Mariah Carey talks about "Imperfect Angel"

A record is not the purpose. A record provides a lot of explanation for the sake of easily proving the value of something, but you cannot create value for the purpose of setting a record. That is why Mariah Carey's depth of talent and presence can be noticed without her outstanding records which include placing 18 singles on No. 1 of the Billboard charts, remaining atop the chart for 79 weeks and selling over 200 million copies of her album worldwide.

The pop diva, visiting South Korea this week to promote her new album "Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel," appeared at a press conference at the Grand Intercontinental Hotel in Seoul on Tuesday, saying An-nyeong-ha-se-yo', or Korean for 'hello' to fans.

The multi-award winning pop diva expressed her happiness in returning to Korea for the first time in six years and talked about her 12th album.

She is set to appear on a KBS music show, hold an autograph session as well a live fan meeting on MTV during her four-day stay.

Below are excerpts from her press conference.

Q: Can you start off by saying hello and how it feels to come back after six years?
Mariah Carey: I'm very excited to be back in Korea after six years and I always say that I wanna come here and see my fans and experience new things in Korea so I'm very happy.

Q: This is the first place for your promotion. Why did you choose Seoul especially?
Carey: I really enjoyed myself when I was here twice before. And even though it was very brief, I feel like the Korean fans were so supportive of me. Even yesterday at the airport, I was really tired but the fans were there and they were very supportive. I feel like I have family all over the world and Korea's part of the family too.

Q: When we listen to your album this time, it doesn't seem to really follow any trend but goes your own way. What did you want to achieve from this album?
Carey: I really just did have fun in the studio with this album. I just wanted to make something that I like and felt that my fans would like. It's commercial but it's not trying to be 'in'. I wasn't trying to be like anybody out there. We weren't trying to make hits, we were just trying to make good music.

Q: Why did you call yourself "Imperfect Angel"?
Carey: I wrote it with my husband and it was about nobody being perfect and our culture puts so much stress on trying to make people feel like they have to be perfect, especially in the entertainment business. So that was the theme. I decided to make this the theme of the album to help people who, you may be growing up and you may not feel good enough... that sort of stuck with the album. And the 'memoirs' -- I'm just always writing things down. Sometimes I forget about a song I wrote or open a book and go "Oh yea, that was really good". It was just one of those things where the title came together.

Q: You've achieved everything you've ever wanted. So I guess some people might be wondering why bother keep going?
Carey: Some people do live their entire lives wanting to be entertainers. I mean, this is what I love to do. I make music, I write songs, I perform -- this is who I am. I do definitely want to also have a family. Obviously, I got married last year and I will likely take time off and try to do the best I could with that. But it's difficult to do both things so I will really have to make time to have a family and try to also make music when I want. So it's a balancing act and we'll see.

Q: Tell us how you felt about appearing in film "Precious"?
Carey: I love the book -- it's called "Push" and that's what the movie is based on. The character I played was about a 16-year-old and the director said "I want you to look as homely, as ugly as possible. I don't want anyone to recognize you at all. I'm going to put a mustache on you. I want stuff under your eyes. You're going to look hideous. And then you're gonna lose yourself into the part.' And that's what we did. Yes, I hated looking like that but the main thing was becoming the character of Miss Weiss just shutting out the internal things that I have to become this character. And I am so fortunate to be part of this movie, Oprah Winfrey is the executive producer as well as Tyler Terry so it's an amazing cast. And it's a really good movie. I hope you see it over here.

Q: What is your secret of keeping yourself young and beautiful?
Carey: That's a very nice thing to say. (laugh) If you say something enough you start to believe it and then it becomes true -- that's a theory some people have. So when people ask me I say I'm eternally 12 because when I was 12, there were good things, there were bad things, there were difficult things, but basically I'm the same person I was when I was 12 so why don't I just be 12. Oh, with a nice hair and make-up artist.

Reporter : Yoon Hee-Seong nine@10asia.co.kr
Editor : Jessica Kim jesskim@asiae.co.kr