Mariah Carey has been looking back on her album Music Box, which just celebrated its 30th anniversary on  August 31. On Instagram, she posted a clip of herself reflecting on the impact and legacy of “Hero,” one of her most enduring hits from that album.

“‘Hero’ was such a big record … that kind of took on its own life after 9/11 and we [were] all doing our best, I feel, as entertainers, trying to make people feel better,” Mariah says. 

After the terror attacks in 2001, she sang “Hero” on the America: A Tribute to Heroes telethon; that October, she released a new version of it, recorded as a medley with her song “Never Too Far,” as a charity single.

“It’s not my favorite,” she goes on to admit. “And I say that only because I think I’ve written songs that are more, like, heart-wrenching and miserable, whereas ‘Heroes’ is more like trying to be uplifting, which is great.”

She adds, “Typically, I guess I might like the miserable ones. I don’t know!”

Mariah is, however, “most proud of where it’s kind of gone in the world and what people have sung it.”

“I mean, Aretha Franklin actually sang that song. Luciano Pavarotti … having him singing in Italian and I’m singing in English,” she says.

“I pretty much always kind of have to do [the song live]…I’ve done it so many different times,” she concludes. “So now we just do it differently and zhuzh it a little bit here and there and add new parts.” 

The 30th anniversary edition of Music Box is available now.

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