Mariah Carey Really Working The “Imperfect” Angle

Coming on the heels of a subpar performance on NBC’s televised variety show America’s Got Talent, songbird Mariah Carey has pulled out of her Aug. 28 performance on that same network’s Today and reportedly decided to hold off on other appearances. And now there’s talk that her forthcoming album Memoirs Of An Imperfect Angel has been pushed back yet again, this time to Sept. 29. (It was originally supposed to come out on Aug. 25.) So what’s going on? Next week’s Billboard Hot 100 has Memoirs‘ lead single “Obsessed” holding steady at No. 14 in its fifth week on the chart—and it’s still below its debut-week chart peak of No. 11. The Tricky/The-Dream-helmed track does have a bullet (meaning that overall its metrics gained), and next week’s charts see it scaling both the sales and airplay charts, so perhaps Carey’s label Island Def Jam is hoping to strike while the iron is a little warmer than it has been up until this point. Still, what with Carey’s Twitter going mysteriously silent since her Talent appearance—and the mass pull-out of appearances after that disaster—one has to wonder what, exactly, is going on. According to NBC, Miley Cyrus will fill in for Carey at Today. Cherries for all! Mariah’s “Memoirs” Pushed Back Again [Rap-Up] TODAY concert series schedule [MSNBC]