What happens in Vegas … ends up on the cover of magazines!
Mariah Carey stripped off her top, let her hair hang loose and smiled for the camera while posing topless for the cover of Paper magazine.
With her curly blonde locks hiding her breasts, the stunning songstress wore nothing but sheer long gloves, panties, fishnet stockings and a bunch of House of Emmanuele jewels in the daring cover shoot.
In another snap, the singer rocked a jewel-encrusted bra and crown, before going full-on princess in a pink and white Monsoori gown. The outfit was the perfect contrast to the colorful neon lights of the Las Vegas Strip in the background.
Photo: Paper Magazine / James White
Photo: Paper Magazine / James White
The sexy shoot was for one of four Paper covers featuring different artists with musical residencies in Vegas. The Backstreet Boys, Ricky Martin and Jennifer Lopez also scored covers for the issue, which hits newsstands during the first week of September, but can be ordered from the publication’s website now.
Inside the magazine, Carey promoted her All I Want for Christmas Is You holiday concert series at Caesar’s Palace and explained why she has “diva” moments.
“I have had diva moments, and then people can't handle it,” she said. “I guess it's a little intense, because I come from a true diva. My mother is an opera singer and that's a real diva, you know -- Juilliard diva. And so other people that are like, 'I'm a diva,' it's like, 'Honey, you don't know what a diva is, you didn't grow up with my mom!'”
“And I mean it as a compliment, or I wouldn't be the person I am without experiencing that,” Carey continued. “So when people hear me say, like, 'Dahling da da da da' and talk that way, it's like I'm channeling my mother.”
However, just because she's a diva doesn't mean she can't get starstruck. Carey called out two late musicians in particular, Prince and Michael Jackson, that always had her admiration.
“There's always people who I admire and when I see them [I get starstruck],” she dished. “The last time I saw Prince, he came to my dressing room. I had said I wanted to go visit him to say hello because we've met before. When he was living we had had lots of conversations and he helped me through certain moments that were not easy. I don't want to get too depressing, but I was having a conversation with Prince and then I looked around the room and I noticed that everyone in the room was looking up and staring like they couldn't believe he was standing there. But I would always be a little bit starstruck [when] I [saw] Michael Jackson as well.”
In the other feature stories, Lopez shared how “special” it is to be a mom of twins, Martin discussed his “very challenging” role in Ryan Murphy's upcoming The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, while the Backstreet Boys confessed which group member had so much fun at his Las Vegas bachelor party that he doesn’t recall the details.
Photo: Paper magazine / Charlotte Rutherford
Photo: Paper magazine / Ellen von Unwerth
Photo: Paper magazine / Richard Phibbs
See more on Carey below.
