Mariah Carey whipped up the perfect cure for those who can’t sleep at night when they have someone on their mind: She arranged a late-night jam session performance of “We Belong Together” for Live With Kelly and Ryan on Friday (Feb. 12).
The Grammy-winning superstar kicked off Valentine’s Day weekend early with an intimate living-room set of her Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 smash, dubbed “Mimi’s Late Night Valentine’s Mix.” Carey produced, arranged and sang background vocals for the extra swoon-worthy rendition, but because she loves her Lambs so much, she might release the full seven-minute version.
“Happy early Valentine’s Day! Hope you enjoyed ‘We Belong Together’ on @LiveKellyRyan which we did after a late night jam session!” she wrote on Twitter. “We actually recorded a 7 minute version of this song thinking of putting it out for the lambily!”
“We Belong Together” was featured on Carey’s 10th studio album, The Emancipation of Mimi, which soared to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in 2005. The song earned four Grammy nominations in 2006, including record and song of the year, and eventually won for best R&B song and best female R&B vocal performance. A decade and a half later, Mimi told Kelly Ripa and Ryan Seacrest about what new meaning “We Belong Together” has taken during the pandemic.
“Now dealing with the pandemic and dealing with everything that we’re all dealing with, ‘We Belong Together’ is really even more of a message than it was when we first wrote this song, because we do belong together, meaning all of us,” she explained. “So hopefully a little later, as things are getting in terms of the pandemic, we’ll all be together again.”
Watch Mimi perform “We Belong Together (Mimi’s Late Night Valentine’s Mix)” below.
