There are divas, and there are divas. And then there's Mariah Carey, a pop superstar who makes most other divas seem like shy, retiring wallflowers - with or without her ability to sing notes so high only certain breeds of dogs can appreciate (or hear) them.
Now embarked on her "The Adventures of Mimi: The Voice, The Hits, The Tour," comeback tour, Carey performed recently in San Diego.
"It's not easy to live in the limelight," she told her audience. "But it's the music and the fans that matter."
Carey delivered this line with a straight face for someone who has always coveted the limelight with an unrelenting level of determination that says: "Don't even think about getting in my way, or you're toast."
Earlier this year, she won three Grammy Awards, her first since 1990, but was snubbed in every major category in which she was nominated. Last month, her record company issued a news release that her ongoing tour is playing "to packed houses every night."
The release neglects to mention that dates in four cities were canceled because of low ticket sales. That's surprising, because Carey's "The Adventures of Mimi" was the top-selling album of 2005. Then again, she only tours sporadically and hasn't developed a loyal audience for her glitz-fest shows.
But Carey - much like her up, down and up again career - has always been an artist marked by contradictions.
Her worldwide album sales total more than 160 million, making her the top-selling female artist ever. Yet, four or so years ago, her career was going down the toilet so fast Virgin Records terminated her $28 million contract and paid her $22 million not to record any more albums for them.
This move came in the wake of her stink-bomb of a movie, "Glitter," one of the most unintentionally laughable flops since Pia Zadora's "The Lonely Lady" in 1983. Ominously, the "Glitter" soundtrack album was released on Sept. 11, 2001; Carey had an emotional meltdown soon thereafter.
But no matter.
Because like "The Dude," the dimwitted stoner character Jeff Bridges portrayed so memorably in the classic 1998 film "The Big Lebowski," Carey, at 36, prevails. And she does so even though people seem to love and loathe her, sometimes for exactly the same reasons. Here are five of mine:
Reason 1: The only time I came face to face with Carey was on my way to the bathroom, midway through the 1996 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony, at New York's plush Waldorf Astoria hotel. What caught my eye wasn't so much her typically plunging neckline as the fact she required an entourage of nine people to accompany her to the ladies room. Not to the door, but inside.
Reason 2: When Carey performed at the massive Live 8 benefit concert in London's Hyde Park in 2005, she was accompanied by 20 singing African orphans - the better to offset her so-tight-it-could-have-been-painted-on mini dress.
Reason 3: She will soon launch a line of luxury women's watches - and an inexpensive clothing line for dogs.
Reason 4: At a recording session for her 1994 Christmas album, she refused to sing until a Christmas tree was brought in and fully decorated - even though the session was in June. She then sang two words - Bless you - and left.
Reason 5: At a 2002 media event in Dallas, one of Carey's assistants loudly instructed photographers: "Make sure to get her (breasts). Mariah is all about the (breasts)." Hmm. Maybe a word in her "The Voice, The Hits, The Tour" should be spelled differently.
