Maybe it really is the 90s all over again (cue the sounds of Veronica Electronica). The decade when it first became well-documented that the dynamic between Madonna and Mariah Carey isn’t exactly “friendly.” Or even civil. The beef between them began at the end of 1995, when Spin magazine released some quotes from their January 1996 cover issue featuring Madonna, including one that mentioned how the latter would “kill herself” if she were Carey.
Though, for further context, Carey’s name came up in a conversation about the lack of genuine artistic expression in America. Madonna stated, “I was talking to k.d. lang about it last night. I don’t want to get into slagging off other artists, but we were talking about her record versus someone like Mariah Carey’s—and I think she’s a very talented singer—but we have to realize that the same country that acquitted O.J. is the same country that makes a complete piece of shit movie number one, that buys Mariah Carey records. It’s this homogeneity. But it’s got nothing to do with art.”
It was only when the interviewer further probed, “Are there moments when you just say I wish I was Mariah Carey, just singing silly pop songs?” that Madonna answered, “I’d kill myself.” So, to be clear, she didn’t technically say she would kill herself if she were Carey, but that if she was stuck singing only silly pop songs. Nonetheless, the media wasted no time in having a field day with stoking a potential new feud between two women, asking Mariah what she thought of the comment, which, in turn, prompted her to deliver one of her most infamous shade-throwing lines: “I really haven’t paid attention to Madonna since I was in like seventh or eighth grade when she used to be popular, so I didn’t…” Of course, Mariah was in junior high around 1982, when Madonna was just starting out. Though, of course, there is the possibility that since her debut single, “Everybody,” got more heavy radio airplay in NYC, maybe Carey was attuned to Madonna sooner than the “average” teenage girl.
Whatever the case (apart from Carey’s deliberate “fogginess” about alluding to a time that might overly “date” her), the feud just seemed to keep going from there. Though “feud” isn’t really the word, so much as “frostiness.” Mostly on Carey’s end. For, once Madonna evidently “threw down the gauntlet,” Carey was determined to keep throwing it back. Or rather, keep throwing it back in the form of shadé all day.
This kept happening even in the face of Madonna trying to make nice about the whole mid-90s dust-up. Particularly circa 2008, when she was doing the promotional interview rounds for Hard Candy, at one point mentioning on Z100 that she liked Mariah’s then “new record” (this meaning her new single), “Touch My Body,” and that she even worked out to it. This being the lead single (and arguably the only one that most casual listeners remember) from 2008’s E=MC². Released three years after L.A. Reid resuscitated her fledgling career with The Emancipation of Mimi, which he executive produced. Indeed, another interviewer in 2008 brought up to Madonna that Reid had told reporters: “Madonna is making a huge mistake releasing an album at the same time as Mariah” (Hard Candy came out on April 18, 2008, two weeks after E=MC² on April 4).
Madonna brushed off the comment, assuring the interviewer, “The world is big enough for two girls with the same initials” (incidentally, Madonna had nothing to “worry about,” with Hard Candy outshining E=MC² in total album sales). But that’s probably not what Carey’s thinking was in releasing her second single (following “Type Dangerous”) from Here For It All, “Sugar Sweet,” on the same day as Madonna’s Veronica Electronica. Though, of course, Carey would likely insist she “no idea” Madonna was even still making music. Such is her “I don’t know her” and “I can’t read suddenly” way. As it is her way to insist, as she does on “Sugar Sweet,” “I’ma keep it nice, l’ma keep it neat/I’ma keep it sugar, I’ma keep it sweet.” All while doing the exact opposite.
To assist her with that false presentation of “niceness” (evidently, this is part of a “soft rebrand” for this era, as she told Jimmy Kimmel Live! guest host Fortune Feimster, “I’m a nice person”) are Kehlani and Shenseea—further proof that Carey wants to ensure her sixteenth album has plenty of reinforcements. Madonna, meanwhile, is working on her fifteenth (which means Mariah has officially won the output-of-studio-albums competition—for now), with Veronica Electronica being a “bone throw” to fans while they continue to wait for new material. Though the only one doing any hardcore throwing (of shade), as usual, is Mariah.
Indeed, even her tone on “Sugar Sweet” exudes that kind of vibe, matching, in many ways, the lackadaisical-but-meant-to-be-cutting timbre of 2018’s “GTFO,” from her last album, Caution. To offset Carey’s cooing (the sound of which is being increasingly affected by her various facial procedures) is Kehlani doing the “self-referencing” thing for Mariah (too “diva” to actually repeat her own already-used chorus) via the lyrics, “It’s like that y’all (that y’all)/I got the sweet and the spice/And the everything nice/It’s like that y’all (that y’all).”
As for what the song is actually about—biding one’s time in order to secure a man—Mariah continues to reiterate that she’s never been the progressive one between the two of them, insisting, “I will absolutely get the ring.” Madonna, on the other hand, couldn’t give a shit about marriage, nor does she ever want to subject herself to that antiquated practice again (especially not after Guy Ritchie fucked with her bag).
Perhaps Madonna wouldn’t subject herself to listening to anything from Here For It All either. Maybe the days of listening to her “rival’s” music fell off with “Touch My Body.” And maybe Carey genuinely had “no clue” that Madonna was offering up a release the same day as “Sugar Sweet.” But, as far as Carey is concerned, that’s likely only a bonus in her ongoing bid to “effortlessly” prove she’s “better,” more “iconic,” more of a diva etc.
And yet, album sales and chart placement statistics just can’t lie. Not to get all anything but “sugar” and “sweet” when it comes to reminding Mariah that, in truth, the world is not big enough for two (pop) girls with the same initials. At least not when it comes to sharing a release day for music.
