Mariah Carey's big comeback: after award winning year, superstar diva takes her show on the road

IT could have been called "The Vindication of Mariah," and people would have understood. Yet, Mariah Carey titled her most recent recording The Emancipation of Mimi, and the tremendously successful six-times platinum CD became the best-selling disc of 2005 with more than 9 million units sold. It also earned her three Grammy Awards and anchored what some say is the best year ever for this multitalented songbird.

For Carey, success is perhaps the best revenge and response to the media critics and naysayers in the music industry and beyond who had written her off and sounded the death knell for what started out as a brilliant career. The resilient artist has demonstrated that she has what it takes--enormous talent, guts and perseverance--to overcome adversity and endure personal and career setbacks.

The second phase of the comeback celebration is Carey's two-month tour that will kick off in early August and continue into October. The buzz escalates as the kick-off date nears.

"I'm really excited about it," she says of the tour, adding that she also is especially excited about working with Randy Jackson, who will resume his role as her musical director. She says she knew Jackson long before he became famous for his role on American Idol. "There will be more than a few wardrobe changes," she says, adding that she will be mindful not to bore her fans by being off stage too often.

That's because concertgoers will want to hear her sing her endearing hits, from her debut "Vision of Love" on through to her recent No. 1 singles, "We Belong Together" and "Don't Forget About Us." She has now tied Elvis Presley's 17 Billboard Hot 100 hits, but Carey has a good chance of surpassing the Beatles' all-time high of 20 No. 1 hits.

She named the tour The Adventures of Mimi: The Voice, The Hits, The Tour (rather than The Emancipation of Mimi) to reflect her life. "It's been like a roller-coaster ride," she says in an interview while relaxing in her home in Tribeca in New York City. "I don't take myself too seriously. I always try to turn things into the positive--the glass is half-full, not half-empty. I just turn it around and don't let anything keep me down. I've come a long way in terms of just getting through each obstacle that was put in my way. This tour is going to reflect that, but in a subtle way. I'm not trying to ram a message down anybody's throat. The true message is in my songs overall. This is a moment in my life that is really exciting, and it really has been a ride to get here. If you don't take a risk, you never have the experience. I've definitely taken some risks! But that's what life is. It's like God doesn't put anything in front of us that is too much for us to handle. I really believe that.

"I just want to go out on the road and enjoy myself with my fans. It's our moment to celebrate, to have an adventure. First, you get emancipated, then you have an adventure."

Carey's emancipation came at a price, a very public price. After her debut album earned her two Grammy Awards, followed by a succession of hits each year during the '90s, her life and career hit a series of potholes. The rough period began with the breakup of her four-year marriage to record executive Tommy Mottola (20 years her senior), who had signed her to his label in the late '80s. She finally got out of her contract with Sony and signed with Virgin Records. Then there were reports that she had a "breakdown" in 2001 while dealing with the pressures of filming the movie and recording the soundtrack for Glitter. (Neither project did well.) She checked herself into a treatment facility for exhaustion. Soon after, Virgin bought out her contract. It was a difficult time for Carey, who was still in her 20s. She recalls how she spent hours on a particular flight reading negative and incorrect press clippings about herself.

"I was just really surprised by how big a deal people made out of it," she says of the incident, adding that she simply was exhausted and needed some rest. "I was working within a system where my ex-husband was still in control, so those were some of the hardest days of my life. That was really why I was struggling. I was off Sony, finally, but at the new label I had two weeks to set up a record. It was just draining the life out of me because I still felt like I had to fight against the system ... The intensity of the label that I came off of was so huge that I still had to fight against it because I think certain people knew that if I succeeded, it made their efforts to make me look like a puppet in vain.

"For me to fight on their level, their playing ground, didn't work. I was in an uphill battle and it was time for me to just stop. Sometimes you have to do that because you're literally, physically going to collapse, and that's what was happening to me.

"I never looked at it as a breakdown. Even a therapist told me that people don't have breakdowns and then the next day you're talking to them and they're fine. 'This is what happened to you [the therapist said]: You were overworked and nobody was treating you like a person, and you allowed it because you've been pushing yourself that way forever and you are used to a dysfunctional life. That's how it is.'"