Mariah Carey Speaks On Walter Afanasieff In 2021

Mariah gave a wonderful interview to the Questlove Supreme podcast over her Christmas and New Year break. Parts 1 and 2 came to over three hours in length - what a treat! Mariah was asked to comment on her previous working relationship with writing partner Walter Afanasieff. This was very interesting to me because Mariah doesn't often mention him these days after their falling out years back. Mariah Carey and Walter Afanasieff collaborations were the stuff of dreams; they wrote hits such as All I Want For Christmas Is You, Anytime You Need A Friend, Hero, One Sweet Day and many others. All of that came to end when Mariah left Tommy and Sony in the 90s. Mariah rarely speaks Walter's name so this recent discussion about her time working with him certainly caught my attention!

Check out the full incredible interview here:

ALSO CHECK OUT
Mariah Reflects On Caution

YOU MIGHT ALSO ENJOY
How Mariah Carey Saved 2020

BECOME A MEMBER
Join my channel and enjoy perks such as early access to my videos and more! Become a member here:

Follow me on social:

Music credit: Josh Riordan

[bernig]

It's interesting that she says "I wish him well" which has somewhat become part of the Mariah vernacular as a sort of "forgive but don't forget / let go but learn". Loved this analysis and I agree that a Mariah / Walter in-depth discussion would be great with a panel!

[ramotcontrol]

I really wish Questlove had let Mariah sing the verse of “Till the End of Time” instead of interrupting her with his singing

[joseph]

She always uses discretion when speaking about difficult situations.

[misterbee]

Can't Let Go has always been my very favorite song of hers.

[ederek]

It must have been a great feeling for Mimi when We Belong Together hit #1 proving Walter and Mottola that she can make it without them.

[heather]

Omg! I’ve never heard Mariah talk about “Til the end of time” ❤️ I can hands down say that is my favorite MC song....maybe it’s for the nostalgia of being 11 in 5th grade when my great grandmother bought me the emotions cd for Christmas (1994) lol but seriously my fav song from MC!

[kuihtradisional]

OMG SHE ACKNOWLEDGE TILL THE END OF TIME. ONE OF HER BEST SONGS OF ALL TIME

[cruisecash]

Mariah has stated in the 1997 MTV interview “you know when you tell a friend a secret and they blab it to the world”

Mariah wrote “My All” “Fourth Of July” “Butterfly” “Whenever You Call” “Lead The Way” with him during that separation period.

Mariah revealed it to him in the most vulnerable way — her singing and her music.

Walter knew about her affair.

He knew the real inspiration behind her more profound songwriting.

More than anyone.

And he carelessly just told Tommy about it.

I get that Tommy had more power than Mariah, but a real friend would keep his integrity and protect you, especially if you’re already having such a difficult time.

Him saying that Mariah is jealous that he worked with other artists is just him projecting — to find something negative about MC.

Babyface, Puffy, Rooney, David Morales, Jermaine are other co-writers of Mariah

that work with many other artists as well.

And Mariah literally don’t give a shit if they do because she knows she’s naturally gifted with songwriting and the melodies that’s revealed to her by the Almighty can never be duplicated or copied.

No one can offer what she has to offer.

Walter did her dirty.

While she continued to have enormous success without him.

And he’s bitter about it.

Mariah can go ~

[ivosoares]

I have a slight suspicion that Walter was one of Tommy’s friends that was there when the ‘knife’ incident happened and that’s why they don’t speak. Because Mariah references Tommy’s friends being there, and not saying a word and not protecting her like they have should I guess

[quitebright]

From listening to a 1997 interview Mariah did with Tabitha from MTV, I got the sense that when writing 'My All' with Walter, he may have reported back to Tommy about Mariah's romance with Derek Jeter and their song writing partnership ended then.

[sleo]

The shade towards Walter about All I Want for Christmas is You was pretty clear in the previous Genius Level interview. The problem with Walter might be that Mariah was too naive to see that he was Tommy‘s guy from the beginning, no matter how many songs they worked on together. Whatever Walter provided for Mariah, he could just give away to anybody if needed, I mean Celine and Christina sounded more like Mariah than ever in My Heart Will Go On and Nobody Wants to be Lonely. No shades towards the two singers as they might not want that at all. We all know Mariah was desperately trying to prove she’s more than a Tommy production, which pretty much meant a Walter production at the same time. Now, Mariah is confident enough about her own artistry to acknowledge Walter, which also means that Walter is cancelled to her forever because he really isn’t needed.

[dennisnguyen]

I don’t think they will ever work together again. Mariah seems to me the type that once a bridge is burned, it’s burned 🔥🔥🔥.
I just finished the Questlove interview...soooo good!! She was so comfortable with them was able to be herself as opposed to most interviews where she feels the need to be more reserved. Her tangents were everything!!!!

[Shockingify]

With all their history and their uneasy ending. I always appreciate their admiration for each other and how they speak on their time together.

[valentino]

"Can't Let Go" is my favorite Mariah song.

[latindolphin]

The magic that they both had musically was amazing. I hope that she works with him one day but doubt it will happen!!!

[latindolphin]

Walter and Mariah's music collabs were 🔥🔥🔥 I hope they work together again soon!!

[joshuaafrifa]

My FAVS from them are “Till the end of time”, Can’t Let “Music Box” and “All I ever Wanted”

[leoslifeadventures]

I’ve been a lamb since Vision Of Love & I fell in love with Love Takes Time.
I have such fond memories listening to ballads on Emotions, Music Box, Daydream etc - many co-written with Walter.
I admired the work they done together & because those songs were around the time I became a mega fan they will always hold a special place.
This was before the shift towards r&b & the rappers - it was just Mariah, that voice & those songs - that’s what a fell in love with in those early days.
Even now, what I love nothing more is hearing MC just sing, stripped back, no hangers on - I think it was this magic that came through in the songs they done together.
At the time they needed each other - both fairly new to the business, Mariah provided her voice & songwriting & Walter provided the musical aspects & the glue that moulded the songs into what they would become.
Mariah has obviously moved on, it was a magical place in time & in her career.
I’m sure Walter has regrets about what happened, as does Mariah - no one really knows for sure - maybe in the future they could be reunited & thrash out the issues & talk about the songs they created together.

[lexroza]

Mariah gives me the impression that she wants to say “Walter takes to much credit for the things I came up with” but she stops herself, she always says that she comes up with the melodies, lyrics, vocals and Walter just plays the instruments and puts it together, after she okays him to, Especially when she brings up the publishing issues its like mariah was doing most of the hard work on the songs and here comes walter at the end putting his name on it and getting a large part of the ownership (money) of the song because The record company hired him so it forces mariah to share writing credits even though she came up with the sounds in her head. That’s what she was talking about in that interview, that she can’t express it due to her not knowing how to write music but she knows how it sounds so walter plays for her until she says “okay thats what i want” and walter again takes credit automatically, Walter basically confirms my theory because in a 2018 interview he said mariah doesn’t like to share credit with people

[deshaunx]

Mariah’s beef with Walter is simple. He was a musician hired by Sony. She was a singer-songwriter who didn’t play instruments. So, Mariah “wrote” the songs in terms of lyrics & melody, but Walter filled in the gaps to flesh it out to completion. He wanted to be credited as the secret to her success, but he wasn’t. As prolific as he is, Mariah wrote plenty of songs without him including several #1s. If you look at most of Walter’s career without Mariah, it’s mainly producing, not songwriting. It’s the same way Quincy Jones wanted credit for all of Michael Jackson’s success. Same story.