Mariah Carey Opens Up About Music, Motherhood

ANTIBES, France — Mariah Carey is a woman of great range.

She demonstrated that musically during a private concert Tuesday night, as well as during a conversation with USA TODAY right after that performance.

The singer took to the stage at the swanky Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc during a fete put on by Clear Channel Media and Entertainment and advisory firm MediaLink. Party guests, which included top business executives as well as celebrities such as Courtney Love and Kanye West, swayed and sang along to Carey's old and new songs, such as Always Be My Baby and Cry.

Carey, dressed in a low-cut black gown, gave shout-outs to Clear Channel executives she's worked with, such as CEO Bob Pittman and Entertainment Enterprises President John Sykes.

Pittman, Sykes and many of the other attendees were in the South of France for the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, which is the marketing industry's biggest awards competition and trade show.

During Carey's post-performance sitdown with USA TODAY, she would spontaneously break into song, singing lyrics from her first demo tape or belt out parts of conversation in song. She discussed her early beginnings as a singer, her 3-year-old twins, her new album, her Twitter use and the social media use of her husband, Nick Cannon.

• Social media. Carey deemed TV host Cannon's Twitter use "excessive," with a laugh, and went on to say that the social media service helped her to stay connected with others when she was pregnant.

"All I did when I was pregnant was take a bath and tweet," she says.

Mariah Carey performs during Clear Channel Media And Entertainment And MediaLink Dinner at Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc on June 17, 2014 in Cap d'Antibes, France (Photo: Tony Barson/Getty Images for Clear Channel)

Carey, who wore a sparkling butterfly ring, says that she named an earlier albumButterfly because it was representative of "when I took control of my life."

Butterfly is also the name of a new drink that was created with her collaboration. The drink, from company Go N'Syde, comes in a pink bottle with a label that says it is "a melodic beverage inspired by the magic of Mariah Carey."

People magazine polled drinkers on the taste, and wrote that the "closest flavor approximation" was that it tasted like a liquefied Ring Pop.

• Her children. Carey talked of the "guilt" she feels when she has to be away from twins Monroe and Moroccan.

"I don't like to leave them," says Carey, who took them with her to France.

She talked of her son's athletic abilities, saying that the first time he tried on skis he got right up. "He's a natural," she says.

She says her daughter has a big personality and "has far surpassed me as a diva."

• Her new album. The voices of the children are featured on the Supernatural song on her new album, Me. I am Mariah…The Elusive Chanteuse.

Carey says each of the songs was carefully curated, but the song Cry is "the one that meant the most to me."

"I don't think it's a hit. I just know that it's honest," she says.

Carey says she hopes that folks will listen to the album as a whole "body of work."

"I wanted people to hear from start to finish. … It's really an emotional journey," she says. "I worked very hard on the sequencing of this album."

But if a single song is played on the radio, that is OK by her, too.

When she was younger, "my dream was to hear myself on the radio," she says.

And even now, she says "I still get butterflies" when she hears herself on the radio.

And then she laughed at herself for using the butterfly reference. #FongangMbanwei

Highlights From Celebrity Fight Night In Phoenix 2014

Muhammad missed out

Muhammad Ali and his wife, Lonnie, were absent from the event. Emcee Reba McEntire said it was because they both caught a "stomach bug." It was supposed to be Ali's 18th year as the night's featured guest. Fight Night is a fundraiser primarily for the Muhammad Ali Parkinson Center at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center's Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, as well as other charities.

Celebrities can be funny

Buble was one of the night's honorees, and he start his award-acceptance speech by mocking the video that played of himself."I look really fat on video," he joked. "Have a wonderful evening and god bless. S**t, I went backwards. That's the last page."Bobby Kennedy, Jr., quipped "I'm so happy to be invited here tonight even though I'm the only democrat in the room," to which many guests whooped and raised their hands in support. He was presenting an award to John Paul DeJoriaco, founder of Paul Mitchell hair care and The Patron Spirits Company (yes, tequila.) The best of all the award presenters and receivers were, of course, Billy Crystal for Robert DeNiro."(DeNiro) has made over 100 movies, 30 of them in the last year," Crystal joked. DeNiro addressed the absent Ali in his speech."'The Greatest.' Well, I don't know about that," DeNiro said. "Before we start handing out titles like 'The Greatest,' let's compare his career to mine." In the end, he said, Ali was a World Heavyweight Champion three times, and DeNiro won two Academy Awards, but if you count the times he's been nominated and lost, they come out to be about even.

A look back

As the dinner of steak and vegetables was served, a video commemorating the event's 20 years played on four giant screens. It had clips of Fight Night appearances and performances from Patrick Swayze, Rod Stewart, Robin Williams, Celine Dion,Garth Brooks, Kelly Clarkson, and Miley Cyrus in 2012 before her, let's say, change of image. One clip showed Jim Carrey goofing around on stage, to which Ali stared at him and mimed the signal for "crazy."

Big bucks at the live auction

For most, the live auction is the portion of the night made for drinking, socializing and taking photos together. But for the richest, it's a chance to buy once-in-a-lifetime experiences. The first item on the block was VIP treatment at the red-carpet premiere of "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1," which sold for $15,000. Third up was dinner with Reba McEntire in her home, which ended up going to two bidders; both are billionaires, and each spent $500,000 for the dinner. McEntire must have felt flattered to see dinner with her go for $1 million. One of those bidders was the big spender of the night: He also took home a 10-day vacation in Tuscany with a dinner with Andrea Bocelli ($225,000) and a vacation package to British Columbia($75,000). Among the big donations to the event were $1 million from The Bob & Renee Parsons Foundation. Bob Parsons is the founder of Go Daddy.

Big-time performers

The Band Perry, fresh off their headlining gig Friday at Country Thunder, opened the performance portion with their hit song, Done. They followed it with an interesting rendition of Timber by Pitbull and Ke$ha. They kept it almost strictly about this music, flying through Chainsaw, If I Die Young and Better Dig Two.

The Band Perry performs Saturday, April 12, 2014 during Celebrity Fight Night XX at the JW Marriott Desert Ridge Resort & Spa in Phoenix, Ariz. (Photo: David Kadlubowski, The Republic)

Musical director David Foster introduced two teen acts, Carolyn Cole and Jonathan Antoine; Antoine, who is 19 and known for his appearance on Britain's Got Talent, got a standing ovation for his opera singing. Next up was Kenny Rogers, who lost his place in his first song, The Gambler, and blamed it on the eponymous movie playing on the screens."I was getting beat up at the time I lost my words," he joked, and went on to perform We've Got Tonight and Islands in the Stream as a duet with McEntire.

A few others performed, but the night's closer (and winner) was Buble, who opened with a rousing performance of Feeling Good that had people dancing immediately. Afterward, he addressed the audience, encouraging them to just "let themselves go" despite being worried about maintaining appearances among so many rich and famous peers."Most of you folks will never see these dorks again," he said. "Lose your s**t!"And they did. Couples all over the ballroom danced to Haven't Met You Yetand I Wanna Go Home, the latter of which he said was for couples although, Buble said, for single people, it was "a great chance for you to get in a threesome."He joked around with Foster and improvised bits of Christmas songs."I'll be frank with you. Eleven million Christmas albums and I don't even like the holiday," Buble said, laughing. He then played Save The Last Dance for Me and closed with It's a Beautiful Day, for which he filled the stage with dozens of the night's beautiful women.

Thinking about attending next year? Celebrity Fight Night will be offering a new option – a six-day, star-studded vacation in Italy. Dinner and entertainment will be in Andrea Bocelli's home. Tickets are a cool $50,000 per person, but don't worry, $37,000 of it is tax deductible.#FongangMbanwei