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Mariah Carey Is Doing Better After Being Rushed To The Hospital With Severe Flu

By Aaron Homer
Published on: 04:09 PST, Dec 3, 2015

Mariah Carey is on the mend after being rushed to the hospital with a severe case of the flu, People is reporting.

The 45-year-old singer checked herself into the E.R. at a Manhattan hospital Wednesday, after making an appearance at the Pier 1 Imports Popup Storybook in New York’s trendy SoHo neighborhood.

In case you didn’t know, a popup store, according to Storefront Blog, is a temporary retail store (usually only lasting a month or so), usually set up in conjunction with an event or holiday (like Halloween or Christmas).

But back to Mariah — apparently, according to a rep for the event, she’d taken ill with the flu before showing up for her endorsement duties, but, ever the professional, gamely pushed herself through it.

“She had fallen ill earlier in the day, but participated in the event last night as much as she could.”

In fact, Mariah kept her game face on and talked up how much she loves the holidays.

“I love a white Christmas. I love a snowy Christmas, so Aspen is my go-to. I’m going this year. It’s a tradition. I’ve been going there a long time.”

According to TMZ, Mariah was being “pumped full of fluids and vitamins” at the hospital — the flu can lead to dehydration, after all. One of Mariah’s reps confirmed that the songstress had fallen ill before the event, but she’s on the mend now.

“[Mariah] had been feeling under the weather with the flu over the past few days and was fighting it to the best of her abilities. She is doing well now and will be performing as scheduled this weekend. She thanks her lambs for the continued support and well wishes.”

Mariah’s illness had raised concerns about whether or not she would appear at a scheduled “Hot for the Holidays” Concert this Saturday, but it looks like her rep believes that she’s good to go. As the New York Daily News reports, Carey’s demands for her appearance at the Pier 1 event may have made the organizers sick, as well. For starters, she got $300,000 just to show up at the event — not to sing, but just to show up, an inside source tells the News.

“She specifically wanted (it noted) that she was ‘appearing’ not ‘performing.’ They would have loved her to perform but just getting her is worth it. She [had] to do nothing. Show up, wave a little, talk to a few pre-approved outlets.”

Apparently, Mariah also insisted that organizers refer to her as “The Queen of Christmas” and somehow squeeze in the fact that she’s the “biggest selling female recording artist of all time.”

There are a couple of problems with Mariah’s demands. First is that she’s not the biggest selling female recording artist of all time — that honor goes to Barbra Streisand, according to the Recording Industry Association of America. Mariah comes in at No. 3, after Madonna and Streisand. And calling Mariah “The Queen of Christmas” is also a bit of an exaggeration. Carey has sold more Christmas albums than any other female recording artist, but only just: according to Billboard, Mariah has sold 5.3 million Christmas albums, followed closely by Celine Dion (5.2 million albums), then — once again — Barbra Streisand (5.0 million albums).

Regardless of her pop diva demands and exaggerated claims about her greatness, the flu is rough business on anyone. Get well soon, Mariah!

[Photo by D Dipasupil/Getty Images]

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