Continue reading to discover our selections of the most remarkable revenge films ever—from the delightful and light-hearted (refer to: The First Wives Club, Bring It On, Legally Blonde) to more unsettling, shadowy tales (refer to: Carrie, Heathers, Promising Young Woman)—and always keep in mind: Don’t get angry, seek retribution.
Mariah Carey Celebrates a Quarter-Century of Rainbow Legacy
As the new millennium dawned, Mariah Carey’s career entered a phase of change.
Gradually distancing herself from the grand ballads and torch songs that characterized her initial sound, Carey adeptly mingled pop with hip-hop when the remix of “Fantasy” featuring Ol’ Dirty Bastard reached the top spot in 1995. Two years onward, her album Butterfly and its prominent track, “Honey,” broadened Carey’s musical style by delving even deeper into hip hop.
Amid the crafting of Butterfly, Carey parted ways with her spouse Tommy Mottola, the music executive who had exerted significant influence over her career and public persona since he signed her to Columbia Records a decade before. Anxious to steer her music into novel territories, yet facing Tommy’s opposition to hip-hop, Carey had by then sold a considerable number of records, allowing her to forge her own direction. Thus, with a single album left under her Columbia contract, Carey traveled to Capri in the summer of 1999 to record what would soon become Rainbow.
Rainbow, Carey’s seventh studio release, achieved eight million worldwide sales and gifted her with two additional number one tracks: the one featuring Jay-Z, “Heartbreaker,” and “Thank God I Found You.” The album contains a good share of ballads, notably the deeply emotional “Petals” and Diane Warren’s “Can’t Take That Away (Mariah’s Theme).” However, the album’s most vivid parts occur when Carey lets loose on tracks like “Heartbreaker” and “How Much,” which sampled Tupac’s “Me and My Girlfriend” long before Beyoncé and Jay-Z did likewise. Comparatively to the sultry Butterfly, Rainbow witnesses Carey joyously exploring in manners she hadn’t been granted the freedom to before.
This week introduces a digital 25th Anniversary Expanded Edition of Rainbow, inclusive of unreleased bonus tracks, historic live performances, remixes, and additional content. “Rainbow (Interlude)” from the original record has been transformed into the dance-ready “Rainbow’s End,” while the a capella rendition of “Bliss” manages to be even more sultry than the studio version. It’s a trove of material for the Lambs to delve into while they await updates on Carey’s forthcoming album.
Preceding her concluding performances in Vegas this summer tied to her Celebration of Mimi residency, Vogue engaged with Carey to reflect on the anniversary of Rainbow, capturing its memorable cover with David LaChapelle, and what ultimately happened to that spray-painted tank top.
Vogue: What was it like to revisit Rainbow and that era of your life, in a broader sense, for its 25-year commemoration?