Directed by: Vondie Curtis-Hall
Written by: Cheryl L. West & Kate Lanier
Other cast: Max Beesley, Da Brat, Tia Texada, Eric Benét, Terrence Howard, & Valarie Pettiford
Release date: September 21, 2001
Genre: Drama, Music, Romance
Running time: 1h 44m
Billie Frank is a shy, young multiracial girl who is sent away by her alcoholic mother at a very early age. At an orphanage, she befriends Louise and Roxanne. Flash forward to 1983. Billie and her friends are spotted by a record producer, Timothy Walker, who wants them to sing backup for his latest pop-music discovery. But when super DJ Julian Dice hears Billie's incredible voice, he makes a shady deal with Timothy to get her out of that dead-end situation. Soon, Billie and Dice are making hits inside the studio, and falling in love outside of it. Eventually, the pressure of her newfound celebrity puts too heavy a strain on Billie, forcing her to decide what it is she really wants from Dice, and what she wants for herself.
Photos
Taglines
In music she found her dream, her love, herself
A strength to survive. A desire to dream.
Trivia
Mariah Carey started shopping her film idea to studios in 1997. She started writing songs for the soundtrack before it got a green light. Carey admits that when the project was approved in 2000, she found songs for the movie that she’d written and forgotten about. She was only supposed to do six songs, but many collaborations with producers, writers, and artists, including Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis, and Rick James, led to her writing the entire soundtrack. She also worked on a song with Prince, but they missed the deadline.
Release was postponed for three weeks when star Mariah Carey was hospitalized as a result of an “emotional and physical breakdown.” In the April 25, 2018 issue of People, Carey revealed that she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder while she was hospitalized.
Instead of releasing the film on DVD, 20th Century Fox surrendered the rights to Columbia Pictures, which distributed the film outside the U.S. It made just over $5 million (US) worldwide, and was universally panned by critics. The soundtrack CD was the weakest-selling album in Mariah Carey’s career, prompting Virgin Records/EMI to sever their ties with her, along with David Bowie, whose album Toy was shelved by the label for not helping them recoup the losses they suffered from Glitter’s flop (along with possible copyright issues regarding the songs included).
In an interview with Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen (2009), Mariah Carey said that she regrets making the film.
During filming, tracks using backup singer Mary Ann Tatum were used in place of Mariah Carey’s voice to avoid bootlegging. Carey recorded her vocals close to the release date of the soundtrack, and all lead vocals used in the film are hers.
When a young Billie Frank at the orphanage first meets her foster sisters, Louise asks her what race she is and Billie replies that she’s mixed. In real-life, Mariah Carey herself is of mixed ancestry, having Black, Irish, and Venezuelan heritage.
Mariah Carey was in the middle of getting divorced from her now ex-husband Tommy Mottola during production.
The song “Never Too Far” was re-recorded following the film’s release after the tragic September 11 terrorist attacks, along with Mariah Carey’s older song “Hero” to raise money for the victims’ families.
The song “Twister” is meant to be referencing Billie’s mother Lillian Frank in the film’s universe. In real life, Mariah Carey actually wrote the song in memory of her late friend and hair stylist Tanjuan Twist, who committed suicide in 2000, the song’s title being a play on her last name.
The original version of “Loverboy” used a sample of Yellow Magic Orchestra’s cover of the 1959 Martin Denny song “Firecracker”. Following Mariah Carey’s divorce from Sony Music executive Tony Mottola, the latter ended up giving the sample rights to Jennifer Lopez for her own single “I’m Real”, which forced Mariah Carey (who distanced herself from Sony) to replace it with one from “Candy” by Cameo. A sample of the “Firecracker” version of “Loverboy” can be still be heard in the film’s trailer. The full version was eventually included on the 2020 compilation The Rarities, as Carey had returned to a Sony-owned record label by that time.
Feature film debut of Mariah Carey and Da Brat, if you don’t count their cameos in The Bachelor (1999) and Kazaam (1996) as a debut. This film was a starring vehicle for Mariah and meant to launch an acting career.
In one scene when Billie and Julian were talking while listening to The SOS Band Tell Me If You Still Care, Mariah Carey sampled the song for the remix of hurricane 1996 hit Always Be My Baby.
The 2003 collectible Barbie doll All That Glitters, the third doll in Mattel’s Diva Collection, was directly based on Mariah Carey and this film. The doll has a Caucasian face sculpt (known as the Mackie sculpt) but with a tan complexion, in reference to Carey’s mixed race heritage.
When Billie is preparing to appear on the Late Night Live show, the sketch on the TV screen is actually a clip of Martin Short from the SCTV “shower in a briefcase” sketch that originally aired on February 18, 1983.
The kitten who played Billie’s kitten Whisper was adopted by Mariah Carey after filming, and the trainer, Sue Parker, gave a permanent home to the adult cat actor who played grown up Whisper in present day.
Character Quotes
[Lying in bed after making love]
Billie: You know, I don’t usually do this.
Dice: I can tell.
Billie: “Woe is me?” What the hell is that?
Billie: [looking at her plate of escargot in a fancy restaurant] So somebody went all the way to France for this?