Mariah vs. Madonna: Whose CD is the winner?
May 3, 2008 – 10:48 amA storm is brewing on the pop music charts, with music fans getting blown away by Madonna and Mariah Carey.
The two divas may not be inclined to stand in the same room; it’s rumored that they don’t exactly fancy each other much. But they’re falling all over each other on various album and singles charts.
Both surely want to not only top the other, but best their own track records as well.
Carey is up first with “E=MC2,” her follow-up to her huge 2005 effort, “The Emancipation of Mimi.” Madonna’s “Hard Candy” is her first record since 2005’s “Confessions on a Dance Floor.”
Here’s a look at how the two projects shape up, and who should triumph in the end.
MARIAH CAREY
CD: “E=MC2,” released April 15 on Island/Def Jam; No. 1 on the Billboard 200
Singles: “Touch My Body,” which peaked at No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 and iTunes Top Songs charts; “Bye Bye” recently debuted at No. 23 on the Hot 100.
Producers: Jermaine Dupri, C. “Tricky” Stewart and The-Dream, DJ Toomp, Stargate, Will.i.am, Bryan Michael Cox, Nate “Danjahandz” Hills, James Poyser and Carey.
Review: Carey named her latest “E=MC2″ for good reason. It’s a fitting sequel to her 2005 blockbuster “The Emancipation of Mimi.” “E=MC2″ boasts a perfectly polished mix of up-to-the-minute R&B-pop with just enough shiny hip-hop bits to give Carey a quarter-ounce of street cred. “E=MC2″ is ultracommercial, reason enough to love or hate it. We lean toward the former.
Promotion: Carey’s been pushing high-profile, can’t-beat spots on “American Idol,” “Good Morning America” and “The Oprah Winfrey Show.” She even has found time to promote her long-simmering movie, “Tennessee.” And in what some suggest is the ultimate publicity move, Carey is said to have married Nick Cannon, keeping her name in the headlines all week. She’s hustling with a capital H.
Performances: Carey’s everywhere singing “E=MC2″ songs, but watching her makes us wonder: When did she stop singing live? She’s caught up in a flurry of lip-synching, making us wonder whether all those years of piercing notes she used to hit has blown out her voice.
Sales: 154,000 copies sold the first day of release for “E=MC2″; 463,000 copies sold the first week.
Grade — B+: “E=MC2″ was carefully calculated to be one of the year’s biggest-selling CDs, and it looks as if everything is panning out. She’ll have Madonna eating her glitter dust.
MADONNA
CD: “Hard Candy,” released Tuesday on Warner Bros.; likely to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 this week displacing Carey.
Singles: “4 Minutes” featuring Justin Timberlake, which peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard 100 and No. 1 on iTunes Top Songs chart.
Producers: The Neptunes, Timbaland, Nate “Danjahandz” Hills, Justin Timberlake and Madonna.
Review: Madonna ends her longtime run with Warner Bros. with a fun departure from her recent trance-techno dance CDs. On “Hard Candy,” Madonna unashamedly cribs from Gwen Stefani and Nelly Furtado, borrowing their styles and producers to create her own hot urban grooves.
Promotion: Madonna’s been noticeably absent from the usual blur of promotional duties, instead focusing on gracing the covers of high-end nonmusic magazines such as Vanity Fair and Elle. She’s also preoccupied with promoting her documentary about the plight of orphans in Malawi, “I Am Because We Are,” her bigger passion. The fact that she tossed her entire CD on MySpace four days before its release suggests she’s already over it.
Performances: Madonna thrilled a VIP crowd last week at New York’s Roseland Ballroom with a 30-minute set of old and new and a guest appearance from Timberlake. But what about the rest of us? Shouldn’t she take a page from Carey and at least do “Saturday Night Live”?
Sales: Based on first-day sales Tuesday, Madonna is expected to sell 275,000 to 300,000 copies her first week out.
Grade — B: Her new $120 million deal with Live Nation is where it’s at, and she’s barely going through the motions with “Hard Candy.” And it shows.
Source: STL Today
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