What Else Does the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Want From Mariah Carey? 

When Mariah Carey received her second nomination for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame earlier this year, the institution’s foundation chairman John Sykes issued a statement celebrating the latest batch of nominees. “These remarkable nominees have each created their own musical style and attitude impacting generations of music lovers,” he wrote. Carey appeared on this year’s ballot alongside Phish, Outkast, Oasis, Billy Idol, Cyndi Lauper, Joy Division/New Order, Soundgarden, the White Stripes, Joe Cocker, Bad Company, Black Crowes, Chubby Checker, and Maná.

Carey was on the ballot in 2024, too. That time, she appeared alongside Cher, Ozzy Osbourne, Oasis, Sinéad O’Connor, Mariah Carey, Mary J. Blige, Dave Matthews Band, Eric B. & Rakim, Foreigner, Peter Frampton, Jane’s Addiction, Kool & the Gang, Lenny Kravitz, and A Tribe Called Quest. At the time, Sykes shared another iteration of his celebratory statement: “These artists have created their own sounds that have impacted generations and influenced countless others that have followed in their footsteps,” he said.

The criteria expressed in these statements were no less true in 2024 or 2025 than they were in 2016, when Carey first became eligible for the prestigious honor. In fact, it barely took a decade after the release of her debut album Mariah Carey in 1990 for her influence to begin crafting a new generation of pop divas who would take charge arranging their own vocals in the studio with the same authority they’d wield on stage. And yet, for the second year in a row, the singer, songwriter, and producer has been shut out from being inducted. Bad Company, Chubby Checker, Joe Cocker, Cyndi Lauper, OutKast, Soundgarden, and the White Stripes will join the Class of 2025. With each passing year, the legacy Carey has crafted only becomes more indisputable. What else does the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame want from her? 

Last year, Carey admitted to being slightly disappointed when she wasn’t selected to be part of the Hall’s Class of 2024. “Everybody was calling me going, ‘I think you’re getting in!’ and so I was excited about it,” she told the Los Angeles Times. “But then it didn’t happen.” She felt a similar sense of inevitability when her 1995 opus Daydream racked up six nominations at the Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year. “One Sweet Day,” “Always Be My Baby,” and “Fantasy” — all of which topped the Billboard Hot 100 — were up for awards. “All those songs in a row ended up being so big,” she said, surely at least one would win, right? “Then I sat there the whole time and I didn’t get anything. I was like, ‘This is not fun. But what can I do?’”

Those three songs make up only a fraction of the 19 Number One singles Carey has earned in the past 35 years, 18 of which she is credited with co-writing. By 1998, she had enough hit singles to release her first greatest hits compilation, Number 1’s, featuring the 13 she had accumulated in only eight years. The musician is currently in the midst of celebrating the 20th anniversary of The Emancipation of Mimi, an album that caught an entirely new generation of pop listeners up to speed on her prowess as a hitmaker. It gave us “We Belong Together,” “Shake It Off,” “Don’t Forget About Us,” and “It’s Like That,” small pieces of what Carey told Rolling Stone in 2024 became “my favorite body of work that I’ve done.” 

In the history of the Hall, some artists, like Patti Smith and Solomon Burke, were nominated between seven and nine times before being inducted. Chic has been nominated 11 times and has yet to be inducted. It took Janet Jackson and Joni Mitchell three nominations in three years long after their eligibility periods began to make it in. For Donna Summer, it was five nominations in five years. Even Brenda Lee, whose “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” goes head-to-head on the charts with “All I Want for Christmas Is You” each year, wasn’t inducted until 2002, after three nominations. Like many of these artists, Carey should never have needed more than one. 

In 2022, Carey was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Her speech played up the dramatics that she’s known for, but it also emphasized the years she spent “walking by myself and coming up with melodies and writing words in a book.” That accolade in particular meant a lot. She’s “constantly” having to remind people that she’s a songwriter, she said. But it was more than that. Questlove explained why. “That’s the power of success, especially at Mariah Carey’s level,” he said, “because you can be overlooked in certain respects and people will forget that you are an artist. People forget and suddenly you just become the product.” 

There’s always been a prominent thread of resilience woven throughout Carey’s career. She never lingers in the dark for long before stepping back into the spotlight (or the twinkling lights every holiday season). She’s encountered her share of both real and contrived rivalries — par for the course for most pop stars — but never anything explosive enough to disrupt her unbothered aura of tranquility. She’s released 15 studio albums and won six of her 34 career Grammy Award nominations. Her legacy was built on a concrete foundation of personal strength and one of the most singular voices music has ever known. Mariah is in the same vein of Janet and Whitney. Mariah is at the root of Christina and Ariana. One of one. 

“There truly are no words that suffice. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for this dream come true and for sprinkling your brilliance and magic on my little song,” Grande said when Carey, “the one and only, queen of my heart and lifelong inspiration,” appeared on the remix of her single “Yes, And?” in 2024. This is what Carey always wanted. “I don’t want to just be categorized as ‘of this era.’ My goal is to have a career that stands. Otherwise, what’s the point?” she told Vibe in 1998. This is what she worked for. “[Sony] would put out like only four singles from one of my albums,” Carey said. “Where, like a Janet, would put out, like, seven, and they’d be working the same album for, like, two years. But with me it was like, ‘Get in the studio! More records! Sing! Sing!’”

More than 1,200 artists, historians, and industry professionals shape music history with boxes checked on a nominee ballot. The Hall selection criteria is meant to take into account an artist’s impact on music culture, like Carey’s trailblazing success as a female pop producer and songwriter in the face of corporate misogyny. It’s also the influence an artist has had on other musicians, like Latto repurposing “Fantasy” into a hit for the 2020s with “Big Energy” or Megan Thee Stallion boasting, “I feel like Mariah Carey/Got these niggas so obsessed” on her Number One single “Hiss.” The Hall also values range and longevity as they relate to both an artist’s career and their body of work, reflected in Carey’s positioning at the intersection between pop, R&B, and hip-hop (she even has a secret alt-rock/grunge album sitting in a vault somewhere).

Whatever it is they’re looking for, Carey has it. It’s in her voice, it’s in her songs, it’s in her legacy. She’s checked all the boxes. Now, it’s the Hall’s turn. Maybe the third time will be the Charmbracelet, but it’s already overdue.