Billboard Music Icon Award: Living Legend Mariah Carey

At a loss of words. Mariah Carey’s speech just left me… speechless.
As an aspiring singer, I am extremely grateful for the power of music. How music can simply lift spirits in times of despair. How music can takes us to a different time, and place. How music can simply move us.
For me, Mariah Carey was one of the few who I drew great inspiration from.
Although, I know she is incomparable as a vocalist, I also know that great music is possible. It’s amazing how a series of notes can make one feel. How a few notes can get one to break out of the ordinary state and start.. singing. And if the music is great, it can take one to a state of nirvana. Music is pure beauty and I think anyone who identifies as a singer at heart truly feels this sense of nirvana through Mariah’s music. I also love how she referenced the concept of highs and lows, because to me, that’s all it’s really about. Hence my choice of name for this blog. Nonetheless Mariah’s drive is immeasurable. As she makes evident in her speech, it is the purpose and passion one finds in music that keeps great music alive, and living.

Her speech at the Billboard Music Awards was definitely one I needed to hear. Hope ya’ll find some inspiration in it as I had.

image

You can find the video of her speech here.

Below is the script of her speech:

“I’m so nervous! Seriously, thank you Billboard for letting me grow up on the charts with you and for this incredible honor. Icon? I really don’t think of myself in that way. I started making music out of a necessity to survive and to express myself. And I just wanted to create something so I could feel worthy of existing. And if I’ve learned anything, anything at all in this life, it’s that truly all things are possible with God.

Without getting into all the drama, all the ups and downs of my career—we’ve all seen them, we all make mistakes—there’s been a few memes [laughs]. I guess I’ve always felt like an outsider. Someone who doesn’t quite belong anywhere. And I still feel like that lost interracial child who had a lot of nerve to believe I could succeed in anything at all in this world. But, and this is the truth, but I did believe because I had to. The truth is I’ve dedicated my life to my music, my saving grace, and to my fans who are unlike any other entity that I’ve ever known. They’ve lifted me out of the depths of hell and brought me back with their devotion and love. I want to thank all the people who’ve been with me on this journey, through the highs and lows, through the struggles. Through your struggles and mine. And to anybody who doesn’t allow themselves to be broken. And keeps getting up, and keeps holding on, and keeps standing tall, keeps on believing and keeps rising—I celebrate you tonight. And to anyone who’s ever told me that a song I wrote helped save your life, I thank you because you saved mine. And I’ll be eternally grateful for that. I love you. Thank you so much.”

You could purchase Mariah Carey’s Albums here:

Mariah Carey
Daydream
The Emancipation of Mimi
Caution [Explicit]

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.