*Mariah Carey Biography*

By spring 2007, she had begun to work on her eleventh studio album, E=MC².[103] Asked about the album title's meaning, Carey said "Einstein's theory? Physics? Me? Hello! ...Of course I'm poking fun." She characterized the project as "Emancipation of Mimi to the second power", and said that she was "freer" on this album than any other. Like her previous one, this album mainly concentrates on pop and R&B but borrows hip hop, gospel and even reggae ("Cruise Control") elements.[104][105] Although E=MC² was well received by most critics,[106] some of them criticized it for being "a clone of The Emancipation of Mimi".[107] Bleu Magazine's critic said that the "facsimiles aren't terrible, they're just boring and forgettable at this point."[108] Two weeks before the album's release, on April 2, 2008, "Touch My Body", her first single from the album, became Carey's eighteenth number-one single on the Hot 100, pushing her past Elvis Presley into second place for the most number-one singles among all artists in the rock era, according to Billboard magazine's revised methodology.[109][110][111] Carey is now second only to The Beatles, who have twenty number-one singles.[112] The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 with 463,000 copies sold, making it the biggest opening week sales of her career.[113]

Carey's singles have collectively topped the charts for seventy-nine weeks, which places her just behind Presley, who topped the charts for a combined eighty weeks.[114] In 2008, Billboard magazine ranked her at number six on the "Billboard Hot 100 All-Time Top Artists", making Carey the second most successful female artist (behind Madonna) in the history of the Billboard Hot 100 chart.[115] Carey has also had notable success on international charts, though not to the same degree as in the United States. Thus far, she has had two number-one singles in Britain, two in Australia, and six in Canada. Her highest-charting single in Japan peaked at number two.[116][117][118] Carey and actor/comedian/rapper Nick Cannon met while they shot Carey's music video for her second single "Bye Bye" on a private island of the coast of Antigua.[119] On April 30, 2008, Carey married Cannon at her private estate on Windermere Island in The Bahamas.[120][121][122][123] In October 2008, Carey was inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame.[124][125]

Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel, Merry Christmas II You and pregnancy (2009–present)


Carey at the 82nd Academy Awards on March 7, 2010
Carey performed "Hero" at the Neighborhood Inaugural Ball after Barack Obama was sworn in as America's first African-American president on January 20, 2009.[126] On July 7, 2009, Carey – alongside Trey Lorenz – performed her version of the Jackson 5 hit "I'll Be There" at the memorial service for Michael Jackson in the Los Angeles Staples Center.[127] Carey was featured on "My Love", the second single from singer-songwriter The-Dream's album Love vs. Money.[128]

Carey's twelfth studio album, Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel was released on September 25, 2009. The album received generally favorable reviews from music critics.[129] John Bush of Allmusic called it "her most interesting album in a decade",[130] while Jon Caramanica from The New York Times criticized Carey's vocal performances, decrying her overuse of her softer vocal registers at the expense of her more powerful lower and mid registers.[131] Commercially, the album debuted at number three on the Billboard 200 and became the lowest-selling studio album of her career.[132] The album's lead single, "Obsessed", became her 40th entry on the Billboard Hot 100 and her highest debut on the chart since "My All" in 1998.[133] The song debuted at number eleven and peaked at number seven on the chart and became Carey's 27th US top-ten hit, tying her with Elton John and Janet Jackson as the fifth most top-ten hits.[134] Within hours after the song's release, various outlets speculated that its target was rapper Eminem, in response to his song "Bagpipes from Baghdad," in which he taunted Carey's husband, Nick Cannon by telling him to back off and that Carey is his.[135][136][137][138] According to MTV, Carey alludes to drug problems in "Obsessed," which Eminem opened up about on his sixth studio album, Relapse.[139] The album's follow-up singles failed to achieve commercial success. The second single, a cover of Foreigner's "I Want to Know What Love Is", peaked at number 60 and the third single, "H.A.T.E.U.", failed to crack the Billboard Hot 100.[140] On December 31, 2009, Carey embarked her seventh concert tour, Angels Advocate Tour, which visited the United States and Canada.[141][142] Later it was announced that Carey would release two remix albums of Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel; titled Angels Advocate (an R&B remix album featuring a collection of newly remixed duets with some of Carey's favorite artists) and MC vs JS (a dance album entirely remixed by the Jump Smokers). In January 2010, "Up Out My Face" featuring Nicki Minaj and "Angels Cry" featuring Ne-Yo were released as the lead singles from Angels Advocate.[143][144] Both albums were slated for a March 2010 release, but were eventually cancelled.[145]

Following the cancellation of the remix albums, it was announced that Carey will go back to the studio to start work on her second Christmas album and her 13th studio album. Fashion photographer David LaChapelle told The Times on April 24, 2010, that he shot the album's artwork.[146] Long time collaborators for the project include Jermaine Dupri and Bryan-Michael Cox.[147] Dupri stated that a single will be released by the end of 2010. Johntá Austin and Randy Jackson are also contributing to the project.[148] During a press conference in Seoul, South Korea, in August 2010, Island Def Jam executive Matt Voss announced that the Christmas album would be out in November 2[149] and will include six new songs and a remix of her all time classic hit "All I Want for Christmas Is You".[150] The album will be titled Merry Christmas II You, a follow-up to her 1994 multiplatinum album Merry Christmas. An accompanying DVD is also reported to be released alongside the CD.[151] According to 'Showbiz 411' Carey has produced and recorded tracks with the Broadway producer Marc Shaiman.[152]

On October 28, 2010 Carey confirmed that she and Cannon are expecting their first child, due in spring 2011. She also said that she had been struggling to keep the news a secret.[153] She also revealed that they are yet to find out the gender of the baby [154] and that she conceived naturally. She added that she had been pregnant shortly after her wedding with Nick Cannon, but that she had miscarried. She and Cannon had decided to keep the matter private.[155]

Acting career



Carey and Robert De Niro at the premiere of Tennessee at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 26, 2008. Photograph by David Shankbone.
Carey began to take professional acting lessons in 1997, and in the coming year, she was auditioning for film roles. She made her debut as an opera singer in the romantic comedy The Bachelor (1999), starring Chris O'Donnell and Renée Zellweger. CNN referred derisively to her casting as a talentless diva as "letter-perfect [...] the "can't act" part informs Carey's entire performance".[156] Carey's first starring role was in Glitter (2001), in which she played a struggling musician in the 1980s who breaks into the music industry after meeting a disc jockey (Max Beesley). Though Roger Ebert said "[Carey]'s acting ranges from dutiful flirtatiousness to intense sincerity",[157] most critics panned it: Halliwell's Film Guide called it a "vapid star vehicle for a pop singer with no visible acting ability",[158] and The Village Voice observed: "When [Carey] tries for an emotion — any emotion — she looks as if she's lost her car keys."[159] Glitter was a box office failure, and Carey earned a Razzie Award for her role. She later said that the film "started out as a concept with substance, but it ended up being geared to 10-year-olds. It lost a lot of grit [...] I kind of got in over my head."[77]

Carey, Mira Sorvino and Melora Walters co-starred as waitresses at a mobster-operated restaurant in the independent film WiseGirls (2002), which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival but went straight to cable in the U.S. Critics commended Carey for her efforts — The Hollywood Reporter predicted, "Those scathing notices for Glitter will be a forgotten memory for the singer once people warm up to Raychel",[160] and Roger Friedman, referring to her as "a Thelma Ritter for the new millennium", said, "Her line delivery is sharp and she manages to get the right laughs".[161] WiseGirls producer Anthony Esposito cast Carey in The Sweet Science (2006), a film about an unknown female boxer recruited by a boxing manager, but it never entered production.[162] Carey was one of several musicians who appeared in the independently produced Damon Dash films Death of a Dynasty (2003) and State Property 2 (2005). Her television work has been limited to a January 2002 episode of Ally McBeal. Carey had a cameo appearance in Adam Sandler's 2008 film You Don't Mess with the Zohan, playing herself.[25][163]

In 2006, Carey joined the cast of the indie film Tennessee (2008), taking the role of an aspiring singer who flees her controlling husband and joins two brothers on a journey to find their long-lost father.[164] The movie received mixed reviews, but most of them raved about Carey's performance and praised it as "understated and very effective."[165][166][167][168] In 2009, she appeared as a social worker in Precious, the movie adaptation of the 1996 novel Push by Sapphire.[169] The film has garnered mostly positive reviews from critics, as has Carey's performance.[170][171] Variety described her acting as "pitch-perfect".[172] So far Precious has won awards at both the Sundance Film Festival and the Toronto Film Festival, receiving top awards there.[173][174][175] In January 2010, Carey won the Breakthrough Actress Performance award for her role in Precious at the Palm Springs International Film Festival.[176] In May 2010, Carey, citing medical reasons, dropped out of her planned appearance in For Colored Girls, the film adaptation of the play For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf.[177]

Artistry

Carey has said that from childhood she has been influenced by R&B and soul musicians such as Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan,[178] Gladys Knight and Aretha Franklin.[179] Her music contains strong influences of gospel music, she attends an episcopal church[180] and her favorite gospel singers include The Clark Sisters, Shirley Caesar and Edwin Hawkins.[178] When Carey incorporated hip hop into her sound, speculation arose that she was making an attempt to take advantage of the genre's popularity, but she told Newsweek, "People just don't understand. I grew up with this music".[181] She has expressed appreciation for rappers such as The Sugarhill Gang, Eric B. & Rakim, the Wu-Tang Clan, The Notorious B.I.G. and Mobb Deep,[29] with whom she collaborated on the single "The Roof (Back in Time)" (1998).

During Carey's career, her vocal and musical style, along with her level of success, has been compared to Whitney Houston and Celine Dion. Carey and her peers, according to Garry Mulholland, are "the princesses of wails [...] virtuoso vocalists who blend chart-oriented pop with mature MOR torch song".[182] In She Bop II: The Definitive History of Women in Rock, Pop and Soul (2002), writer Lucy O'Brien attributed the comeback of Barbra Streisand's "old-fashioned showgirl" to Carey and Dion, and described them and Houston as "groomed, airbrushed and overblown to perfection".[183] Carey's musical transition and use of more revealing clothing during the late 1990s were, in part, initiated to distance herself from this image, and she subsequently said that most of her early work was "schmaltzy MOR".[183] Some have noted that unlike Houston and Dion, Carey co-writes her own songs, and the Guinness Rockopedia (1998) classified her as the "songbird supreme".[184] Despite the fact that Carey is often credited with co-writing her material, she has also been accused of plagiarism on several occasions. Many of these cases were eventually settled out of court.[185][186][187]

Voice
Mariah Carey possesses a five-octave vocal range, and was ranked first in a 2003 MTV and Blender magazine countdown of the 22 Greatest Voices in Music, as voted by fans and readers in an online poll. Carey said of the poll, "What it really means is voice of the MTV generation. Of course, it's an enormous compliment, but I don't feel that way about myself."[188] She also placed second in Cove magazine's list of "The 100 Outstanding Pop Vocalists".[189] Regarding her voice, Carey states,
"I have nodules on my vocal cords. My mother says I've had them since I was a kid. That's why I have the high register and the belting register and I can still be husky. The only thing that really affects my voice is sleep. Sometimes if I'm exhausted I can't hit the really high notes."[190] "My doctors showed me my vocal chords and why I can hit those high notes. It's a certain part of the chord that not many people use—the very top. My natural voice is low. I have a raspy voice. I'm really more of an alto. But my airy voice can be high if I'm rested. [...] When I was little, I'd talk in this really high whisper, and my mom would be like, "You're being ridiculous." I thought if I can talk like that I can sing like that. So I started [she goes higher and higher and higher] just messing around with it. I'd practice and practice, and she'd be like, "You're gonna hurt yourself." I'd tell her, It doesn’t hurt/ If I were to try and belt two octaves lower than that, that would be a strain."[191]

She also explains that it was Minnie Riperton who influenced her to use the whistle register.[191]

Voice experts expressed mixed statements about Carey's voice. French-American baritone and singing teacher in the Conservatoire de Paris Malcolm Walker as well as music critic Stephen Holden of The New York Times said,
"The low register is "tired", "distended."[192][193] The medium is "pleasurable and possesses an ample vibrato."[193] The belting register is "pure, full, ample and warm, but this register is often forced, scratchy above E-flat one octave and an half above middle C [E♭5]." The head voice as well as the whistle register are "pure, bright and ample, with an impressive power until B nearly three octaves above middle C [B6]."[193]

Vocal pedagogue Jeannette Lo Vetri make the same findings, stating,
"Althought she can reaches alto bottom notes, she does not have a good control of the low register. Until she stay in soprano bottom range, it’s easy, well mastered, but when she passes in mezzo or contralto low range, the sound is unhealthy. In contrast, she possesses a superb top. It’s crystal-clear—thought sometimes it’s breathy—, it’s effortless, agile, sweet, and luminous. She also have rounded, warm, full medium and upper chest register, especially in 1996. Thought the medium is often breathy and thin— for example: "Butterfly", "Without You" or "Against All Odds" — and that her highest notes in upper chest register sometimes sounds strained and raspy— like the high E’s in "Butterfly", the high F at the end of "Prisoner" or the high D’s at the end of 'Make It Happen'."[194]

asha Frere-Jones of The New Yorker adds her timbre possesses various colors, saying, "Carey's sound changes with nearly every line, mutating from a steely tone to a vibrating growl and then to a humid, breathy coo."[195] Her wide vocal range allows Carey to take melodies from alto bottom notes to coloratura soprano upper register,[93][195] and, according to music crictic Jim Faber of New York Daily News, she can "cover all the octaves between [those voice types], and [possesses] the agility to move between ... with swiftness and aplomb."[93] Carey also possesses what she calls "whisper register". In an interview with the singer, Ron Givens of Entertainment Weekly described it this way, "[f]irst, a rippling, soulful ooh comes rolling effortlessly from her throat: alto. Then, after a quick breath, she goes for the stratosphere, with a sound that nearly changes the barometric pressure in the room. In one brief swoop, she seems to squeal and roar at the same time: whisper register."[196]

Voice experts praise Carey's vocal technique, like Stephen Holden who said, "[s]he can deliver very accurate staccatos as well as tricky melismas, and she possesses a beautiful and solid trill in upper register".[193] Jeanette Lo Vetri states, "Carey is really a great technician. The staccatos are pin point, executed with amazing speed and control, the legato is a marvel of smoothness, she is the supreme mistress of melismas, she always keeps a neutral larynx position— except sometimes in her lower register— and she glides effortlessly from bottom to top and vice versa."[194] Malcolm Walker adds her vocal lines are "very well led, especially in piano register."[192] And Sasha Frere-Jones of The New Yorker writes, "She is a master practitioner of melisma. [...] "Vision of Love" is the Magna Carta of melisma. [...] It begins with several bars of lovely, wordless melisma, as if Carey were warming up, and it ends with two very loud passages of melisma, one of them an a-cappella expansion on the word all."[195]

Themes and musical style

"We Belong Together" (2005)

One of Carey's many love songs, and a Grammy Award winner for "Best Female R&B Vocal Performance" and "Best R&B Song".
"Vanishing" (1990)

The first song that Carey was allowed to co-produce demonstrates the piano influence that permeates much of her music.
"My All" (1998): Classic Club mix

Remixes of Carey's singles by producers such as David Morales established her presence on the U.S. club scene.
Problems listening to these files? See media help.
Love is the subject of the majority of Carey's lyrics, although she has written about themes such as racism, social alienation, death, world hunger, and spirituality. She has said that much of her work is partly autobiographical, but TIME magazine wrote: "If only Mariah Carey's music had the drama of her life. Her songs are often sugary and artificial—NutraSweet soul. But her life has passion and conflict."[197] Rolling Stone expressed similar sentiments, saying, "Carey has a remarkable vocal gift, but to date, unfortunately, her singing has been far more impressive than expressive",[198] "She wails notes that don't need emphasizing, then whispers what would ordinarily be climactic phrases, and the outcome doesn't make emotional or musical sense."[199] New York Daily News continues in the same direction, saying, "For Carey, vocalizing is all about the performance, not the emotions that inspired it. Singing, to her, represents a physical challenge, not an emotional unburdening. If no one can question the scope of Carey's voice it's too bad she has again used it to say nothing."[93] The Village Voice wrote in 2001 that, in that respect, Carey compared unfavorably with singers such as Mary J. Blige, saying "Carey's Strawberry Shortcake soul still provides the template with which teen-pop cuties draw curlicues around those centerless [Diane] Warren ballads [...] it's largely because of [Blige] that the new R&B demands a greater range of emotional expression, smarter poetry, more from-the-gut testifying, and less unnecessary notes than the squeaky-clean and just plain squeaky Mariah era. Nowadays it's the Christina Aguileras and Jessica Simpsons who awkwardly oversing, while the women with roof-raising lung power keep it in check when tune or lyric demands."[200]

Carey's output makes use of electronic instruments such as drum machines, keyboards and synthesizers. Many of her songs contain piano music, and she was given piano lessons when she was six years old. Carey said that she cannot read sheet music and prefers to collaborate with a pianist when composing her material, but feels that it is easier to experiment with faster and less conventional melodies and chord progressions using this technique. Some of her arrangements have been inspired by the work of musicians such as Stevie Wonder, a soul pianist to whom Carey once referred as "the genius of the [twentieth] century",[29] but she has said, "My voice is my instrument; it always has been."[201]

Carey began commissioning remixes of her material early in her career and helped to spearhead the practice of recording entirely new vocals for remixes.[202] Disc jockey David Morales has collaborated with Carey several times, starting with "Dreamlover" (1993), which popularized the tradition of remixing R&B songs into house records, and which Slant magazine named one of the greatest dance songs of all time.[203] From "Fantasy" (1995) onward, Carey enlisted both hip hop and house producers to re-imagine her album compositions. Entertainment Weekly included two remixes of "Fantasy" on a list of Carey's greatest recordings compiled in 2005:[204] a National Dance Music Award-winning remix produced by Morales, and a Sean Combs production featuring rapper Ol' Dirty Bastard. The latter has been credited with popularizing the R&B/hip hop collaboration trend that has continued into the 2000s through artists such as Ashanti and Beyoncé.[202][205] Combs said that Carey "knows the importance of mixes, so you feel like you're with an artist who appreciates your work—an artist who wants to come up with something with you".[29] She continues to consult on remixes by producers such as Morales, Jermaine Dupri, Junior Vasquez and DJ Clue, and guest performers contribute frequently to them.

Legacy

Carey's vocal style and singing ability has significantly impacted popular and contemporary music. Music critic G. Brown from The Denver Post wrote, "For better or worse, Mariah Carey's five-octave range and melismatic style have influenced a generation of pop singers."[206] According to Rolling Stone, "Her mastery of melisma, the fluttering strings of notes that decorate songs like "Vision of Love," inspired the entire American Idol vocal school, for better or worse, and virtually every other female R&B singer since the Nineties."[207] Beyoncé Knowles credits Carey's singing and her song "Vision of Love," as influencing her to begin practicing vocal "runs" as a child, as well as helping her pursue a career as a musician.[208] Carey is also credited for introducing R&B and hip-hop into mainstream pop culture, and for popularizing rap as a featuring act through her post-1995 songs.[208] Sasha Frere-Jones, editor of The New Yorker commented, "It became standard for R&B stars like Missy Elliott and Beyoncé, to combine melodies with rapped verses. And young white pop stars—including Britney Spears, 'N Sync, and Christina Aguilera—have spent much of the past ten years making pop music that is unmistakably R&B."[208] According to Pier Dominguez, author of Christina Aguilera: a star is made : the unauthorized biography, Aguilera has stated how she loved listening to Whitney Houston, but it was Carey who had the biggest influence on her vocal styling. Carey's carefully choreographed image of a grown woman's image, struck a chord on Aguilera. Her influence on Aguilera also grew from the fact that both were of mixed heritage.[209] Philip Brasor, editor of "The Japan Times," expressed how Carey's vocal and melismatic style even influenced Asian singers. He wrote regarding Japanese superstar Utada Hikaru, "Utada sang what she heard, from the diaphragm and with her own take on the kind of melisma that became de rigueur in American pop after the ascendance of Mariah Carey."[210]

In a career spanning over 20 years, Carey has sold over 200 million albums, singles, and videos worldwide, making her one of the biggest-selling artists in music history.[5][6] Possessing a five-octave vocal range, Carey was ranked first in MTV and Blender magazine's 2003 countdown of the 22 Greatest Voices in Music, and was placed second in Cove magazine's list of "The 100 Outstanding Pop Vocalists".[188][189][211] Aside from her voice, she has become known for her songwriting. Yahoo Music editor, Jason Ankeny wrote, "She earned frequent comparison to rivals Whitney Houston and Celine Dion, but did them both one better by composing all of her own material."[212] According to Billboard magazine, she was the most successful artist of the 1990s in the United States.[213] At the 2000 World Music Awards, Carey was given a Legend Award for being the "best-selling female pop artist of the millennium," as well as the "Best-selling artist of the 90s" in the United States, after releasing a series of albums of multi-platinum status in Asia and Europe, such as Music Box and Number 1's.[214][215] She is also a recipient of the Chopard Diamond Award in 2003, recognizing sales of over 100 million albums worldwide.[10][11] Carey is ranked as the best-selling female artist of the Nielsen SoundScan era, with over 52 million copies sold.[216] Additionally, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) lists Carey as the third best-selling female artist, with shipments of over 63 million units in the U.S.[12][13] In Japan, Carey has the top four highest-selling albums of all time by a non-Asian artist.[217][218]

Carey has spent a record 79 weeks at the number-one position on Billboard Hot 100, becoming the artist with the most weeks at number-one in U.S. chart history.[219] On that same chart, she has accumulated 18 number-one singles, making her the solo artist with the most number-one singles in the chart's history.[14][15] In 1994, Carey released her holiday album "Merry Christmas", which became one of the best-selling Christmas album of all time, selling over 12 million copies.[220][221] It also produced the successful single, "All I Want for Christmas Is You", which became the only holiday song and ringtone to reach multi-platinum status in the U.S.[222] In Japan, Number 1's has sold over 3,250,000 copies and is the best-selling album of all time in Japan by a non-Asian artist.[223] After Carey's success in Asia with Merry Christmas, Billboard estimated Carey as the all time best-selling international artist in Japan.[224] Her hit single "One Sweet Day", which featured Boyz II Men, spent sixteen consecutive weeks at the top of Billboard's Hot 100 chart in 1996, setting the record for the most weeks atop the Hot 100 chart in history.[216] After Carey's success in Asia with Merry Christmas, Billboard estimated Carey as the all time best-selling international artist in Japan.[224] In 2008, Billboard magazine listed "We Belong Together" ninth on The Billboard: All-Time Hot 100 Top Songs[225] and the most successful song of the first decade of the 21st century.[226] In 2009, Carey's cover of Foreigner's classic, "I Want to Know What Love Is" became the longest-running number-one song in Brazilian singles chart history, spending 27 consecutive weeks at number-one.[227] Additionally, Carey has had three songs debut at number-one on the Billboard Hot 100: "Fantasy", "One Sweet Day" and "Honey", making her the artist with the most number-one debuts in the chart's 52 year history.[228] Also, she is the first female artist to debut at number 1 in the U.S. with "Fantasy".[229]

Philanthropy and other activities

Carey is a philanthropist who has donated time and money to organizations such as the Fresh Air Fund. She became associated with the Fund in the early 1990s, and is the co-founder of a camp located in Fishkill, New York, that enables inner-city youth to embrace the arts and introduces them to career opportunities. The camp was called Camp Mariah "for her generous support and dedication to Fresh Air children",[230] and she received a Congressional Horizon Award for her youth-related charity work.[231] She is well-known nationally for her work with the Make-a-Wish Foundation in granting the wishes of children with life-threatening illnesses, and in November 2006 she was awarded the Foundation's Wish Idol for her "extraordinary generosity and her many wish granting achievements".[232] Carey has volunteered for the New York City Police Athletic League and contributed to the obstetrics department of New York Presbyterian Hospital Cornell Medical Center. A percentage of the sales of MTV Unplugged was donated to various other charities. In 2008, Carey was named Hunger Ambassador of the World Hunger Relief Movement. She is giving a free download of her song, "Love Story", to customers who donate to the organization at participating restaurants.[233] In February 2010, the song, "100%", which was originally written and recorded for the film, Precious,[234] was used as one of the theme songs for the 2010 Winter Olympics, with all money proceeds going to Team USA.[235]

One of Carey's most high-profile benefit concert appearances was on VH1's 1998 Divas Live special, during which she performed alongside other female singers in support of the Save the Music Foundation. The concert was a ratings success, and Carey participated in the Divas 2000 special. In 2007, the Save the Music Foundation honored Carey at their tenth gala event for her support towards the foundation since its inception.[236] She appeared at the America: A Tribute to Heroes nationally televised fundraiser in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, and in December 2001, she performed before peacekeeping troops in Kosovo. Carey hosted the CBS television special At Home for the Holidays, which documented real-life stories of adopted children and foster families,[237] and she has worked with the New York City Administration for Children's Services. In 2005, Carey performed for Live 8 in London and at the Hurricane Katrina relief telethon "Shelter from the Storm". In August 2008, Carey and other singers recorded the charity single, "Just Stand Up" produced by Babyface and L. A. Reid, to support "Stand Up to Cancer". On September 5, the singers performed it live on TV.[238]