascinating thing about me or Mariah. Call me crazy, Oprah, but I actually wanted to hear about the music! It is what Mariah does, isn’t it?



This is the world we live in now. We’re more interested in knowing how singers stay so pretty and skinny then to hear them sing. We’d rather give her kudos for not eating then for breaking a record and making history.

Don’t get me wrong, I still love Oprah. I just think she’s kind of feeding the image obsession by focusing so much on Mariah’s body. I guess there’s no way not to, since Mariah’s new hit single is titled “Touch My Body.”

In case you’re curious to know what the record Mariah broke was, here’s the info straight from Oprah’s website.

“In April 2008, Mariah made music history when "Touch My Body," the first single off her album E=MC² reached the top spot on the Billboard charts. With 18 number one hits, she broke the previous record set by a solo artist…the king himself, Elvis Presley. Now, she's second only to The Beatles, who had 20 chart-toppers during their heyday.”



And if you want to see how hot Mariah looks, just look up the music video for “Touch My Body,” but I’d rather you’d take a moment to think about the singers and artists out there who do use their bodies as a selling point.

Okay, I got a little preachy, I’m sorry. Mariah looks good and sounds good, but why is the first one more important then the second?