Mariah Carey Shares the Real Reason She Chose Her Own Wedding Dress for the ‘We Belong Together’ Video
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The singer envisioned a unique way to creatively link two of the album’s standout tracks in a way no one would anticipate.
Mariah Carey isn’t one to let a great gown go unused.
In a new episode of Vevo’s Footnotes, the pop icon looks back on the legacy of her hit “We Belong Together” and its role in The Emancipation of Mimi two decades after its release.
In an exclusive preview shared with PEOPLE, Carey reveals that the track was among the final songs written for the album. It emerged from a collaborative session with Jermaine Dupri, during which they also crafted “It’s Like That” and “Shake It Off.”
The music video marked a first for Carey: it served as a continuation of the storyline introduced in “It’s Like That,” creating a rare two-part narrative across her videos.
“I was really excited to build a story that played out over two songs,” Carey says. “It was my first time doing something like that, and even though the tracks had different sounds, I knew we could connect them visually in a meaningful way.”
“I really loved the fashion in the video — transitioning from a sleek black two-piece to a dramatic wedding gown by Vera Wang,” Carey recalls.
But the wedding dress wasn’t just any designer piece — it was the very same Vera Wang gown she wore during her 1993 wedding to music executive Tommy Mottola. The extravagant dress featured a 27-foot train and a 10-foot veil. Designer Vera Wang has mentioned that Carey drew inspiration from Princess Diana’s unforgettable 1981 bridal look.
Reflecting on the choice, Carey says with a laugh, “Since the scene called for a wedding dress, I figured—why splurge on a new one when I already had a perfectly good one just sitting in storage?”
Carey and Mottola finalized their divorce in 1998. She later married Nick Cannon in 2008, with whom she shares 13-year-old twins, Moroccan and Monroe. The couple separated in 2016.