Mariah Carey reveals new album is done and contains some trademark ballads

Originally posted on Contact Music | Last updated Jul 2, 2025 10:37 AM ET

Mariah Carey has completed work on her new album.

The 56-year-old singer has been putting the finishing touches to her hotly-anticipated 16th studio LP - the follow-up to 2018's Caution - although she is remaining tight-lipped on what fans can expect.

Speaking to Zane Lowe and Ebro Darden at the new Apple Music Studios during a live broadcast, she said: "I’m trying not to tell too much about the new album. ‘It’s a special occasion/ Mimi’s emancipation’ — that’s a lyric from one of my songs.

"What is next? The album coming out. I don’t wanna tell too much about it because I just don’t want to reveal the whole thing. It’s finished.”

Mariah did spill that that there will be some trademark ballads among the 11 or 12 tracks.

She added: "We got some Mariah ballads... A second single is coming soon.

"I’m very excited about it. It’s very summery. I like the beat as well.”

Mariah recently dropped new single Type Dangerous, which samples Eric B. and Rakim's 1986 song Eric B. Is President, and she was determined to find a way to use that track in one if her own releases.

Speaking to Zane and Ebro, she said: "I’ve always loved Eric B. Is President. It wasn’t something like, ‘Oh, I’m gonna flip this’ — I just wouldn’t think of doing it.

“But then we were in this restaurant in Aspen and they had different music on, and they played Eric B. Is President and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh! I love this song!’

"We ended up in the studio a couple months later and we did it.”

On Monday (30.06.25), Mariah Carey achieved an impressive milestone achieving 500 million streams of her 1995 track Fantasy on the music streaming platform, Spotify.

Fantasy was Mariah's ninth Number One single on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, and it spent eight weeks at the top from September 30 to November 18, 1995.

It was also the first single, by a female artist, to debut atop the chart, and only the second single to do so after You Are Not Alone by Michael Jackson.

Fantasy - which was written by Mariah, Steven Stanley, Adrian Belew, Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth and Dave Hall - is about how a woman is in love with a man, and every time she sees him, the woman fantasises about being in a relationship with him.

Mariah, 56, said in a recent interview that she was surprised by how many people resonated with Fantasy.

Speaking to 98.5 KRZ in June, she said: "A lot of people, they didn't think I should do that song. And why would I work with O.D.B.? Because they didn't understand that was my choice.

"And, anyway, it ended up being one of my favourite - one of my biggest songs ever."

Mariah has now got four songs that have reached this milestone, with the others being the 1994 holiday classic All I Want For Christmas Is You, which has been streamed over two billion times, 2005's We Belong Together, which has been listened to over 777 million times, and 2009's Obsessed, which has totted almost 600 million streams.

This article first appeared on Contact Music and was syndicated with permission.

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