Mariah Carey - Portrait (2024) (Hi-Res)

Mariah Carey Discusses Revisiting Her Song ‘Portrait’ for Audible’s Words + Music Series, Her Unreleased Remix Project.

In her 2020 memoir, Mariah Carey laid out her concept of time. “I live Christmas to Christmas, celebration to celebration, festive moment to festive moment, not counting my birthdays or ages,” she wrote in “The Meaning of Mariah Carey.” “Much to the chagrin of certain people.”

But the singer-songwriter is quick to look back at certain moments that helped define her, time be damned, to reflect on those that shaped the person she’s become. On her Audible Words + Music episode “Portrait of a Portrait,” available today, Carey thoroughly examines the songwriting process for “Portrait,” the closing song on her 2018 album “Caution.” Throughout the hour-plus experience, she speaks candidly of feeling stuck in a situation from which she can’t escape, and parses through how penning the song helped make sense of her situation.

“I don’t know another word other than real for what that song ‘Portrait’ meant to me at that moment,” she says on the episode of the ballad, co-written with her musical director Daniel Moore. “I was completely isolated by myself and saying, let me get this off my chest and we’re going to end the album with this. It’s still kind of a deep song to listen to.”

Listeners who enter the Butterfly Lounge, as she refers to it, also get a treat in classic Mariah form: a newly recorded dance remix of “Portrait” with fresh vocals that clocks out at a hefty 15 minutes. “You know, it’s interesting. I did love making remixes and sometimes, we didn’t get a chance to do that,” Carey tells Variety. “So I did the best I could and said, you know what? Today I want to do this remix. I want to make it the way I want to make it. Because that doesn’t always happen.”

To honor the release of her Audible episode, Carey spoke about what it was like to revisit “Portrait” and what inspired its remix, if she’ll ever release her shelved 2010 “Angels Advocate” remix album, her upcoming remix of her “Rainbow (Interlude)” with David Morales, and what we may — or may not — expect from her upcoming album.

Tracklist
1. Portrait (04:01)
2. Portrait (Hopeful Child Remix - Radio Edit [from Audible Words + Music]) (03:24)
3. Portrait (Hopeful Child Remix - Edit [from Audible Words + Music]) (06:24)
4. Portrait (Hopeful Child Remix [from Audible Words + Music]) (16:20)