“Every time you count Mariah out, she comes back swinging” – a sentiment shared by many-a-Lamb after the shambolic New Year’s Eve 2017 performance that kicked the singer’s year off in the worst way. Dominating headlines for Carey’s uncaring demeanor, shameless lipsyncing, and misfired choreography, the set of performances not only set in motion doubt about her abilities to perform, but drew concern the ‘Touch My Body’ belter had finally lost her “touch.”
To hush the naysayers, Carey called upon her trusted, longtime collaborators – Bryan Michael Cox and Jermaine Dupri – to aid with the creation of the perfect tune to hoist the diva back to the top of charts. Together, the trio cooked up ‘I Don’t’ – a fiery R&B ‘breakup anthem’ decorated with an infectious bass line and a set of sharp lyrics many would assume were musical darts for her ex-billionaire beau James Packer. Tapping rapper YG to assist, the song was preceded by a number of appetite-whetting teasers before its official February 3 launch…
On the critical front, the tune received glowing reviews with a number of reviewers likening its composition to some of the stronger entries housed on her acclaimed comeback album, 2005’s ‘Emancipation of Mimi.’ Praised for its ability to redirect attention from Carey’s horrific NYE performance and back to what really matters, her talent, the thumbs up came aplenty for the Donnell Jones-sampled number.
Yet, while the applause rang in for the song itself, ‘I Don’t did not see that fanfare reflected in the response to its uncomfortably seductive accompanying music video or its commercial performance. Making a modest #89 debut on the Billboard Hot 100 in the chart tallying week that followed, ‘I Don’t’ dipped out of the charts the following week never to return.
So, where was the misstep? Was ‘I Don’t’ simply not the best choice to silence naysayers who’ve long thought the diva “fell” or was limiting the song’s promotion to her E! reality series and minimal live performances its ultimate undoing?
In other words, tell us:
The song sucked
That is a fact. At this stage in her career I don’t know who she thought she’d connect with singing a song like “I Don’t”. Her core fan base is probably late 20’s early 30’s now (maybe even older). They probably don’t want Ashanti rejects.
Mariah Carey is an iconic vocalist. Without tommy’s greatness, she has forgotten how to promote. Girl. Go out to those radio stations, put on some jeans, pull that hair up and SELL. You Don’t Know what to do should have been marketed to the clubs and gay community with those GREAT vocals. Faded was her masterpiece – it should have went to rnb radio, and I don’t should have been promoted. FADED was her chance to explode back on radio. She has the voice, just needs a better team. STELLA is gonna rob her blind. She’s making money off doing back deals…..just wait.
Y’all keep blaming this Stella woman. At the end of the day, Mariah is gonna do whatever she wants. Mariah has turned a lot of people off with her antics and terrible performances. She is ruining her legacy piece by piece.
Mariah needs to go into the studio, without rappers and create magic like she used to. Oh yeah, work on those live vocals also.
I agree with EVERYTHING you said.
ITS not promotion though because everything she does gets promoted she has a whole fake tv show about the demise of her relationship leading to the premiere of this video about burning the dress
It’s her performances that makes ppl not want to buy her music
Y’all can scream legend but if someone can’t still do what they’re legendary at then they should retire
U don’t see Michael Jordan trying to play Lebron
Honey, your a negative t*****. Listen here toots: Beyonce has stolen Mariah’s weave, Jant Jacksons dance style without being hot, tina Turner’s energy and she still just…..OK. You will forever be a TROLL cuz no man will every want ya T***** ass with that Negative attitude. Hatin-ass troll
@lisa so true, she has so many great songs and never releases them; Celine & Mariah are the last of the greats STOP TEARING THEM DOWN
No one cares about this flop b**** anymore, her last album tanked harder than Titanic. J. LO is scalping the so called ‘legendary diva’ in Vegas. 18 #1s, yet her music is so forgotten. Madonna and Celine can still sell albums decently and attract many fans to their shows because they are REAL LEGENDS unlike this fat whale.
STOP TEARING down these women. We understand your GAY and hate women BUT LEAVE THESE LADIES ALONE PUNK
It was horrible! And to sample such a classic R&b song and ruin it, is a total fail. Mariah fans will down vote this but let’s be realistic, we know she sang her a** off back in the day, we know what she has done and yes she is a legend but this wasn’t it. That whispery thing she did on the verse and the corny lyrics ‘we stole a moment in time’…? The song sounded off.
I love Mariah but no lies were detected here. This song was not it. It was dry and boring. She can do so much better. I think the issue is with her personality. In this age, you need to connect with the GP and mariah and her life at this point, most cannot relate to.
Am sorry
Product = flop
Promotion = flop
truth fact deal.
Slow news day so i know let’s go and teardown Mariah Carey! YAAAWN!!! I Don’t is a one off single that was put together on the back end of Mariah’s World, with no plans for an album push so was just a soft release, the song was received well but was not pushed to radio because it was not there to promote a higher vehicle such as an album or a movie etc! This is just extra and unnecessary, as everyone is aware of that! Mariah Fans will always be Mariah fans and haters always gonna hate!
Some of both. While I will admit that the song was far more of a bop than I originally thought it would be, but the video was over-sexualized with nothing more than “beauty shots” that screamed desperation. Like the song’s lyrics and the video did not match AT ALL. I like Mariah but her team should’ve followed this single up immediately with a hot ballad or midtempo with an engaging, storyline-driven video. Stop selling us s** Mimi, we DON’T want it from you!
I hope y’all do a product vs promotion post for No frauds,regret in your tears and changed it.
Regret and change it are already out of the iTunes top 100?
None of them have videos sis
And the fact she has the most bb entries speaks for itself
Most entires yet no 1 lol just save it matter of fact I’d like to see how many weeks she has lasted on the hot 100
It’s not a good song, that’s it.
YG was totally unnecessary, actually I would have enjoyed the song a lot more without his mumblings throughout the song and his rap part. The refrain is quite catchy, but he made the song somewhat unlistenable to me
On top of that, the video was quite a bit embarrassing. Nothing wrong with showing skin and Mimi looked s*** (especially in that red dress), but was the point of it? Sitting in a car in a dominatrix outfit and singing a breakup song…wtf?
Two words. Tommy Mottola.
Both: the song wasn’t good. The video was try too hard. Marian was never a video girl, but she has had decent videos in the past. Now, she is trying too hard to be s*** that the video is her with too tight dresses on and a p*** star mouth posing. Didn’t make much sense honestly. And her live performance be having me biting my nails as she is singing songs like she can go either good or way off. She comes off as a cheap imitation of her own self these days. She needs to stop working with ratchet rappers and get some top notch rappers (Nas, jay, fab, even drake is better than who she did the song with, k dot or j Cole). Wear shorter heels be she looks like she needs help walking all the time. Most importantly, if she wants to make current hits for the kids, remember you’re as big as your last SINGLE, not hit. Ppl don’t remember #beautiful, touch my body, obsessed, etc. Lastly, just promote the music with radio, fan stuff, don’t release a video and single in the same week, get better video concepts.
Mariah, Celine,Toni and even Whitney’s postmodern releasing have trouble selling.
Beyoncé enjoy it your time is coming too. Just ask Christina.
That song was dope
Nobody wanted this….the promotio or the product….
This song is very good. Mariah gives her best performance on tour, where she is amazing…. But she just needs to let go when she performs & do her. She also needs a professional team. Also, she should rock regular clothes. She is great. But she has to bring her A game. Next, releasing contemporary music doesn’t mean that you are chasing trends. She’s a versatile artist. She should work with fresh producers/artists. She should just start fresh. She should partner with quite a few people..
And yet another post following Mariah Carey´s chart moves? Really? Why don´t you do this with every Madonna single? or Janet? or even Beyonce? The obsession is real.
Did you expect this single to be a hit or what? lol
It was just a buzz single dahhhhlings! I have something very special cooking up for my #Lambily. You’ll just have to wait and see what it is dahhlings!
There’s a remix to the song