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Life's Pleasures Quote by Mariah Carey

"One day I promised God that if he would give me my voice back I would never smoke again. I got three octaves back after quitting"

About this Quote

The drama in Mariah Carey's line is that it sounds like a joke and a testimony at the same time. She frames her voice as something almost leased from the divine: not just talent, but a gift that can be revoked, bargained for, and miraculously returned. That "promised God" move isn’t random piety; it’s the language of crisis, the kind people reach for when their body stops cooperating and the stakes feel existential. For a singer whose public identity is basically her instrument, losing her voice isn’t a bad week at work - it’s an eclipse.

The subtext is self-mythmaking, but with a wink. "Three octaves back" lands like punchline math: both absurdly specific and totally believable in Mariah-world, where vocal range is a résumé line and a competitive sport. She turns quitting smoking into a before-and-after flex, making health a narrative of recovery and proof, not virtue. It’s also a subtle bit of reputation management. Divas are often caricatured as pure appetite and excess; here she offers discipline, but not in a scolding way. The sacrifice is real, yet the delivery stays light, like she’s letting you in on the bargain rather than asking for moral credit.

Context matters: decades into a career, her voice has been scrutinized, meme-ified, and treated as public property. This quote pulls it back into the realm of private stakes and bodily limits, then spins the vulnerability into a triumphant statistic. The intent isn’t confession. It’s control of the narrative, in her favorite key: melodrama with precision.

Quote Details

TopicGod
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Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Carey, Mariah. (2026, January 17). One day I promised God that if he would give me my voice back I would never smoke again. I got three octaves back after quitting. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/one-day-i-promised-god-that-if-he-would-give-me-82107/

Chicago Style
Carey, Mariah. "One day I promised God that if he would give me my voice back I would never smoke again. I got three octaves back after quitting." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/one-day-i-promised-god-that-if-he-would-give-me-82107/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"One day I promised God that if he would give me my voice back I would never smoke again. I got three octaves back after quitting." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/one-day-i-promised-god-that-if-he-would-give-me-82107/. Accessed 9 Feb. 2026.

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About the Author

Mariah Carey

Mariah Carey (born March 27, 1971) is a Musician from USA.

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