It’s almost as if you can’t be a pop diva these days unless you have a dedicated fan base with a quirky name—the Arianators for Ariana Grande, the Beyhive for Beyoncé, the Barbz for Nicki Minaj. But, long before these squads were even a twinkle in a music-label exec’s eye, there were the Lambs, or the Lambily (a portmanteau of “lamb” and “family”): devotees of Mariah Carey, who has been writing and performing mega-hits since the early nineties.
On a recent Wednesday, Carey was in town to promote “Caution,” her fifteenth studio album. An onstage interview, to be broadcast online, had been scheduled at the Brooklyn headquarters of the music-media company Genius, situated on a somewhat desolate block near the Gowanus Canal. Natalie Guevara, Genius’s head of communications, had alerted the Lambs. “I’m a longtime Mariah fan myself,” she said. “So I kind of already knew the main people in the Lambily network.”
The night was ominous, with chilly rain, but this didn’t stop dozens of Lambs from lining up long before the scheduled event. Arianators wear cat ears and high ponytails. Barbz wear shades of pink. But at first glance there was little to distinguish the Lambs, in puffy winter coats, from a line at Bank of America or Trader Joe’s.
“The Lambs are a little older, but they are very social-media savvy, very in touch,” Guevara said. Earlier in the week, they’d proved their mettle by pushing Carey’s 2001 album, “Glitter,” to the top of the iTunes chart. The album—the soundtrack to a campy film of the same name, starring Carey—had flopped after its release, on September 11, 2001. (The Lambily campaign was called #JusticeForGlitter.)
Acacia Willey, a real-estate agent, drove in from Las Vegas. “For me, it’s all about Mariah’s personality,” she said. “The song that means the most to me is ‘Close My Eyes.’ It’s about not being understood during the hard moments in life. I’ve been listening to her since ‘Music Box.’ My dad would put the record on.”
Alex Faille, a fashion buyer, said, “The first time I heard Mariah, it was 2005, and I was in high school, driving home from work. ‘Emotions’ came on the car radio. I’ve been fucking obsessed ever since.”
Inside, the cavernous, neo-industrial space was bathed in fuchsia light. It filled up quickly with giddy Lambs, mouthing every word to the Carey hits playing on a sound system. Two men with well-groomed beards and Mariah Carey T-shirts settled near a stage, clutching original Carey tour programs—one from 2005 and the other from 1999. “We were set up on a blind date four years ago,” one of the men, Keita Harper, said.
“I asked, ‘What music do you like?’ ” his partner, Hakeem Reynolds, recalled.
“And I was, like, ‘Mariah.’ It immediately sustained the whole conversation.”
Rob Markman, Genius’s head of artist relations, told the audience to “make some noise” for the singer. The fans jumped to their feet, shrieking, as Carey stepped onstage—a vision in a tight, semi-sheer dress with a “Liaisons Dangereuses”-level décolletage, flowing honey locks, and Louboutin stilettos. The interview began. Markman steered the discussion to some deeper cuts from Carey’s songwriting career—Lambily favorites such as “Outside” or “Close My Eyes,” which deal with her turbulent childhood and struggles growing up biracial. When Carey mentioned one of her ex-husbands, Tommy Mottola, the onetime head of Sony, whom she married in 1993 and divorced, acrimoniously, five years later, the Lambs booed. “I’m not gonna get into a long, drawn-out thing about anybody,” Carey said, in a winking tone. She often paused to wave to a familiar fan. “Shout out to the Lambily, as always,” she said. “Tonight we’re celebrating. ‘Glitter’ is No. 1!”
After an hour, the singer was hustled offstage by her handlers. She was due back at her Tribeca home—“The same place they filmed for ‘MTV Cribs’!” a publicist noted—to meet with musicians for an upcoming appearance on the “Tonight Show.”
“I do it all by the skin of my teeth,” she said, pausing for a quick selfie with a fan outside. (“How are you, Mariah?” he asked. She responded, “God bless.”)
She went on, “My kids”—Monroe and Moroccan, her seven-year-old twins with her ex-husband Nick Cannon—“don’t even know I had this event, and they’re going to expect me to muster all of this energy now.” She posed for another selfie before slipping into a waiting car.
Reynolds and Harper had not got their tour programs signed. “It’s O.K.,” Harper said. “They were in the same room with her. And she looked at me!” Reynolds said, “I want to take this feeling and bottle it.”
Willey was ecstatic, too. “This was just fantastic,” she said. She’d bought tickets to several shows in Carey’s upcoming tour. “I’m going to follow her,” she said. “Not in a stalker way! I mean, she knows I love her.” ♦
