Songfacts®:

• This song is about getting over a boyfriend that you broke up with. It was the third US single off The Emancipation of Mimi, and lyrically it's quite different from the first single, "We Belong Together," where Mariah laments the breakup and wishes they were back together. >>

  Suggestion credit:
  Melissa - Toledo, Ohio
• Carey wrote and produced this with her "We Belong Together" and "It's Like That" collaborators Jermaine Dupri, Bryan-Michael Cox and Johnta Austin.
• When Carey realizes she's ready to ditch her cheating boyfriend, she sings:
  
  Just like the Calgon commercial
  I really gotta get up outta here
  
  In the '70s and '80s, Calgon bath and beauty products famously used the slogan, "Calgon, take me away!" In this commercial, a woman is so overwhelmed by the hectic demands of work and family that she cries out the catchphrase and finds herself soaking in a bubble bath courtesy of Calgon's bath powder.
  
  Carey originally came up with the lyric, "I gotta get away," but thought it was too boring, so Dupri suggested the Calgon line. She told FMQB Magazine: "I was like 'What did they say in the Calgon commercial?' I did not remember it. We were all debating back and forth, so we asked Bow Wow because he was in the studio and he knew about it, contrary to my belief that anyone young would know what that meant! Even though Bow Wow knew it from a Snoop rap [in "Bow Wow (That's My Name)"] and he thought Snoop was saying, 'Calvin got a gun!' So, it was pretty funny, but it's cool because it's like the Calgon commercial, 'I really get outta here, go somewhere' – and the song turned out amazing!"
• The remix features Jay-Z and rapper Young Jeezy, who was preparing to release his major label debut, Let's Get It: Thug Motivation 101.
• This was held off from the #1 spot by Carey's own "We Belong Together." It was the first time a female lead artist held the top two positions on the Hot 100. "Shake It Off" stayed at #2 when Kanye West's "Gold Digger" knocked "We Belong Together" from the apex.
• The music video, directed by Jake Nava, opens with Mariah luxuriating in a rose-petal-infused bath (no Calgon in sight) before she goes through a number of wardrobe changes to break up with her man in style, even though he can't see her - she breaks up with him on his answering machine. Rush Hour actor Chris Tucker appears in the clip, cruising the Hollywood streets with Mariah in a red convertible.
• Carey had to be carried around the set of the video because she couldn't walk in her ultra-high heels. Even though they were making her feet bleed, she refused the director's offer to trade them for comfortable slippers because she insisted she couldn't wear flat shoes. "My feet repel them," she laughed.
• The Emancipation Of Mimi brought Carey back to the top of the albums chart for the first time since Butterfly hit #1 in 1997. It also sold 6 million copies in the US.