Mariah Carey recalls Tupac greeting at 1996 AMAs, wishes they'd dated

Mariah Carey revisited a short but memorable encounter with Tupac Shakur on Tuesday, saying the late rapper's brief greeting backstage at the 1996 American Music Awards left her swooning and wondering what might have been. In an interview on Power 106's Brown Bag Mornings, Carey recalled Tupac stepping out of a white Rolls-Royce, saying, "Hi, Mariah," a moment she described as "a pretty major moment" that made her want to keep seeing him that night. When asked if she ever wished they had dated, Carey laughed and said, "I wish."

Carey first recounted the exchange in her 2020 memoir, where she described the encounter as cinematic, with Tupac's voice "pouring out of his lips like smoke" before he rolled away. On air, she added that the encounter gave her more than butterflies and that she would have jumped at the chance to collaborate with him. "I love Hip Hop, and I love the moments that we're talking about, especially 'Hi, Mariah,'" she said during the interview.

The moment has gained fresh attention as Carey promotes new projects. She is slated to receive the Video Vanguard Award at the 2025 MTV Video Music Awards and will release a new album, Here For It All, on September 26....