Mariah Carey is finally opening up about that not-so-sweet caught on camera moment with singer Muni Long at the iHeartRadio Awards earlier this year. But her explanation might come as a surprise.
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If you’ll remember, Carey was honored at the event with the Icon Award and received a star-studded tribute highlighting her musical contributions over the years. Other guest singers tapped for the performance included Tori Kelly, who sang “Always Be My Baby” and the aforementioned Long who sang Carey’s popular, 2005 hit song “We Belong Together.”
However, instead of focusing on Long’s tribute, many were instead locked into Carey’s facial expressions during the moment, which ended up becoming a viral clip shortly after the awards show ended. In it, the “Shake It Off” singer can be seen looking supremely unfazed, unimpressed and unbothered by Long’s vocals.
At the time, people online also weren’t too impressed, with one user writing: “Y’all look at Mariah’s reaction while Muni Long was singing a tribute to her. I am hollering.”
All the chatter eventually made its way back to Long, prompting her to respond: “Nobody can sing Mariah’s songs like Mariah. Nobody. I didn’t choose that.”
Now, in a new interview with GQ, Carey is looking back on the moment and setting the record straight on why she reacted the way she did.
When asked about that moment and if she liked when people did covers of her songs, she said: “I didn’t even hear the cover. I didn’t know it happened. No one told me. I just didn’t know that she had done ‘We Belong Together’ [as a cover] ‘cause her song was so similar to ‘We Belong Together.’ I had no idea that she did ‘We Belong Together.’”
She continued: “I’m very honored and flattered that she did it. I love Muni Long, she’s a great person, umm, but I just don’t like people doing my songs.”
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