Mariah Carey might be a bit of a diva now (if Will Ferrell is to be believed), but at one point years ago, she was just another talented singer trying to make it in the music industry. There’s actually a lot to her story, enough that Starz, as Deadline reports, is now developing a fictional drama TV series based on Carey’s rise to fame, and the singer herself is on board as an executive producer.
The show will be set in 1986 and “chronicles the rise of an ambitious bi-racial 16-year-old girl, an aspiring singer-songwriter who survived a difficult childhood to become the biggest selling female music artist of all time.” The as-of-now untitled show is written by Nina Colman, and is also executive produced by Brett Ratner, Stella Bulochnikov, Teri Weinberg, and John Cheng.
It certainly seems like Carey’s story is dramatic enough to be given the TV series treatment: Raised by her mother (an opera singer) and growing up poor, the family eventually found financial stability, all while Carey took up an interest in songwriting in high school. Not too long after that, her music career started off with a bang: Her self-titled debut album and first five singles reached the top spots on their respective charts in the U.S.
Fast-forward to present day, and now she works out in fishnets and stilettos and gives her boyfriend an allowance to buy her presents. That’s a rags-to-absurd-riches story if there’s ever been one.
