“Butterfly” Turns 20 This Year

In 1997, a 27-year-old Mariah Carey already had 5 studio albums, several chart-topping singles and two Grammys, but she didn’t stop there. Her sixth album was a continuation of her transition/transformation into the direction of hip-hop/R&B. Entertainment Weekly speculated that "the album [was] clearly intended as Carey's declaration of independence, musically and personally." Thus the album's title song and second single, Butterfly, written with Carey's frequent collaborator Walter Afanasieff, could easily be viewed as a metaphor for both Carey's career and her personal life.