Мария Кэри – Loverboy синглы туралы

2001 single by Mariah Carey

"Loverboy" is a song by American singer and songwriter Mariah Carey. It was released on June 19, 2001, by Virgin Records America as the lead single from her eighth studio album Glitter, the soundtrack to the 2001 film of the same name. Written and produced by Carey, Larry Blackmon, Thomas Jenkins and Clark Kent, "Loverboy" is built around a sample from "Candy" by the funk band Cameo, who are also featured on the track. Lyrically, the song finds Carey fantasizing about her loverboy, a man that will fulfill her physical and sexual desires. The recording was accompanied by an official remix, titled "Loverboy Remix", featuring guest artists Ludacris, Da Brat, Shawnna and Twenty II. The track was subject to controversy, following confirmed reports that Jennifer Lopez and Tommy Mottola (Carey's ex husband) stole the idea of sampling the singer's original planned sample, Yellow Magic Orchestra's "Firecracker", over a month after Carey had signed for it. Since Carey's Glitter was to be released over a month after Lopez's album, she changed the song's melody to sample from "Candy" instead. Further controversy ensued following its release, as Carey was hospitalized for severe mental and physical exhaustion, following poorly received television appearances involving both the song and album. After the song's release in the United States, "Loverboy" stalled on the Billboard Hot 100 at number two due to weak radio airplay. The single jumped 58 spots on the Billboard Hot 100 the week ending August 4, 2001, with sales driven by a Virgin promotion offering the CD for a bargain priced 49 cents. "Loverboy" only spent 14 weeks on the chart. It also became Carey's first lead single to not reach number one. Though it peaked at number one in Croatia and reached the top 10 in Australia and Canada, the song failed to garner strong charting elsewhere, reaching the top 20 in Portugal, Italy and the United Kingdom. "Loverboy" received generally mixed reviews from music critics; many called the song unoriginal and dated while others felt that the featured artists (primarily on the remix version) overpowered Carey and made the song disorganized. A music video, directed by David LaChapelle, was shot for both versions of the song. The first version features Carey as a scantily clad car girl, waving a flag as her loverboy finishes a race. The video for the remix version features similar footage, only including shots of the song's guests in race cars during their verses. She performed "Loverboy" live on The Sweet Sweet Fantasy Tour in 2016, as well as her Caution World Tour in 2019. In 2020, the original "Firecracker" sampled version of "Loverboy" was included on Carey's eighth compilation album The Rarities and was released as a limited edition double a side Japanese single in December 2020.

Originally planned to be released at a later date, "Loverboy" was leaked to radio on June 1, 2001. As a result, Virgin Records pushed the release date in order to control the leak. On July 18, 2001, Virgin scheduled Carey to do a day of interviews with radio stations. After she called in an hour late to Q100 in Atlanta at 9:00 a. m. and the hosts informed Carey that she was late, the rest of the day's interviews were canceled. The next day, Carey made a surprise appearance on the MTV program Total Request Live (TRL). As the show's host Carson Daly began taping following a commercial break, Carey came out onto the filming stage, pushing an ice cream cart while wearing a large men's shirt. Seemingly anxious and exhilarated, Carey began giving out individual bars of ice cream to fans and guests on the program, while waving to the crowd down below on Times Square, while diverging into a rambling monologue regarding therapy. Following the heavy media coverage surrounding Carey's publicized breakdown and hospitalization, Virgin Records and 20th Century Fox delayed the release of both the film's soundtrack and the film itself for three weeks: from August 21 to September 11 and from August 31 to September 21, respectively. Following Carey's absence from the public eye, as well as her abandonment of promotional appearances for the film and soundtrack, her unprecedented $100 million five album record deal with Virgin Records (EMI Records) was bought out for $50 million. The decision was brought out due to the low sales of the project, as well as the negative publicity surrounding her breakdown. "Loverboy" (Firecracker – Original Version) was released as a limited edition double a side single with "Here We Go Around Again", another song taken from The Rarities. He described some of its background flourishes as "swirling harmonies overtop" and noted the inclusion of many shouts and ad libs from Carey and Cameo. He felt it did not match the success Carey's previous single, "Fantasy" (which also recalled its melody from an older song), and criticized the inclusion of several over the top "keyboard and synth arrangements". while Roger Caitlin of the Hartford Courant described how Carey was often reduced to "breathy background vocals" on "Loverboy". Lyrically, the song finds Carey looking for her "loverboy" and a sugar daddy who is going to "love her right". Therepio found it ironic how Carey was crooning for a sugar daddy, when she had just left one (referring to her older ex husband Tommy Mottola). Additionally, he felt Carey was molding her image from that of a balladeer, to a "pin up image" of a pop star.

Throughout 2000, Carey had already been writing and recording material for Glitter. During this period, she developed the concept for the album's lead single, "Loverboy". Originally, Carey had sampled the melody and hook from the 1978 Yellow Magic Orchestra song "Firecracker", using an interpolation of it throughout the chorus and introduction. Following the scandal, Carey was not able to use the original sample, as Lopez's album was to be released far earlier than Glitter.

"Loverboy" was met with generally mixed reviews from music critics; many were not impressed with the incorporation of the sample and felt the song did not lead Carey into any newer ground or innovation. Additionally, several reviewers were not impressed with Carey's concealed vocals and the song's complex production. Sarah Rodman of the Boston Herald described the song's production as a "traffic jam" and wrote "'Loverboy' is another in an increasingly long line of glitzy, candy coated, creatively stunted song." Writing for the Los Angeles Times, Natalie Nichols felt "Loverboy" was "predictable" and presented nothing new for Carey's audience. USA Todays Edna Gunderson wrote the song off as "skimpy", while Glenn Gamboa from Newsday described its overall reception as "lukewarm". Harry Guerin from Raidió Teilifís Éireann outed the song as one of Carey's "finest moments" on Glitter and disagreed with criticism regarding the "overly populated" musical background". Allmusic editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine listed the song as the only "recommended" song from Glitter, while Gil Kaufman of MTV News called it a "fun, uptempo dance number". Billboards Chuck Taylor described the song as "self sabotage" and felt Carey was gambling her longevity. He described the production as a "mumbo jumbo of disparate elements" and wrote "the mighty may have fallen here". It became Carey's second lowest debut of her career on the Billboard Hot 100 chart at number 79; "Loverboy" peaked atop the Billboards Hot Singles Sales chart for four consecutive weeks, though due to weak airplay, managed to reach number two on the Hot 100 with "Bootylicious" by Destiny's Child holding it back from the top position. "Loverboy" finished as the best selling single of 2001 in the United States, with sales of 571,000 units, falling short of the previous year's best seller, which accumulated sales upwards of one million copies. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) certified the song Gold. The following week, the song began its decline and experienced a total chart trajectory of seven weeks. On July 29, 2001, "Loverboy" debuted at number 65 on the Ö3 Austria Top 40 chart, spending a total of three weeks in the chart. The song achieved relatively weak charting in both the Flemish and Wallonian territories in Belgium, peaking at numbers 49 and 34, respectively. Making its debut at its peak position of number 54, "Loverboy" charted for a total of nine weeks in France, before falling out on November 3, 2001. On the Dutch Top 40 chart, the song made its debut at number 68. The following week the song peaked at number 34, before dropping outside the top 40 three weeks later, ending its five week run. Similarly in Switzerland, the song peaked at number 66 and spent only four weeks fluctuating inside the chart. On the UK Singles Chart, the song debuted at its peak of number 12. The following week, the song dropped to number 29 on the chart, before dropping outside the top 40 two weeks later. while Jim Abbott from the Orlando Sentinel felt the song's guests "upstaged" Carey.

Two music videos, both directed by David LaChapelle, were shot for the song and its accompanying remix and premiered on Total Request Live on June 8, 2001. The videos introduced a less demure image of Carey, one that received negative backlash from critics. She appears in the video with a lighter hair color than she had sported in the past and wearing a series of revealing ensembles. Reviewers disregarded Carey's newer image, primarily her double handkerchief bra, and likened her to younger pop singers such as Britney Spears, which they felt cheapened the singer. The video begins with Cameo frontman Larry Blackmon driving all over a racetrack, while Carey, dressed in revealing clothing, is shown singing in various "car girl" positions at the track on a hot summer day. She flags down cars as the "flag girl" and dances as a "tire girl" in a kaleidoscope inspired sequence, before jumping out of a pop out cake to the roars of the crowd below. Several other scenes of Carey in a pink jumpsuit while riding on top of a race car are shown, during which Blackmon continues the race. A video was also made for the remix and retains most of the shots of the original. In it, Ludacris and Shawnna can be seen rapping together as they ride in an old car, while Da Brat and Twenty II rap together in a more modern car without a hood. The music video for "Loverboy" received generally negative reviews from critics, many of whom felt Carey was portrayed in an overtly sexual manner. A writer from The Guardian criticized the video, calling it "wacky" and describing Carey's choreography as "running amok". while an anonymous columnist from NME commented that it would cause male viewers to "play with themselves" after watching. Japiya Burns of The Michigan Daily was critical of Carey's portrayal in the video, primarily her double handkerchief bra. He felt that in doing so, Carey was cheapening herself and her image to resemble younger pop singers such as Britney Spears.

At the time of its release, Carey did not perform "Loverboy" live. The first performance of the song came 5 months later at a private special concert for the US troops at Camp Bondsteele in Kosovo. Carey also performed her single at the time "Never Too Far / Hero Medley", "My All", a snippet of "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town" and "All I Want for Christmas Is You". 15 years later, it was performed again on Carey's Sweet Sweet Fantasy Tour in 2016, this time as part of the Car Ride medley. Three years later, it was also performed as part of the #JusticeForGlitter medley of Carey's Caution World Tour.