Mariah Carey is one of the most successful recording artists in history, but you wouldn’t know it from her Grammy track record. She won two awards in 1991. Then she won three more in 2006 … End of list. Five Grammys isn’t a bad total in and of itself. Some legendary artists have none. But the fact that she has so little to show for her historic run through the 1990s is pretty shocking given her stature at the time. “They scammed me,” Carey said (half-jokingly?) on the “Las Culturistas” podcast with Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers. “They toy with me.”
In 1991, Carey became just the fifth artist ever to receive nominations across the board for Record of the Year (“Vision of Love”), Song of the Year (“Vision of Love”), Album of the Year (“Mariah Carey”), and Best New Artist. Of those, she only won Best New Artist, though “Vision of Love” also took Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. Then came a 15-year drought with multiple nominations (not enough, really), but no wins. Her “Emotions” album earned just one nomination for the title track. “MTV Unplugged” picked up just a pair of bids. And then “Music Box” garnered just two bids.
Then 1995’s “Daydream” broke through, earning her a second nom for Album of the Year and a second nom for Record of the Year (“One Sweet Day” with Boyz II Men). She received six noms total, the most she’d ever gotten at one ceremony up to that point. But she lost all of them. Most shockingly, she couldn’t even win Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals for “One Sweet Day,” one of the most successful collabs of all time. Instead, that award went to The Chieftans and Van Morrison for “Have I Told You Lately,” a recording with a much smaller pop cultural imprint.
Then it was back to just a smattering of nominations in subsequent years. Three noms for her “Butterfly” album. One nom for “Rainbow.” Her career took a downturn with her next two albums, “Glitter” and “Charmbracelet,” but she staged a comeback with 2005’s “The Emancipation of Mimi,” for which she received eight nominations including her third for Album of the Year, her third for Record of the Year (“We Belong Together”), and her second for Song of the Year (“We Belong Together”). She didn’t win any of those general field noms, but this time she did take home three genre trophies: Best Contemporary R&B Album, Best R&B Song, and Best Female R&B Vocal Performance.
But that was really her last hurrah. She received two more nominations in 2007 and one in 2009. She hasn’t had a single nomination since. “Stop playing in this woman’s face,” Yang commented during the podcast. “They had it right in the beginning,” added Rogers about those first two trophies she won. “Then they were like, let’s continue to sleep on her, as if you weren’t leagues ahead of everyone else.” It’s been six years since the release of her acclaimed 15th studio album, “Caution,” which “didn’t get the push and promotion that it deserved,” according to Carey. She told Yang and Rogers that she’s writing new music, and the “Elusive Chanteuse” teases 2025 for a potential release. Maybe this 15-year drought will end with a pile of awards just like her last drought did.
