Mariah Carey Bets on 'Forever' Perfume

Mariah Carey takes her happiness seriously. That's why she has named her new women's scent "Forever." It's due out in September.

"I am in a wonderful place right now, surrounded by all the things I love, and Forever captures this moment in time," said the entertainer, whose first scent, M by Mariah Carey, launched in September 2007.

"When we work with celebrities, we aim to put together a project which is representative of their life," said Ron Rolleston, executive vice president for global fragrance marketing at Elizabeth Arden, of the new women's launch. "Mariah's happily married, has a movie coming out in November, which already did well at Sundance, and she is releasing a new album in September. She's got a lot of joy and optimism in her life right now, and we wanted to express that in a fragrance."

Perfumer Olivier Gillotin of Givaudan worked with Carey to create the modern opulent floral, which has top notes of neroli, lotus blossom and dewy green apple; a heart of tuberose and gardenia, and a drydown of white musk and exotic woods. "When I first met with Mariah, I was inspired to create a glamorous, opulent floral," said Gillotin. "I wanted the scent to be radiant but to also evoke a warm sensuality. This fragrance has iconic white florals, which convey a powerful message of feminine sensuality and classic glamour."

The collection includes eau de parfum in three sizes — 1 oz. for $42, 1.7 oz. for $55 and 3.3 oz. for $65 — as well as a 0.5-oz. parfum, $250, and a 6.8-oz. body lotion, $28.

In the U.S., the scent will be available in about 2,000 department and specialty store doors, including Macy's, Dillard's and Belk's.

The bottle, inspired by Carey's love of the art deco style, is clear crystal with a gold band around the top. Outer packaging is bright pink with a metallic trim.

While executives declined to discuss sales projections, industry sources estimated that Forever would do upwards of $35 million at retail in its first year on counter. Sources also estimated Arden would spend at least $10 million on advertising and promotion.

Print advertising, shot by Michael Thompson and featuring Carey, will break in October fashion, beauty and lifestyle magazines, including Elle, Vogue, Glamour and In Style. A TV campaign, which also features Carey, is slated for the holiday season. As well, vials on card, scented strips and other scented pieces are expected to deliver upwards of 49 million scented impressions, noted Noreen Dodge, senior vice president, fragrance, global brand development for Elizabeth Arden.

In addition to a dedicated Web site, MariahCareyBeauty.com, a strong social media campaign will also be part of the campaign, Dodge said. Arden plans MariahCareyBeauty pages on Facebook, MySpace and Twitter, hoping to leverage Carey's 1.7 million followers on Twitter and 700,000 Facebook fans (Carey also has 132 fan separate fan pages on Facebook.) Arden is also working with social media sites Imeem, Pandora and VideoEgg to further drive business. Pandora will create Carey fragrance-branded backgrounds for users to see while listening to the singer's music, while Imeem will feature an exclusive Forever-themed playlist customized by Carey on its home page. VideoEgg will feed into Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and YouTube in an effort to drive traffic to MariahCareyBeauty.com. DailyCandy will offer a "twitter-to-win" sampling program for the fragrance, and Sugar Inc. plans a customized Carey page on its site and a sweepstakes to win the scent.

(Women's Wear Daily)

Australia's Rhyme & Reason Mag Previews Memoirs

Rhyme & Reason, Australia's largest and most frequently issued Urban magazine, was this afternoon treated to an exclusive preview of Mariah Carey's 12th studio album, Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel. A single CD containing six songs from the album was flown in to Sydney from Island Def Jam's New York offices, accompanied by an IDJ representative. Taking every precaution to avoid leaks of Mariah's new material, phones and recording devices were cloaked before the listening session, with the lone CD set to return to New York along with the IDJ representative.

The release of Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel has been delayed until September 29th as Mariah continues to write and record material alongside a collaborator who is understood to be a writer she worked with in the earlier part of her career. Along with the six cuts previewed by Rhyme & Reason, an additional five or six songs are expected to round out the album.

Mariah has entrusted much of the album's production duties to Tricky Stewart and The-Dream, while long-time friend and collaborator Jermaine Dupri also makes a return for Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel, along with hit-maker Carlos "Los DaMystro" McKinney [Usher, R. Kelly, Whitney Houston].

Mariah co-wrote all of the songs previewed, save for "I Want To Know What Love Is" - the remake of Foreigner's chart-topping 1985 single. "I Want To Know What Love Is" is expected to be the album's next single.

While we don't want to give too much away, below is Rhyme & Reason Magazine's brief breakdown of the six songs previewed from Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel:

"CANDY BLING"
Credits: Written by Mariah Carey, Carlos McKinney and Terius Nash. Conducted and produced by Los DaMystro for DaMystro Music LLC/Music Line Entertainment, LLC and produced by Terius "The-Dream" Nash for Radio Killa Records.
Description: A laidback, mid-tempo track set to finger-snaps. At one point, Mariah makes mention of bringing "ODB back".

"OBSESSED"
Credits: Written and produced by Mariah Carey for Maroon Entertainment, Inc., C. "Tricky" Stewart for RedZone Entertainment and Terius "The-Dream" Nash for Radio Killa Records.
Description: You should all be familiar with this one...

"H.A.T.E. U"
Credits: Written and produced by Mariah Carey for Maroon Entertainment, Inc., C. "Tricky" Stewart for RedZone Entertainment and Terius "The-Dream" Nash for Radio Killa Records.
Description: A slower-tempo song which has Mariah wanting to square off with a trifling partner; "I can't wait to face you / I can't wait to hate you".

"STANDING O"
Credits: Written and produced by Mariah Carey for Maroon Entertainment, Inc., C. "Tricky" Stewart for RedZone Entertainment and Terius "The-Dream" Nash for Radio Killa Records.
Description: The "O", of course, stands for "Ovation". This is an unmistakable Dream concoction laid over mid-tempo staccato piano chords and plush synths. The chorus includes Mariah mimicking Dream's signature "oh, oh" vocal punctuations.

"IMPOSSIBLE"
Credits: Written and produced by Mariah Carey for Maroon Entertainment, Inc., C. "Tricky" Stewart for RedZone Entertainment and Terius "The-Dream" Nash for Radio Killa Records.
Description: A woozy, somewhat minimalist slow jam.

"I WANT TO KNOW WHAT LOVE IS"
Credits: Written by Mick Jones. Produced by Mariah Carey for Maroon Entertainment, Inc., C. "Tricky" Stewart for RedZone Entertainment and Big Jim.
Description: Staying true to the original, this piano-lead remake is less an overhaul of the classic 80's hit than it is a modest but impressive update.

( Rhyme & Reason Magazine)

Mariah to Attend NYFF?

"Antichrist" – reviled, awful, coughed up like a hairball at Cannes – is coming to the New York Film Festival. Lars von Trier's sexfest with Willem Dafoe will be a feature presentation this fall at Lincoln Center.

It's the one film of real interest on a list of mostly foreign films and releases of things that people really won't be too excited about.

With the exception of Lee Daniel's "Precious" and a new print of "The Wizard of Oz," this should be some film festival.

The funny thing is, new and unpopular executive director Mara Manus went to Cannes, had an unsuccessful lunch for Hollywood types. Everyone was scared that the NYFF would be overrun with Hollywood releases. Surprise! There aren't any, not even the Coen Brothers' new film.

What happened? Well, Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly is gone, and so is any connection to commercial or even indie commercial reality. The other title of this article could be: "Mariah Carey only celebrity expected this year."

(showbiz 411)

MARIAH CAREY'S "MEMOIRS" ALBUM DELAYED AGAIN

MARIAH CAREY'S "MEMOIRS" ALBUM DELAYED AGAIN *** Originally scheduled for an August 25th release date and then September 15th, Mariah Carey's upcoming 12th studio album, "Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel", has been delayed yet again. "Memoirs" will now arrive two weeks later on September 29th. *** The singer has also pulled out of a string of appearances surrounding the album's release, including "VH1 Storytellers," the "Today" Show concert series, 2009 MTV Video Music Awards and her Hollywood Walk of Fame star ceremony. According to a source at Def Jam, the label Carey is signed to, the reason for the delay is that the singer hasn't completed the album and needs to return to the studio to record additional songs. *** This afternoon, Carey's website was updated with this message: "Mariah is putting the finishing touches on her newest album, 'Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel', and we have shifted all of our TV and promo appearances to coincide with the new release date of September 29th. We can't wait for the fans to hear the new album!!" *** Carey's latest single, "Obsessed", reached No. 11 on the Hot 100 chart and No. 15 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. As previously reported, "Memoirs" has already stirred up controversey with the label's descioon to include advertsing in the CD packaging, in the form of a mini-Elle magazine featuring Carey-related content. (Billboard)

MARIAH'S "MEMOIRS" PUSHED BACK AGAIN

MARIAH'S "MEMOIRS" PUSHED BACK AGAIN

*** Mariah Carey is turning back the page on her Memoirs. Mimi's new album has been pushed back again. Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel will now arrive two weeks later on September 29, Rap-Up.com has exclusively learned. This is the second delay for Mariah's 12th studio album. Memoirs was originally scheduled for an August 25 release before being moved to September 15. In addition, the three CD collector's set has been postponed.
*** The "Obsessed" singer has pulled out of a string of appearances surrounding the album's release, including "VH1 Storytellers", the "Today" show concert series, 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, and her Hollywood Walk of Fame star ceremony.
*** Mariah recently signed with Chris Lighty and Violator Management, which represents 50 Cent, Diddy, and Soulja Boy, among others.

(Rap-Up)

SHOOTER SERIES VOLUME 1

SHOOTER SERIES VOLUME 1 *** Director Brett Ratner comes out with a new DVD, called "Shooter series: volume 1". This DVD features a collection of Brett's music videos, commercials, short films, documentaries, and special extras. "Brett Ratner is probably the first big, mainstream director that hip-hop gave birth to," according to Sean "Diddy" Combs. *** On this DVD are four Mariah videos which were directed by Brett Ratner: "Heartbreaker ft. Jay-Z", "I still believe", "We belong together", and "Touch my body". Other Brett Ratner videos with Mariah, which are not on this DVD, are: "Thank God I found you", "It's like that", and "Obsessed". Maybe these will appear on "Shooter series volume 2"?

MARIAH CAREY REALLY WORKING THE "IMPERFECT" ANGLE

MARIAH CAREY REALLY WORKING THE "IMPERFECT" ANGLE *** Coming on the heels of a subpar performance on NBC's televised variety show America's Got Talent, songbird Mariah Carey has pulled out of her August 28 performance on that same network's Today and reportedly decided to hold off on other appearances. And now there's talk that her forthcoming album Memoirs Of An Imperfect Angel has been pushed back yet again, this time to September 29. (It was originally supposed to come out on August 25.) *** So what's going on? Next week's Billboard Hot 100 has Memoirs‘ lead single "Obsessed" holding steady at No. 14 in its fifth week on the chart - and it's still below its debut-week chart peak of No. 11. The Tricky/The-Dream-helmed track does have a bullet (meaning that overall its metrics gained), and next week's charts see it scaling both the sales and airplay charts, so perhaps Carey's label Island Def Jam is hoping to strike while the iron is a little warmer than it has been up until this point. Still, what with Carey's Twitter going mysteriously silent since her Talent appearance - and the mass pull-out of appearances after that disaster - one has to wonder what, exactly, is going on. (Idolator)

MILEY CYRUS TO REPLACE MARIAH CAREY ON "TODAY" SHOW

MILEY CYRUS TO REPLACE MARIAH CAREY ON "TODAY" SHOW Miley Cyrus *** Miley Cyrus has been tapped to fill in for Mariah Carey, who canceled her upcoming "Today" show concert scheduled for August 28. Carey was set to debut tracks off her new album, Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel, during her appearance. *** No reason has been given for the cancellation, according to WENN.com. Cyrus most recently appeared on the Teen Choice Awards, which aired Monday, and received some flak for the provocative performance of her new single, "Party in the U.S.A." Carey recently sang her new single, "Obsessed", on "America's Got Talent," the show hosted by her husband, Nick Cannon. *** Cyrus and Carey have recently been linked in another way. Cyrus will be the latest pop star to join the ranks of VH1 Divas when the concert series returns this September. Carey had been one of the original divas when the show made its debut in 1998. *** "Adele, Kelly, Leona and Miley have all captured the world's attention with their talent and have earned their designation as VH1 Divas this year," the show's producer, Lee Rolontz, said, referring to the new lineup. "Don't let some of their young ages fool you - these women are among the best entertainers in the world and will continue to thrill music fans for a long time to come." (MTV News)

MARIAH CANCELS BIG APPEARANCES

MARIAH CANCELS BIG APPEARANCES *** Fans who requested tickets to Mariah Carey's August 28th performance on the Today show received an email today stating that Mariah cancelled on NBC and has been replaced with Miley Cyrus. Not a good sign. Especially with a new album supposedly coming out next month. *** To add insult to injury, Carey is also noticeably absent from the list of performers at this year's MTV VMA's. The songstress was originally scheduled to perform at the September awards in NYC, but Mariah's name has been left off the latest press release.

BEATLES TOP POLL FOR MOST POPULAR MUSIC GROUPS

BEATLES TOP POLL FOR MOST POPULAR MUSIC GROUPS *** Ask people of various ages about their favorite music and what do you get? Perhaps more common ground between the generations than you'd expect. A Pew Research Center survey found the Beatles high on the list of every age group and other acts from the 1960s and 1970s popular among people too young to have known them when they performed. *** Among those younger than 30, Michael Jackson was the No. 1 pick. For those 30-49, the Eagles won out. People 50-64 picked the Beatles - the winners overall. For those 65 and older, Frank Sinatra can't be beat. Rock was the favorite type of music for every age group except 65 and above. Older people preferred country music, followed by classical. Top 20 acts in the poll 01. Beatles 02. Eagles 03. Johnny Cash 04. Michael Jackson 05. Elvis Presley 06. Rolling Stones 07. Aretha Franklin 08. Frank Sinatra 09. Carrie Underwood 10. Garth Brooks 11. Jimi Hendrix 12. Bruce Springsteen 13. Mariah Carey 14. Bob Dylan 15. Jefferson Airplane 16. Nirvana 17. Madonna 18. Coldplay 19. Kanye West 20. Grateful Dead (The Denver Post)