Mariah Carey has offered fans a glimpse into her unreleased grunge album from the 1990s, this time sharing details about the secret project during an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.
The multi-Grammy winner discussed the album, titled Someone’s Ugly Daughter, even allowing Fallon to play a snippet of an unreleased track called “Prom Queen” during Monday night’s show.
Carey explained that the grunge album served as a creative outlet while she was simultaneously working on her 1995 release Daydream. “I was just rebelling, because I was working on Daydream, and I was doing ‘Always Be My Baby’ and ‘Fantasy’, and those kinds of songs,” she told Fallon. “I loved doing that, but at the end of the night, when the band was still there, I’d say, ‘Can you play, like [a grungy guitar riff]. Play this so I can get out of my head.”
The album artwork, which Carey proudly displayed during the interview, features her own artistic contributions. “I do like the cover … and I drew this cover. I didn’t draw the roach. The roach is real,” she revealed, referencing the unconventional design for Someone’s Ugly Daughter.
During the show, viewers heard a brief portion of “Prom Queen”, where Carey sings with a distinctly different vocal style: “I can be anything that I want to be / Someday I will really show them all.” The performance showcased a grittier sound completely removed from her established R&B and pop catalogue.
Carey expressed regret about the album never reaching public release, attributing the decision to label interference. “I always regretted not putting it out, but they kinda stopped me at that point. Sony at the time … was a little controlling,” she explained. The singer noted that she doesn’t believe any record label currently owns the material.
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The project eventually saw daylight through alternative means, with vocalist Clarissa Dane performing the lead vocals on the released version. Carey had previously discussed this compromise in a 2022 Rolling Stone interview, explaining how record company fears about the lyrical content prevented her original vision from materialising.
“There was a fear [from the record company] because some of the lyrical content was not what people were [expecting],” she had stated. “I honestly wanted to put the record out back then under the same pseudonym and just let them discover that it’s me, but that idea was kind of stomped and squashed.”
Questlove, who was present during the Tonight Show segment, described the unreleased material as Carey’s “best record,” while Fallon openly encouraged the singer to finally release the complete album to the public.
