Mariah Carey's "Hero": musical style and composition analysis

Mariah Carey - Biography

Mariah Carey was born on Long Island, New York, on the 27th of March, 1969. She was born of mixed ethnicities: Her mother was Irish-American (Patricia Hickey) and her father, Alfred Roy Carey, was Venezuelan and African-American, hence the beautiful bronze tone of her skin. Her mother was a vocal coach and had sung opera in New York City; so her mother was very helpful in getting Mariah started as a singer. According to a biography in Newsmakers (Gale Biography in Context) during her youth, Mariah was fond of music by Gladys Knight, Aretha Franklin, and Stevie Wonder (Newsmakers, 1991, p. 2).

Mariah is quoted in the Newsmakers article -- she talked about the influence of her mother in Seventeen: "I knew from watching and listening to my mom that singing could and would be my profession." She added, "[Mother] had to tear me away from the radio each night just to get me to go to sleep" (Newsmaker, p. 2). At the age of 17, Mariah left home to live in New York City and share rent with another person who had hopes of making it in the music business.

In the journal Contemporary Musicians (2005) the writer reports that Mariah's childhood was a time when the family was in "harsh poverty." Her parents were stressed out by racist incidents in their lives and ended splitting up; their dogs were poisoned and their car was demolished when someone planted a bomb in it (Contemporary Musicians). But notwithstanding the bigotry and poverty in her life, Mariah "…demonstrated a clear aptitude for music at an early age" and could sing "on perfect pitch" and duplicate precisely a song she heard on the radio. She sang for her friends and entered talent shows; at the age of 13 she was writing songs.

When she moved to New York City Mariah worked as a wait person, she served as a beauty salon janitor, doing whatever she needed to do to survive until she could get her first break. She got a gig as a back-up singer with R&B singer Brenda K. Starr, and was invited to a music industry party where she gave a demo tape to Sony Music Entertainment President Tommy Mottola. Shortly afterwards Mottola signed her to a recording contract, fell in love with her and left his wife to marry her. Their wedding was reportedly a half a million dollar bash. The marriage didn't last (they divorced in four years) but Mariah had a smash hit with her first album, Mariah Carey, and the cut called "Visions of Love" rose to the top of charts and helped make her a pop star (Contemporary Musicians).

Mariah Carey -- Hero

The original purpose for this song, according to Mariah, was for a movie with Dustin Hoffman called, appropriately, "Hero." But the movie producers decided to use the song by Luther Vandross, "Heart Of A Hero" instead of "Hero" (Songfacts). Apparently the original song stylist that was ticketed to sing "Hero" was Gloria Estefan, but Walter Afanasieff explained (in the book, Fred Bronson's Book of Billboard #1) that while he was recording Mariah's album Music Box he spoke to Mariah during a break in the recording session. He explained (while sitting at the piano with her) that there was a song called "Hero" that was slated to be a theme for a movie of the same name. "It was never meant for Mariah to sing," Afanasieff explained in his book (Songfacts).

"In her mind,," Afanasieff continued, "we were writing a song for Gloria Estefan…and we went into an area that Mariah didn't really go into -- in her words, it was a bit too schmaltzy or too pop ballady or too old fashioned as far as melody and lyrics" (Songfacts, p. 4). But when the song had been completed, Afanasieff and Mariah performed it in front of Mottola, who at that time was Mariah's fiance. Told that the song was intended for a movie, Mottola immediately rejected that idea and said, "Are you kidding me? You can't give this song to this movie. This is too god. Mariah, you have to take this song. You have to do it" (Songfacts). She did indeed record it (on the Music Box album) and it was a hit. There was a controversy as to who actually penned the lyrics, and a limo driver named Chris Selletti claimed he wrote it, but the case was tossed out of court.

Mariah's most dramatic performance of "Hero" was during the "Tribute to Heroes" telethon that was held to raise money for the families of the victims of the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C. It was Mariah's first public appearance following her rehabilitation from a nervous breakdown (Songfacts). Afanasieff said that "…following September 11, everyone involved has truly been a hero…Mariah told me she has received thousands of letters from people who were moved and helped by the song…" (Songfacts).

"There's a hero / If you look inside your heart / You don't have to be afraid / Of what you are / There's an answer / If you reach into your soul / And the sorry that you know / will melt away. (Chorus) "And then a hero comes along / with the strength to carry on / And you cast your fears aside / and you know you can survive / So when you feel like hope is gone / look inside you and be strong / and you'll finally see the truth / That a hero lies in you." (Lyrics 007).