Mariah Carey surprises fans with news of new album The Rarities coming in October

It’s 30 years since she released her debut album.

And in addition to the publication of a candid memoir, Mariah Carey is releasing a new album titled the Rarities. 

‘‪This one is for you, my fans,’ the pop superstar shared on her Instagram Tuesday along with the album’s cover. ‘It’s to celebrate us, and to thank you for years of pure love and support. I am so grateful to you.’

The Rarities will reportedly feature previously non-released music and B-sides  and will drop on October 2.

A single featuring Lauryn Hill is expected to be released this coming Friday.

The album will be available just days after her memoir The Meaning Of Mariah Carey becomes available on September 29.

The book, written by Carey with Michaela Angela Davis, promises to ‘finally tell the unfiltered story of her life in a way only she could.’  

The singer was 18 when she was signed to Columbia records by Tommy Mottola whom she went on to marry.

In June 1990, her first studio album was released and she made history as the first four singles from it – Vision of Love, Love Takes Time, Someday and I Don’t Wanna Cry – made number one on the Billboard Hot 100. 

Since then, she’s released a further 14 studio albums as well as one live album and  seven compilation albums and has sold more than 200 million records globally, making her one of the best-selling artists in history.

In July, the five-time Grammy Award-winning star shared via social media the reasons for writing her memoir. 

She wrote: ‘It took me a lifetime to have the courage and the clarity to write my memoir. I want to tell the story of the moments – the ups and downs, the triumphs and traumas, the debacles and the dreams, that contributed to the person I am today.’

The native New Yorker went on: ‘Though there have been countless stories about me throughout my career and very public personal life, it’s been impossible to communicate the complexities and depths of my experience in any single magazine article or a ten-minute television interview.’  

‘And even then, my words were filtered through someone else’s lens, largely satisfying someone else’s assignment to define me.’ 

Carey explained: ‘This book is composed of my memories, my mishaps, my struggles, my survival and my songs. Unfiltered. I went deep into my childhood and gave the scared little girl inside of me a big voice. I let the abandoned and ambitious adolescent have her say, and the betrayed woman I became tell her side.’

She described the process as ‘incredibly hard, humbling and healing. My sincere hope is that you are moved to a new understanding, not only about me, but also about the resilience of the human spirit.’