Mariah Carey, Neptunes, Lennox in Songwriters Hall of Fame

NEW YORK (AP):

After a glittering career stuffed with No. 1 hits – not to mention a two-year pandemic delay – Mariah Carey was finally inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame on Thursday, but not before challenging her new fellow members to do better by women.

“I read that, out of the 439 total inductees into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, only 32 have been women, until now,” she said Thursday at the end of a four-hour celebration at the Marriott Marquis in New York. The line got a huge applause.

Carey was the headliner, following the inductions of the Neptunes, the British electro-pop band Eurythmics, psychedelic bluesman Steve Miller and the iconic Isley Brothers. Special guests included Smokey Robinson, Leslie Odom Jr, Questlove, Jon Batiste and Usher.

Songwriters are eligible for induction after writing hit songs for at least 20 years and the hall includes such iconic songwriters as Burt Bacharach, Missy Elliott, Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon, Billy Joel and Carly Simon. New annual slates are voted on by the membership.