Mariah Carey – “In The Mix”
Next week, ABC is set to debut the new sitcom Mixed-ish, a spinoff of the massive hit Black-ish. The new show is a prequel, and it tells the story of Tracee Ellis Ross’ character growing up biracial. The new show is loosely based on the life of Kenya Barris, its co-creator. And in a pretty amazing flex, it has a theme song from the once-dominant superstar Mariah Carey — who, like Ross and Barris, happens to be a biracial woman.
Mixed-ish apparently takes place in the mid-’80s, but “In The Mix,” Carey’s new theme song for the show, is pure early-’90s pastiche. Carey co-wrote the song with Daniel Moore, and it’s the kind of bubbly, twinkling R&B that made her famous in the first place. And it also has Carey hitting some of the absurdly high dolphin-squeak hits that were once her trademark; it’s cool that she can still do that.
Carey came out with the impressive, collab-heavy album Caution last year, and she may or may not have turned 50 earlier this year. Talking to Vulture about “In The Mix,” Carey says, “As a biracial woman in the entertainment industry, there was no way I did not want to be a part of Mixed-ish, especially after seeing the pilot, which I loved. I could not be more honored and proud to be writing and performing ‘In the Mix’ for Kenya and the show.” Listen to the song below.
Mixed-ish will air its premiere 9/24 on ABC.