No pants, no problem: Mariah Carey is unapologetically herself on ‘Empire’

The national treasure that is Mariah Carey finally made her long awaited debut on FOX’s “Empire” Wednesday night (Oct. 5), and even though her character’s name is Kitty, they could’ve just kept her name as Mariah.

Kitty is a famous singer, about to embark on an international tour — sound familiar? — who, like most visitors to the show, has the hottest new track to record with Jamal (Jussie Smollett). She struts around in barely-there designer clothes, hits the recording studio in a bedazzled leotard, proceeds to sing the new song “Infamous” with Jamal — and has the voice of an R&B angel.

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With a vocal range bigger than most people can even imagine, it’s easy to forget how deep and raspy Mariah’s normal speaking voice gets. That juxtaposition — hearing Mariah sing, and then listening to her talk offstage — is something we wish the episode featured more … Especially since Mariah, aka Kitty, or let’s just call her Glorified Mariah, fits into the “Empire” world so well.

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The 46-year-old mom of twins looks as beautiful as ever, and she proves that she can still hit those signature glass-breaking high notes. It just would’ve been fun to see Mariah play something other than herself — she’s certainly got the chops! Imagine Mariah playing something like her role in “Precious” — far from the persona audiences will see on her upcoming E! reality series, “Mariah’s World.”

Either way, we’d love Mariah to stick around. Kitty would be the perfect minx for Andre’s new love interest. Plus, it would be refreshing to have a powerful and talented woman join the “Empire” family for once — right now it seems like Cookie (Taraji P. Henson)’s the only female character who isn’t around solely to try and exploit/be exploited by Lucious (Terrence Howard). Just saying.

“Empire” airs on Wednesday nights at 9 p.m. ET/PT on FOX.

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