Chad Carey | |
|---|---|
 Carey in 2007 | |
| Born | Lucas Eugene Scott August 24, 1981 Tree Hill, NC |
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 1999–present |
| Musical career | |
| Genres | R&B, Pop, Hip Hop, Soul |
| Instrument(s) | Vocals |
| Labels | Columbia, Virgin, MonarC, Island |
Lucas Eugene Scott (born August 24th 1981), better known by his stage name Chad Carey, is an American singer, songwriter and producer. Carey rose to prominence after releasing his self-titled debut album Chad Carey through Columbia Records in 2000. The album went multi-platinum and spawned four number one hit singles on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. Under the guidance of Columbia Records executives, Carey continued to have success with follow-up albums Emotions (2001), Music Box (2003) and Merry Christmas (2004) which established Carey as Columbia's best selling act. Daydream (2005) made music history when its second single "One Sweet Day", a collaboration with Boyz II Men, spent a record 16 consecutive weeks at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 which remains the longest-running number one single in US chart history. During the record's production, Carey began to experiment with new genres of music which saw his deviation from his typical R&B and ballad-orientated beginnings to a more hip hop sound. The musical change became further evident with the release of the Butterfly (2007) and Rainbow (2009) records.
In 2010, Carey left Columbia Records after a number of issues with label boss Tommy Mottola who had steered his early career. He signed a record $100 million deal with Virgin Records shortly after. Shortly before the release of his debut movie Glitter and its accompanying soundtrack in 2001, Carey came out as gay in US Weekly magazine. The reaction to the news, mainly through social media, led to Carey suffering a physical and emotional breakdown and hospitalised with severe exhaustion. Following the poor commercial success of both the movie and the record, Carey was bought out of his Virgin Records deal for $50 million which led to a decline in his career.
Following a move to Island Records, Carey released his eighth studio album Yours.. which continued his lack of commercial success. He took a hiatus from his career in 2013 when he was seriously injured in a car crash. He made a return in 2015 with his ninth studio album The Emancipation which hit #1 worldwide.
Early Life edit
Career edit
1998-02: Chad Carey and Emotions edit
As Dion's friendship with Carey grew, so did her interest in helping him succeed in the music industry. In December 1998, Carey accompanied Dion to a music executive gala where the pair first met Columbia Records boss Tommy Mottola and his son Lucas. A friend of Carey, Haley James, secretly handed the pair a demo of songs that she and Carey had written and produced and they listened to it on their way home. After the first two songs, the Columbia boss was interested and spent two weeks searching for Carey, immediately signing him and began to map a commercial plan. Carey was adamant that he continued working with James but Mottola enlisted Walter Afanasieff to work with the pair on Carey's debut album.
Mottola had decided Carey would become the male Celine Dion and Whitney Houston (signed to Columbia Records and Arista Records respectively) and spent over $2 million creating and promoting his eponymous debut album. Despite a weak start, thought to be due to the era of melisma coming to an end, the album eventually topped the Billboard 200 Albums Chart after Carey's exposure at the 43rd Annual Grammy Awards where he was nominated four five awards, winning the awards for 'Best New Artist' and 'Best Male Pop Vocal Performance' for his debut single "Vision Of Love". In addition to "Vision Of Love", the album yielded the Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles "Love Takes Time", "Someday" and "I Don't Wanna Cry". Carey became the first artist since The Jackson 5 to have their first four singles top the chart. Chad Carey ended 2001 as the best-selling album of the year with total sales of over 15 million copies worldwide.
After deciding not to tour the album, instead limiting his promotion to select television shows, Carey began work on his second album Emotions in 1991. Due to begin work on the album in January 2001, an argument between Carey and Mottola surfaced when the latter wanted to drop Carey's songwriting partner Haley James for his second record. After Mottola's son Lucas became Carey's manager in March, a decision was made to allow Carey to continue writing with James. For the record, Walter Afanasieff's role grew to write the music for four of the songs instead of being credited solely as a producer. Emotions, released in September 2001, was accepted by critics as a much more mature album than its predecessor with Carey's vocals, songwriting and production praised, the album was criticised for having weaker material. Though the album sold over eight million copies worldwide, and its title track became Carey's fifth consecutive number-one single on the Hot 100, Emotions failed to reach the heights of its predecessor in both a commercial and critical sense.
As with the release of his debut, pressure grew on Carey as questions began to mount up asking whether he would complete a world tour in support of the album. Whilst Carey maintained stage fright kept him away from touring believing the stress of his anxiety would lead him to perform a poor vocal, critics began to label him a "studio worm" incapable of replicating his pitch perfect, 5-octave range vocals in a live setting. To combat the negative press mounting, Carey and Afanasieff convinced Tommy Mottola to contact MTV to broadcast a live performance. In response, MTV revived the "MTV Unplugged" series as there was a policy that any act on the show much perform entirely live with an entirely live band. Whilst Carey, James and Afanasieff favoured his more soulful and powerful songs, Columbia decided Carey should perform his more popular hits. Just 20 minutes before the show began taping in front of a live audience, Carey overheard his backing singer Trey Lorenz singing The Jackson 5 hit "I'll Be There". After calling Afanasieff to the room, the trio reworked the song and it was decided it would be added to the set. Reaction to the revue earned Carey his best ever reviews and led to the show being repeated five times more than other episodes of the show usually would. It also led to Columbia deciding to release an audio of the performance as an EP. "I'll Be There" was released as a single which became his sixth US #1 single. The EP also led many critics who had labelled Carey a studio artist to take back their comments and praising his live vocal ability. Commercially, it was also successful selling nine million copies worldwide.