Mariah Carey Opens Up About Her Hidden Grunge Album
Mariah Carey has been known for her soaring ballads, glittering gowns, and Christmas domination. But tucked away in the ’90s, she was also thrashing out grunge songs with a lipstick-marked…
Mariah Carey has been known for her soaring ballads, glittering gowns, and Christmas domination. But tucked away in the ’90s, she was also thrashing out grunge songs with a lipstick-marked album cover and a dead cockroach.
On The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Carey finally gave fans another peek at her secret project, an unreleased grunge album called Someone’s Ugly Daughter. Fallon said Questlove had recently played him a few tracks and even showed off the album’s unusual cover art.
“Someone’s Ugly Daughter is the title. Never released. But I do like the cover, and I drew this cover. I didn’t draw the roach. The roach is real,” Carey explained.
A Rebellious Side Project
The album, credited to the band Chick, was born during the same time Carey was making Daydream in the mid-’90s. While she was recording songs like “Fantasy” and “Always Be My Baby,” she wanted an outlet to let loose.
“I was just rebelling because I was working on Daydream,” Carey said. “At the end of the night, when the band was still there, I’d say, ‘Can you play, like…?’ You know, just play this so that I can get out of my head.”
Questlove had his own strong opinion: “It’s her best record.”
Playing “Prom Queen”
During the interview, Carey let Fallon play a clip of one track, “Prom Queen,” which tells the story of a boy discovering himself.
The lyrics begin, “On the day he turned 16 / He washed his face and brushed his teeth / Looked in the mirror, longingly / Said ‘I could be the next prom queen.’”
Carey clarified the album’s ownership is a mystery. “I just want to say I don’t know which record label this is owned by,” she admitted. “It was never released.”
Fallon joked about releasing it as a holiday surprise, but Carey laughed it off. “It doesn’t really go with the season. It’s more Halloween.”
Stopped Short in the ’90s
Looking back, Carey admitted she regretted shelving the album. “I always regretted not putting it out, but they kind of stopped me at that point. You know, it was Sony at the time. We love the Sony now, but back then… a little controlling.”
She even teased Fallon about the future. “We can put it out, yes, on Jimmy Fallon records.”
Could 2025 Be the Year?
This isn’t the first time Carey has brought up her secret grunge project. In December 2024, she told PEOPLE, “People have been asking me about it, and it’s something that I love so much. And we might see it in 2025, probably a little bit later than that.”
For now, fans will have to wait and hope. But one thing is clear: Mariah Carey has more than one music era left to share—and this one comes with guitars, growls, and maybe even a cockroach on the cover.
