Three months before taking over the world for Christmas, Mariah Carey has taken fans down memory lane with a homage to one of her classic non-holiday hits.
In honor of the 30th anniversary of her song, “Dreamlover,” the R&B-pop icon shared a trio of new photos of herself on Tuesday, Sept. 12. The images were shared on her social media showing her wearing a black and white plaid shirt and black pants with her blond hair cascading down past her chest in two pigtails.
“Homage to the Dreamlover video (sans the grassy fields),” she wrote in the caption on Instagram with a laughing emoji.
In the song’s original music video, Carey wore a navy blue and white plaid shirt with Daisy Duke shorts while running around and lying in a grassy field with flowers. Her hair was much more curlier back then, but her 12.1 million followers were completely stunned by the new photos.
Fans were taken aback by her timeless and ageless beauty, which left fans wondering how new the images truly were.
“Are these unreleased from 93?!?!”
“Instantly transported back to 1993. You’re timeless MC!”
“Looking the same age as when you filmed the Dreamlover video, too, iktr.”
“Now go to a grassy field and take some photos for us, these can’t be the only homage ones u took. But obviously, it’s still very much appreciated tho.”
“That hair, that face, that body is getting ready for Christmas QUEEN season yasss.”
Omg YESSS MAMA pic.twitter.com/15PLtplKec
— Taylor Gray (@offtaylorgray) September 11, 2023
In addition to the photos, the “All I Want for Christmas” singer shared a mini-docuseries detailing what it took to put the video together.
“The ‘Dreamlover’ video is the first time you ever see me smile because I was so afraid and insecure back then. I didn’t feel confident enough to smile and now pretty much all I do is smile,” Carey said.
Her choreographer, Buddha Stretch, who also appeared in the video, said he wanted to create a club feel to the “hip-hop-ish” song despite being out in a grassy open field.
Carey’s background dancers were a group of half-naked shirtless men dancing in the field. Her former stylist Basia Zamorska admitted they were trying to make her a “glam queen. But it wasn’t time in her career to do that.”
The trio also talked about the stunts in the video, including Carey having to “drive” a hot-air balloon. After she got in it, Stretch said, “Somehow the rope gets away and she’s literally floating off.”
“I ended up like landing in a swamp or something. I’m a daredevil, I do that kind of stuff,” added the mother of two.
“Dreamlover” was taken from Carey’s third studio album, “Music Box,” and earned a Grammy nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. The project stayed on top of the Billboard 200 for eight weeks but spent a total of 128 weeks on the music chart.
“I’m super thankful for everything that that album brought to me which included my relationship with my fans. My fans are, I feel, unparalleled,” she exclaimed. “To the lambs, I love and adore you. Thank you for celebrating ‘Music Box.'”
The 1993 track features a sample from “Blind Alley,” a 1970s song from the R&B group the Emotions. “Dreamlover” also spent eight weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 and is still known as one of Carey’s fan-favorite hits, which helped her transition into the pop queen she is today.
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