Watch: Mariah Carey sings a stunning 'One More Try' live in honour of George Michael

You wouldn't necessarily peg Mariah Carey as a George Michael fan, but it just goes to show how far-reaching the late star's influence was.

Carey covered his song 'One More Try' on her album 'Me. I Am Mariah... The Elusive Chanteuse' and played the song live during her gig in Dubai the other day.

She posted the video to Facebook, saying 'I always loved him; he was a really great person."

After his death in December, Carey had paid tribute to him with a message on her website, saying "George was not only a great musician, he was an active ambassador in the LBGTQ community, pushing for greater understanding, acceptance, and love for all people. He touched so many lives and inspired us all. 'One More Try' on Me. I Am Mariah Best Unblocked Games... The Elusive Chanteuse is a tribute to his influence, in many ways."

Nick Cannon denies his new song slams Mariah Carey

Rapper Nick Cannon has denied claims that his song "Oh Well" is directed at his former wife and singer Mariah Carey.

Ever since the scathing track was released a few days ago, fans have been speculating that it was written with the Carey in mind, reports aceshowbiz.com.

Cannon has now denied -- via a string of tweets -- claims that the song is a diss directed at the singer, whom he split from in 2014 after six years of marriage.

The 35-year-old star said that he and his former wife are on good terms and he would never say anything bad about her.

"Sorry to disappoint the bottom feeders but you won't be hearing any diss records from me unless it's about the government! Lol. How many times do I have to reiterate Mariah Carey and I are super cool! Stop trying to create negativity, we will never subscribe to it."

Cannon went on saying that he and Carey "are both very happy and have both moved on".

"So all the outlets reaching for gossip, it's not 2014 anymore. Do your jobs better! Old News. Like I have always said I will forever Respect and Love Mariah Carey and will never say anything negative about the mother of my children," he said.

Carey has completely moved on from him as she is now engaged to Australian billionaire James Packer.

After learning of her engagement, Cannon shared his excitement on Instagram and congratulated her. "All Love Congrats to Mariah Carey and James! May God Bless Your Future Union...Great People Great Couple," he wrote earlier this year.

New York Attorney General Demands Shutdown of DraftKings, FanDuel

The daily fantasy sports operators have been called “illegal”

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman filed an injunction in the State’s Supreme Court on Tuesday that argues that daily fantasy sports sites like FanDuel and DraftKings are illegal and should be shut down.

In the preliminary statement, New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman wrote that: “DraftKings, Inc. (“DraftKings”) exploits the good will associated with this game. Unlike the season-long competition played mostly for bragging rights or side wagers, DraftKings runs a casino-style gambling operation — dubbed daily fantasy sports (“DFS”)– where bettors can wager up to $10,000 per “line-up” and enter for a chance to win jackpots of more than $1 million.”

Schneiderman noted that New York state residents wagered more than $25 million on DraftKings in 2014 alone.

“While irresponsibly denying their status as gambling companies, the DFS sites pose precisely the same risks to New York residents that New York’s antigambling laws were intended to avoid,” the attorney general’s office said in a statement.

Schneiderman further asserted that the state’s constitution prohibits bookmaking and gambling and that the sites like FanDuel and Draft Kings fall under that definition.

The attorney general’s office filed a cease-and-desist order last week accusing the DFS sites of operating illegally and ordered them to stop accepting payments immediately.

FanDuel and Draft Kings fired back with its own restraining order to try and stop the attorney general from shutting them down.

“We look forward to being afforded a full and fair opportunity to demonstrate why daily fantasy sports are legal under New York State law,” a spokesperson for DraftKings said in a statement.

“We believe the attorney general’s view of this issue is based on an incomplete understanding of the facts about how our business operates and a fundamental misinterpretation and misapplication of the law.”

In their own statement, a spokesperson for Fan Duel said, “We maintain, unequivocally, that FanDuel has always complied with state and federal law. We look forward to vindicating our position in court next week.”

“We will press on and fight to ensure that your right to play fantasy sports is protected, not just in New York, but across the nation.”

Mariah Carey to see in the new year with Melbourne Crown casino performance

The US singer is dating Crown tycoon and Australian billionaire James Packer and will become the star attraction for 1,200 Melbourne partygoers

 

Mariah Carey performing her second annual All I Want For Christmas Is You concert in New York on 18 December 2015. Photograph: Kevin Mazur/WireImage

Mariah Carey will perform at the Crown in Melbourne on New Year’s Eve. She is dating Australian billionaire James Packer, who has a majority stake in Crown.

The American singer responsible for hits Dreamlover and Hero will appear at the Palladium ballroom for 1,200 partygoers, as reported in the Herald Sun on Monday.

Carey said: “I can’t wait to get back to Australia, I have so many of my friends and fans there and the country really means so much to me.

“To be heading over for New Year’s Eve with James and to be able to put on a performance at Crown, it is incredibly ­exciting. Australia really will be the place to celebrate in the new year and I am counting down the days.”

Carey and Packer are currently at the US ski resort of Aspen – where they first met in 2014, although according to media reports they did not begin dating until June – celebrating Christmas with Carey’s four-year-old twins Monroe and Moroccan.

It is not the pair’s first Crown appearance. In October they walked the red carpet for the launch of Melco Crown’s $4bn Studio City casino in Macau.

Carey, 45, recently discussed with American chat show host Steve Harvey how she met the 48-year-old businessman. “We were at the Hercules premiere. We were talking and laughing, and people were getting mad at us and stuff like that. So we hit it off.”

Since January, Carey has been a resident performer at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, in a show performing 18 of her US No 1 hits.

She recently made her directorial debut with a Christmas television film called A Christmas Melody, starring herself alongside Lacey Chabert.

Mariah Carey and James Packer reported to be engaged

E! Online says the Australian businessman presented the singer with ‘what can only be described as the most breathtaking engagement ring’ in New York

 

Mariah Carey and James Packer met in 2014. Photograph: Neilson Barnard/Getty Images

James Packer and Mariah Carey are reportedly engaged, marking the second betrothal of a member of an Australian media dynasty this month.

Packer, the 48-year-old son of the late Australian media mogul Kerry Packer, who has turned his fortune to building multibillion-dollar casinos, has been dating 45-year-old Carey since June.

According to E! Online Packer presented Carey with “what can only be described as the most breathtaking engagement ring” in New York on Thursday night. The breathtaking ring is reportedly a 35-carat diamond.

TMZ elaborated, saying Packer gathered a selection of Carey’s friends “so he could get down on one knee and propose in front of the most special people in her life”.

Carey has been married twice before, to American rapper and actor Nick Cannon and music executive Tommy Mottola, and has two children with Cannon.

Packer has also been married twice, to model Jodhi Meares and model and singer Erica Baxter, and has three children with Baxter.

The news, which has not been confirmed by the couple, follows Rupert Murdoch’s announcement earlier this month that he was engaged to former supermodel Jerry Hall. The 84-year-old announced his engagement by placing an ad in his flagship newspaper the Times on 12 January.

Packer and Carey met at a movie premiere in Aspen in 2014 and recently celebrated New Year’s Eve at Crown casino in Melbourne.

Packer stepped down as chairman of Crown Resorts, the $9bn company that represents the bulk of his wealth, in April, and resigned from the board in December, saying he wanted to focus on development projects in Sydney, Melbourne and Las Vegas.

His $4.5bn Studio City casino in Macau was launched in 2015 with the most expensive advertisement of all time, costing $US70m. The 16-minute short film starred Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Brad Pitt and Martin Scorsese, who were each reportedly paid a $US17m appearance fee, and was directed by Brett Ratner.

Carey and Packer made their first red carpet appearance as a couple at the launch for the film in Macau in October.

Mariah Carey Biography

Synopsis
Mariah Carey was born March 27, 1970, in Huntington, Long Island, New York, and began taking voice lessons at age four. At 18 she signed with Columbia records, and her first album had four No. 1 singles, including "Vision of Love" and "I Don't Wanna Cry." She went on to produce several more albums (later with other studios) and top singles, and is one of the best-selling female artists of all time

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Early Life
Singer Mariah Carey was born March 27, 1970, in Huntington, Long Island, New York, to Alfred Roy Carey, a Venezuelan aeronautical engineer; and Patricia Carey, a voice coach and opera singer. Has two older siblings: a brother, Morgan, and a sister, Alison. Carey is known as one of the top "pop divas" of the 1990s, having sold more than 80 million albums worldwide. Her voice spans more than five octaves and she writes most of her own music.

Carey's parents divorced when she was 3 years old. She stunned her mother by imitating her operatic singing as early as age two, and was given singing lessons starting at age four. After graduating in 1987 from Harborfields High School in Greenlawn, New York, Carey moved to Manhattan where she worked as a waitress, coat check girl, and studied cosmetology while writing songs and actively pursuing a music career at night.

Early Music Career
When she was 18 years old, Carey and her friend, singer Brenda K. Starr, went to a party hosted by CBS Records. Starr convinced Carey to bring along one of her demo tapes. She intended to give the tape to Columbia's Jerry Greenberg, but Tommy Mottola, the president of Columbia Records (later Sony), intercepted it before she could hand it to Greenberg. After listening to the tape on the way home from the party, Mottola signed Carey immediately and set her to work on her first album, Mariah Carey (1990) which included four No. 1 singles: "Vision of Love," "Love Takes Time," "Some Day," and "I Don't Wanna Cry." Her second album Emotions was released in 1992; the title track became her fifth No. 1 single, and included hits "Can't Let Go" and "Make it Happen."

Success on the Pop Charts

In March 1992, Carey appeared on MTV's Unplugged. This performance was released as an album and a home video, resulting in another No. 1 single (a cover of The Jacksons' "I'll Be There"). Her next album Music Box (1993) cut back a bit on the lavish studio production techniques heard in her previous albums, and included the No. 1 singles, "Dreamlover" and "Hero." Her November 1994 release Merry Christmas combined traditional Christian hymns with new songs. In 1995 she released Daydream; the first single "Fantasy" debuted at No. 1. It also included collaborations with R&B and hip-hop artists, such as Wu-Tang Clan and Boyz II Men ("One Sweet Day").

Her 1997 album, Butterfly, included 11 compositions written by Carey, and demonstrated her continued interest in hip-hop and R&B, including the Sean "Puffy" Combs-produced "Honey," her 12th No. 1 hit. Carey's 1998 album,#1's, featured her 13 previous chart-topping singles as well as the Academy Award-nominated "The Prince of Egypt (When You Believe)," a duet with fellow pop diva Whitney Houston.

Overcoming Obstacles
In July 2001, Carey was admitted into a New York-area hospital and put under psychiatric care after suffering what her publicists called a "physical and emotional collapse." Carey had been preparing to promote her upcoming feature film debut, Glitter, and its accompanying soundtrack album, but cancelled all public appearances. The release of Glitter was subsequently pushed back from late August to late September 2001. Carey was released from the hospital after two weeks.

In January 2002, Carey and EMI (the corporate owner of Virgin Records, with whom Carey had signed a reported $80 million contract in April 2001) severed their relationship. Though the film and soundtrack for Glitter failed to generate the desired box office and sales totals, Carey reportedly walked away from Virgin with nearly $50 million as part of her severance agreement. In May 2002, she signed a deal with Universal Music Group's Island/Def Jam Records. In December 2002, Carey staged a comeback with her eighth album, Charmbracelet, which debuted in third place on the charts. The record's accompanying tour, her first in more than three years, launched in June 2003.

In Recent Years
In 2012, Carey was chosen as a new judge for season 12 of the popular FOX television show American Idol, taking a seat alongside Randy Jackson, Nicki Minaj and Keith Urban.

Carey has sold around 160 million albums worldwide. She is the third best-selling female artist of all time, according to the Recording Industry Association of America. With 2008’s Touch My Body (from her eleventh studio album E=MC²), Carey passed Elvis Presley to become second only to the Beatles for the most No. 1 hit singles in the United States.

Outside of her music career, Carey is active in fundraising for The Fresh Air Fund, an independent nonprofit agency that has provided free summer vacations to more than 1.6 million disadvantaged New York City children since 1877.

In January 2015, Carey inked a deal to become the latest diva songstress to take up residency in Las Vegas beginning in May.

Personal Life
In June 1993, Carey married Mottola in a spectacular ceremony at Manhattan's St. Thomas Episcopal Church. The couple divorced in 1998. Carey then dated Latin singer Luis Miguel for three years, but their relationship reportedly ended in the summer of 2001.

Carey married rapper/actor/talent show host Nick Cannon on April 30, 2008, in a secret ceremony in the Bahamas. The couple had been dating for less than two months, their romance having blossomed after he appeared in her music video for "Bye Bye." In 2011, Carey and Cannon welcomed twins Moroccan and Monroe. After six years of marriage, in August 2014, the couple announced their separation. It was also reported that a confidentiality agreement was issued that bars discussing the details of their split publicly. In January 2015, it was reported that Cannon officially filed for divorce.

Mariah Carey’s List Is Short: All She Wants Is Immortality

If the forces of commerce haven’t completely secularized Christmas, Mariah Carey seems ready to finish the job. I, at least, can imagine a Nativity scenario in which the wise men reach Bethlehem and find Ms. Carey’s face glowing in the manger. Right now her 21-year-old Yuletide jam “All I Want for Christmas Is You” stands atop Billboard’s Holiday 100 chart, where it’s been, on and off (but mostly on), since the chart appeared in 2011.

It has also hovered near or at the top of choices for bricks-and-mortar shopping, according to the retail-media-experience provider PlayNetwork. (The Shins’ cover of Paul McCartney’s “Wonderful Christmastime” demoted it to No. 2.) That’s also her position on YouTube’s top 20 Christmas songs of the month.(The “superfestive” version she recorded with Justin Bieber is in seventh place.) No. 1 on YouTube is “Mary, Did You Know?” by Pentatonix, the a cappella outfit with a best-selling Christmas album.

Ms. Carey’s pursuit of winter dominion is more thorough than those of the other acts. Last week, she completed her Christmas residency at the 2,900-seat Beacon Theater in New York, the second of what I hope will be many. And on Saturday the Hallmark Channel unveiled “A Christmas Melody,” a peculiar romantic family comedy that Ms. Carey directed and only kind of stars in. And given how often you can still hear her 1995 hit “Always Be My Baby” while standing in a checkout line, Ms. Carey might just own a chunk of the year-round shopping experience, too.Photo

Ms. Carey in “A Christmas Melody” on Hallmark. CreditBrian Douglas/Crown Media

This is all a savvy bid for, if not relevance, then at least seasonal permanence. Even if it’s for only two months, Ms. Carey wants us to want her, to need her. She’s become to Christmas what the pumpkin spice latte is to fall: nutmeg, foam and caffeine. Meanwhile, her determination to be mandatorily anti-blues makes her a human flu shot.

This is to say that she’s also a genius. Who knows where Taylor Swift and Rihanna will be in 20 years? If they need it, though, Ms. Carey is devising a road map for the future. Her popularity may rise, spectacularly crash, then rise again, as may the quality of her artistry. But she’s lasted. And not only by heading to Las Vegas for one of those long, lucrative engagements that turn legend to kitsch. (“Mariah Carey #1 to Infinity” ends a 26-show run at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace in late February.) She has endured by attempting to colonize a holiday.

Most stars, in being synonymous with Christmas, can become partially encased in classicality — whether they’re Nat King Cole or Brenda Lee,Wham! or the Waitresses. Ms. Carey is trying to be something more with this holiday version of herself: transcendent, ludicrous, fun.

Jokey brand extension is one way to enjoy “A Christmas Melody.” In telling the story of Kristen (Lacey Chabert), a widowed single mom whose Los Angeles fashion boutique goes bust, the movie is as blandly watchable as everything else in Hallmark’s Christmas lineup, which includes titles like “I’m Not Ready for Christmas,” “Merry Matrimony” and “’Tis the Season for Love.” But Ms. Carey’s participation makes the generic badness of “A Christmas Melody” a touch better than its neighbors. She treats herself like a woman who’s come to family entertainment from Venus.

Ms. Carey has cast herself as the villain: Melissa McKean-Atkinson, Kristen’s former classmate, head of the PTA, consummate mean girl, big fan of pearls. Ms. Carey’s idea of ho-hum suburbanism and vicious glamour are a riot. Melissa catches Kristen up on her life thus: “Married now. Twelve glorious years. Three children. Huge four-bedroom, three-and-a-half bath, two-story.” The pearls give you one sense of the character’s ridiculousness. Another sense? The fact that the only modifier the children get is “three.”Photo

Fina Strazza, age 10, in “A Christmas Melody.”CreditBrian Douglas/Crown Media

It’s as if Ms. Carey has slurped the same hooch that Hoda and Kathie Lee do a lot of mornings on “Today.” This portrait is almost as loony as whatever Tina Fey and Amy Poehler are up to in “Sisters,” and only half as condescending. Ms. Carey isn’t pretending to know the average woman. That’s part of her Christmastime appeal. She’s not an elf, Mrs. Claus, or that poor soul who’s married to Bob Cratchit. She’s a version of her spoiled-bratalter ego, Bianca, traipsing among the mortals who’ve purchased, say, Ms. Carey’s pavé crystal hoop earrings with four charms,on Home Shopping Network. That’s how holiday she is.

Ms. Carey’s performance as the social worker in Lee Daniels’s “Precious” proves she can act, and strongly. But on Hallmark she deploys herself only sparingly — stingily, I’d say. And when she does, it’s weird. She’s lit like a sci-fi planet on the verge of explosion. And rarely does she share the frame with other actors. Most of the time, she’s alone in a shot, looking off somewhere to the right. I imagine that’s a strategy to heighten Melissa’s obnoxiousness. But the effect more or less puts her in a different product — specifically anythingstarring Agnes Moorehead.

This attempt to do camp in “A Christmas Melody” means she’s missed her own point. Or, that Ms. Carey, who’s in her mid-40s, suspects that camp is all she has. But “All I Want for Christmas Is You” is much more than that. Ms. Carey wrote it with Walter Afanasieff. They gave it sleigh bells and the sonic architecture of a textbook Phil Spector production.

So semi-scientifically, the song is probably impossible to resist. It’s endured partly because of the timelessness of its arrangement, which theAV Club unpacked a few weeks ago. But it’s also a masterpiece of generosity. That’s an aspect of Ms. Carey that’s easily overlooked because she’s also the woman who, in music videos, has been guilty of rigging her appeal by surrounding herself with goofier, rounder, less well-lit co-stars.

Listening to the original version, you realize that the mix places the emphasis on the backing vocalists, who begin Ms. Carey’s sentences or seem to complete her thoughts. This is the forever part of the song. You realize you’re not really singing with her, but with the backup folks. For instance, when they belt and hold the rising “And I,” so do you. It’s one of the happiest kinds of singalongs because the song doesn’t aim to overwhelm you with the singer’s prowess (another departure for Ms. Carey). It makes room on her sleigh for you.

In 2012, Ms. Carey performed the song with Jimmy Fallon and the Roots, with classroom instruments in a tiny room on “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon.” This might be the best of the show’s viral collaborations, just for the way the reconsideration nails the inexorable joy of the original song, which is also written all over Ms. Carey’s face. When it’s time for the “and I,” her backing vocalists (Mr. Fallon and the Roots) expand to include a row of four kids who’ve snapped into the frame from the floor, like Muppets or pictures in a pop-up book. It’s been viewed well over 17 million times on YouTube. About a million of those belong to me.

Ms. Carey has been wise to extend her Christmas empire. Only Cookie Lyon would dare attempt to snatch the holiday from her. But Ms. Carey didn’t need the Beacon Theater or a droopy Hallmark movie to stake her claim. She wrote an unkillable song, and no matter what the charts eventually say, that will always be our baby.