Mariah Carey was asked if Jennifer Lopez influenced her music. Her comeback belongs in the Louvre, the Tate and the Sistine Chapel
Mariah Carey is apparently unable to even hear questions about Jennifer Lopez. (Getty)
Mariah Carey was asked if Jennifer Lopez influenced her music, and her response is a work of unparalleled genius.
The frosty relationship between Mariah and Jennifer has been the source of fascination for two decades, ever since Mariah famously said “I don’t know her” when asked about Lopez all the way back in the year 2000.
Since then, fans have only become more obsessed with the legendary feud – and a recently resurfaced interview clip from 2005 has thrown fuel onto the fire.
In an interview with France’s M6 Channel, Mariah was asked what she thinks of “the new generation of singers such as Jennifer Lopez and Beyoncé”.
“What do you think of them and do they have influence on your music?” the interviewer asked Mariah.
Her response? “Do they have influence on my music?”
“What do you think of newer generations of singers like Jennifer Lopez and Beyonce?”
“You can’t put those two in the same category. One of them isn’t a different generation, they just started singing later”
Ugh so good. There’s always a classic @MariahCarey throwback 😂 pic.twitter.com/IUNQEV3zyN
— Jacob 🐚 (@jacobmemoirs) February 22, 2021
Mariah went on to laugh at the question, before explaining: “Well, it’s hard. You can’t really put those two people in the same category because one isn’t really a different generation, they just started singing later. But when you talk about Beyoncé, I think she’s wonderful. She’s great. She’s a talented person.”
And that was that – she didn’t even mention J.Lo by name. Excuse us while we search for a salve for this scorching burn.
Mariah Carey and Jennifer Lopez have been feuding for two decades
Over the years Mariah Carey and Jennifer Lopez have simultaneously played down any feud – which is rumoured to have been sparked by a sample they both used – while artfully throwing subtle shade at one another.
In 2002, when asked if there was a rivalry, Mariah said Jennifer had “nothing to do” with her.
“Singing is first and foremost, it’s a god given talent that I’m grateful for. Her thing is something different,” she told Larry King.
Jennifer told Andy Cohen in 2014 that the pair had never actually met – despite her having performed on American Idol a year prior, when Mariah was a judge. After her performance the panel all gave Jennifer a standing ovation, apart from – you guessed it – Mariah.
The feud took on a new life once more in 2015 when Jennifer was spotted scrolling through her phone as Mariah performed in front of her at the Billboard Awards.
She later told Andy Cohen: “That was not fair with the whole texting thing. It was a long performance!”
Jennifer later joked in an interview with Wendy Williams that Mariah is “forgetful”, saying: “We’ve met many times… I don’t know her that well.”
Mariah drew a line under the entire drama in 2018, in her own way, finally explaining why she said what she said.
“I really was trying to say something nice or say nothing at all. I really was,” she told Pitchfork.
But the feud came up once more in Mariah’s 2020 memoir The Meaning of Mariah Carey, in which she hilariously refused to even print Jennifer’s name, instead referring to her as “another female entertainer… (whom I don’t know).”
