Mariah Carey’s elusive “When I Feel It” to FINALLY get an official release on the 20th anniversary edition of The Emancipation of Mimi

When Mariah Carey announced a 20th anniversary edition of The Emancipation of Mimi, a question that some of the Lambs undoubtedly had pondered was if we would finally get an official release of “When I Feel It”. And miseries were put out early, when a release for the album went out in April, confirming that “When I Feel It” would feature on it. And in a strange move, a preview of the song was recently released to YouTube — as though fans ain’t been heard the song before and there aren’t countless uploads of the full thing on YouTube. But none-the-less it’s just great to know that this song is coming for sure.

“When I Feel It” was originally recorded for The Emancipation of Mimi and it samples Motown group The Dynamic Superiors’ 1977 song “Here Comes That Feeling Again”. However, there were issues with getting the sample cleared, so the song wasn’t able to make the album. However, the song had leaked in full not long after The Emancipation of Mimi was released. So quite a few Lambs have been living with the song for almost two decades now. And judging from the official preview, it doesn’t seem like anything has changed between the leaked version and the version on the 20th anniversary edition of The Emancipation of Mimi. But maybe we’ll be surprised and there’ll be a whole new verse and whole new vocal sections which have been unheard until now. That would be nice and add some newness to the song, but I’m not holding out for it. I’m just glad the song is finally getting an official release, because it is such a good song. I’ve played it more than any of the songs which made the cut for The Emancipation of Mimi.

“When I Feel It” was produced by Mahogany Music, who had also produced the song “Sprung” — hence why the two songs feel so similar in sound and feel like a pair. “Sprung” was one of my favourite songs on The Emancipation of Mimi and I was so baffled as to why it was a UK exclusive bonus track. I bought The Emancipation of Mimi on the day of release in the UK, so I was fortunate enough to have “Sprung” on CD from the get-go. The Emancipation of Mimi released at a time when everybody was on the Internet and file sharing was still rife, so country exclusive bonus tracks didn’t stay country exclusive for long. But it “Sprung” wouldn’t be released on global editions of The Emancipation of Mim

i until its vinyl reissue on vinyl in 2020 and the digital release of the Ultra Platinum Edition of the album in 2021. So “When I Feel It” is experiencing a similar timeline and some-what similar turn of events.

“When I Feel It” is not a song that every Lamb is aware of or has heard before. So it’s going to be a nice thing for those fans to have. And it ain’t too late for Mariah to release “When I Feel It” as a single, put on a gold gown in a gold room with a gold microphone and a wind machine and shoot a video.

The 20th anniversary edition The Emancipation of Mimi releases on 30th May, 2025.

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