I never thought I would meet Mariah Carey, but I really never thought I'd be introduced to her by Whitney Houston. She's like, "Hey, baby, this is Mariah." I'm like, "I know. I'm Darren. I don't know what I'm doing here."
I was doing gigs at 16, belting out all the big ballads like Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey.
I'm a huge fan of Mariah Carey. I admired her music for so long. It's hard to follow on her footstep. She's so successful. Mariah's Mariah. To be compared to her is a huge compliment.
My dad would always play Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, and Anita Baker, so I fell in love with them. I would try to make my voice sound like theirs.
I didn't grow up with a musical family. My mom had a lot of CDs in the house, particularly Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, ABBA, all the sort of like diva icons. She's Swedish, so she loves pop music.
In Malaysia, we have a lot of divas, like Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey singers. And they were all so so talented, just very talented. For example, there's this one jazz singer, her name is Sheila Majid, and I was always singing her songs.
We're gonna do it like George Foreman. We're gonna name all of our kids Mariah no matter if they're boys or girls. Mariah No. 1, Boy Mariah, Man Mariah, Tall Mariah. It's gonna be a house full of people named Mariah.
I grew up listening to such strong female solo artists. I love Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, Christina Aguilera, Britney Spears.
I think it is about individuality so I don't have a sense to tell someone they need a makeover. One example I would give is Mariah Carey. She has been the same for so long but I bet she is thinking, "If it ain't broke then don't fix it." She is dated but I love Mariah for that.
I have met Mariah before and she's really cool and so funny. Everyone has been given the wrong impression of her, and maybe it is her doing. But you have to remember that celebrities are always in the spotlight and are sometimes forced to conduct themselves in a different way than they normally do. That's how it is in the business. I have met artists who are real divas, but Mariah Carey is not one of them. She is a very sweet person, and what nobody sees off camera is the real person she is on the inside.
I say nice things about Mariah Carey all the time. I tell Mariah all the time how much of a fan I am of her. She's one of my favorite artists of all time... She's shaped a generation of singers.
For me, my favorite Mariah Carey songs were never the singles, ever. My favorite Mariah song of all time is 'Sent From Up Above' from her first album, or 'Vanishing,' songs no one talks about.
I've always looked up to Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey for their outstanding vocal performances. I've always been inspired by them.
People have been kind enough to compare me to Celine Dion, Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston. I think it's amazing that they even put my name in the same sentence.
I loved music from a young age. At school I played the violin but I didn't sing much; there was an expectation of the kids in the choir that they'd have really pure tones, and my voice had all this texture to it. The anodyne soul of Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey was in the charts and I couldn't relate to it.
I wanted to bring back that big, ballad type of music that we used to love so much. Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, when they first came out, that's what I grew up singing.
I've been singing love songs since I was a toddler, I was singing Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey and even Alicia Keys song, that helped my writing so much.