Mariah Carey's Glitter Soundtrack from 2001 Was Somehow the No.1 Album on iTunes This Week

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published 15 November 2018

If all you want for Christmas is more Mariah Carey in your life, there’s some great news: In an unlikely but nevertheless delightful turn of events, the soundtrack to the much-maligned 2001 film Glitter spent some time at No. 1 on the iTunes Albums chart this week. Why? Who knows! The movie came out in late September, not November, and 17 isn’t a particularly notable birthday.

The period immediately post-Halloween to slightly after New Year’s Day always means a resurgence of Mariah on the charts—“All I Want for Christmas Is You” re-entered the charts weeks ago. And this year there’s even more Mariah because her new album, Caution, drops Friday. Still, a sudden wave of appreciation for Glitter is pretty surprising.

According to the Fader, it all started when Carey’s diehard fans—called the “lambily,” a combination of “lamb” and “family”—started using the hashtag #JusticeForGlitter. You’ll recall, perhaps, the Glitter was not exactly a hit when it first came out. It has an abysmal 7 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and hasn’t even entered the pantheon of bad-but-fun diva crossovers, a la Britney Spears in Crossroads or Christina Aguilera in Burlesque (#JusticeforBurlesque).

So the only thing people really even remember about Glitter is that it was bad, and its soundtrack didn’t fare much better: Rolling Stone called it “big and goopy, with zero melodic or emotional punch.” But on Wednesday, the album started climbing the charts and by Thursday, it had somehow found itself the biggest album in the land for a little while (as of publication, I'm sorry to report, it had slid back down the charts).

The elusive chanteuse herself even tweeted about it:

I have to dedicate today's #tbt to Glitter, which is currently #1 on the iTunes albums chart, 17 years after its release and on the eve of my new album release! My fans are THE BEST 💖💖💖 #JusticeForGlitter!! LET'S GO #CAUTION⚠️ pic.twitter.com/i2v8Zkp1oyNovember 15, 2018

So congratulations to Mariah Carey for this impressive feat, and a very special congratulations to all lambily members, apparently the hardest-working fanbase in music.

Cady has been a writer and editor in Brooklyn for about 10 years. While her earlier career focused primarily on culture and music, her stories—both those she edited and those she wrote—over the last few years have tended to focus on environmentalism, reproductive rights, and feminist issues. She primarily contributes as a freelancer journalist on these subjects while pursuing her degrees. She held staff positions working in both print and online media, at Rolling Stone and Newsweek, and continued this work as a senior editor, first at Glamour until 2018, and then at Marie Claire magazine. She received her Master's in Environmental Conservation Education at New York University in 2021, and is now working toward her JF and Environmental Law Certificate at Elisabeth Haub School of Law in White Plains.