Through The Rain

Album: Charmbracelet (2002)
Charted: 8 81
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Songfacts®:

  • On this song, Mariah sings about how you can make it through anything if you truly believe in yourself and have faith. Never lose hope. If someone says you can't do something, don't listen and prove them wrong. Even if you mess up, try, try again because you can do anything. >>
    Suggestion credit:
    Shana - Radcliff, KY
  • The Dave Meyers-directed video was loosely based on Carey's parents, Alfred Carey and Patricia Carey, who faced prejudice over their interracial marriage. At the beginning, a pregnant teenaged girl named Kirsten is having an argument with her mother. Jamie-Lynn Sigler of The Sopranos played the '60s teenager who runs away from home on a rainy day to be with her boyfriend (J.D. Williams of Oz).

    Carey got the idea for the concept when she was looking through her father's photo album just days before they were set to shoot the video. >>
    Suggestion credit:
    Candice - Vancouver, Canada
  • Carey had been through plenty of rain in the lead-up to Charmbracelet, her ninth studio album. After her divorce from Sony Music president Tommy Mottola, she left the label for what she thought were greener pastures at Virgin Records, where she landed a five-album, $100 million record deal. But after the Glitter soundtrack, and its movie, failed to impress, the label cut her loose. Her high stress levels and undiagnosed bipolar disorder caused a nervous breakdown. She recuperated in Capri, Italy, where she recorded the bulk of Charmbracelet, but she was dealt another blow when her father died of cancer on July 4, 2002. She wrote "Through The Rain" to show herself and her fans that they could weather the storms.

    "People are going to read into it as, 'This is Mariah and her struggle,'" she told MTV. "But the way I try to word it is, 'It's OK once you say I can make it through the rain.' Not just me going, 'I can make it through the rain,' it's me telling people that if you believe you can get through whatever you're going through, you can get to the other side."
  • On her website, Carey explained the meaning behind the album title: "Charm bracelets have always had a personal and sentimental significance for me. Charms are like pieces of yourself that you pass on to other people, items that tell your story and that can be shared, like a song. The bracelet represents the foundation of this album, a body of work that encompasses many feelings."
  • This was co-written by Lionel Cole, a member of Carey's touring band who also arranged "The Star-Spangled Banner" for the singer and the Boston Pops at the post-9/11 Super Bowl in 2002.
  • This was produced by Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis. The dynamic duo of R&B, who helped launch Janet Jackson's solo career, also co-wrote and produced the track "Yours."
  • Charmbracelet was Carey's first album with Island Records. Although it sold a respectable 1.17 million copies in the US, earning a Platinum certification, sales were low compared to her Sony Music efforts (her Rainbow album sold 3 million US). She bounced back with her next release the 6x-Platinum-selling The Emancipation Of Mimi.
  • Carey wanted the R&B breakup tune "The One" to be the lead single, but she was overruled by Doug Morris, the CEO of Universal Music Group (Island's parent company), who thought they'd have a better shot at success with an inspirational ballad. "It was a serious ballad, and Doug thought it would work because it was kind of a sob story, the sort of triumphant Oprah Winfrey moment I needed in the wake of the Glitter debacle," she explained in her memoir, The Meaning Of Mariah Carey. "It was a good song, but it didn’t perform as well as it could have. The label was really invested in the 'adult contemporary' genre, which I could do in my sleep. But personally, I had always preferred the so-called 'urban contemporary,' whatever that means."

Comments: 4

  • Jennie from Ansonia, CtThis song reminds me of how the Jewish people suffered during the Holocaust and to me seems like a tribute to the ones who survived. I first heard this song after seeing the movie "Devil's Arithmatic" with Kirsten Dunst.
  • Leonie from Leeds, Englandthis was the ong she made because of her nervous breakdown and it was saying how she could make it through the rain and stand up once again. It is also relating to the fact that you should follow your heart just like the girl in the video does.
  • Isabelle from Cedarhurst, Nyi think having an interracial relationship is also a theme in this song. mariah's father is half black and hispanic and her mom is irish. it makes sense that this song is based on them, because interracial dating was (unfortunately) looked down on back in their day. I LOVE THIS SONG- btw, being mixed myself... MARIAH CAREY IS THE BEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  • Leo from Brandon, VtThis song was mariah's first single after the media's turn about "Breakdown". The single stayed on the dance (billboard) charts for over 80 weeks!
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