Mariah Carey’s record-setting album ‘The Emancipation of Mimi’ was released 17 years ago todayMariah Carey’s record-setting album ‘The Emancipation of Mimi’ was released 17 years ago today

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With huge hits like “Shake It Off,” “It’s Like That,” “Don’t Forget About Us” and “We Belong Together,” Mariah Carey‘s 10th studio album, The Emancipation of Mimi, quickly came to be one of R&B’s greatest album of all time. 

The project was released on April 12, 2005, and after only a week of radio airtime, it debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart. After spending 14 weeks in the number-one spot, “We Belong Together” was hailed as the “song of the decade” by Billboard. 

The album has garnered numerous accolades, including scoring eight nominations at the 48th Grammy Awards, and winning three trophies, among them the Best Contemporary R&B Album honor. It also was the biggest-selling album of the year worldwide, after amassing an impressive 10 million copies sold, according to U.K. newspaper The Telegraph.

Although it’s considered Carey’s “comeback album,” The Emancipation of Mimi is one that has cemented the superstar as an R&B great. 

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