Every artist has their magnum opus and Butterfly is to Mariah Carey what Lemonade is to Beyonce and Purple Rain was to Prince. The 1997 album marked a personal and professional turning point in Carey’s career, as the titular butterfly was leaving her marriage with Tommy Mottola while moving further into the R&B and hip-hop stylings she’s best known for today.
In her 2020 memoir, “The Meaning of Mariah Carey,” the singer wrote about how Butterfly was a liberating experience for her. “The narratives and the melodies were coming from a fresher place [and] I was feeling freer and less apprehensive to spread my creative wings,” she wrote, adding that she finally “advocated for the sound I wanted.”
The creative breakthrough is evident on the 12-track album, which spawned the irrepressible “Honey,” but also fan favorites like “The Roof,” “Breakdown” and “My All.” “Close My Eyes” is at once devastating and determined, with Carey flashing back to her unsettled childhood, admitting that “maybe I grew up a little too soon.” And “Outside” has become a beacon for biracial fans around the world, who see the singer as proof that success can be colorblind.
The album’s title track is a sweeping ballad about learning to “spread your wings and fly.” The twist: while many interpreted the lyrics as an act of self-determination, Carey told Rolling Stone in 2022 that she initially wrote it from the point of view of ex-husband Mottola. “If you listen to the lyrics of the song ‘Butterfly,’” she said, “that’s what I was kind of always hoping that Tommy would say to me. As if, you know, ‘Here’s all you have to do, and it’ll all be good.’”
Of course as Carey admits, “It was too late for that,” and while her love for the Butterfly album has never wavered, perhaps her perspective on the song has. Whereas previous releases saw her caught in a delicate dance between expectations and desires, love and loss, and yes, even between genres, Butterfly proved to the world that Carey’s singular voice could hold power and command attention all on its own. And all on her own.
