mariah carey's story

Angel's Cry

"Angels Cry" is a song performed by American R&B singer Mariah Carey from her twelfth studio album, Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel (2009). It was written by Carey, Christopher Stewart, Crystal Johnson, James Wright, and David Murray. The remix version featuring American R&B singer Ne-Yo was released as a single by Island Records on February 23, 2010. It was originally intended as the second single from Carey's now cancelled remix album, Angels Advocate. "Angels Cry" was moderately successful having peaked at number 26 on the U.S. Adult Contemporary chart and its music video was produced by Carey and husband, Nick Cannon. Soon after its release, Angels Advocate was cancelled as well as all subsequent promotion and release of the song.

Background

The original version of the song had no guest vocals and was featured on Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel. The newer version features vocals from Ne-Yo.

"Angels Cry (remix)" featuring Ne-Yo officially impacted Rhythmic, Urban and Urban AC radio on January 26, 2010.The track also impacted Mainstream Adult Contemporary radio in early February 2010, and was released to iTunes on February 23, 2010. Apart from the U.S. it was released in Australia, New Zealand, Japan and the United Kingdom as the lead single from Angels Advocate.

Critical reception

Robert Copsey of British entertainment website Digital Spy praised the song for bringing Carey back to her musical roots. In his review he says "A standout from last year's Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel platter, it's about as close to 'classic' Mariah as 'new' Mariah gets. Her vocals sound classy and effortless as the song launches into a chorus that twinkles, before Ne-Yo swoops in, cranks up the emotional dial and duly adds an extra dimension to the solo original. Yes, it's a bit of a 'We Belong Together' retread, but it's a thoroughly pleasant 'We Belong Together' retread that should help that rather tricky album to appeal beyond Carey's core fanbase."

Robbie Daw of Idolator hailed the song calling the song a classy production moment complimenting Carey for returning to her roots [...]. He added: "But not only does Mariah get wet from the rain, in a classy product placement moment, she douses herself and one of her pals in the video with her own M perfume." 

Music video

A music video was shot in December 2009, along with the video for "Up Out My Face (Remix)" featuring Nicki Minaj. Both videos were co-directed by Carey and her husband Nick Cannon. They premiered together on VEVO.com on January 27, 2010. The video starts off with Carey walking in the rain, to meet up with Ne-Yoin the studio. As the video progresses, scenes of Carey singing and sulking in the rain play, while other clips of her studio sessions continue. At the climax of the video, Carey is belting out the song in the studio with Ne-Yo, and reminiscing of her sad moments alone in the rainy alley. The video ends with Carey and Ne-Yo exiting their recording session, and as they exit the studio, the rain has stopped, and both of them walk out into the sunny morning. The video has brought many comparisons to two of Carey's previous videos, primarily "One Sweet Day" and "Through The Rain", for the studio sessions and rainy scenes.

Chart performance

On March 10, 2010 it was revealed that "Angels Cry" (featuring Ne-Yo) had debuted and peaked at number 30 on the Hot AC Songs making it the second time that Carey has had two songs from the same album (Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel and Angels Advocate are being treated as a linked project) appear on the chart with the other song being "I Want to Know What Love Is". The last time this happened was with the album Butterfly with the title song and the "My All" (1997/98). It is her 43rd U.S. R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart entry according to her Billboard discography.