"Close My Eyes" is a song recorded by American singer-songwriter Mariah Carey for her sixth studio album Butterfly (1997).
A downtempo piano led song, the lyrics in "Close My Eyes" revolve around negative experiences in her life, including indirectly talking about the relationship between her and ex-husband Tommy Mottola.
[1] Throughout the development of the album, in a departure from her previous style, Carey worked with various rappers and hip-hop producers, including Sean "Puffy" Combs, Kamaal Fareed, Missy Elliott and Jean Claude Oliver and Samuel Barnes from Trackmasters.
Growing creative differences with producer Walter Afanasieff ended their working relationship, after collaborating on most of Carey's previous output.
[6] The lyrical content of the song speaks indirectly about Carey's relationship with Mottola,[7] and reflects on times in her life where she has had personal struggles and troubles.
[5] Her past is presented in the lyrics "I was a wayward child, with the weight of the world that I held deep inside" and "Life was a winding road, and I learned many things little ones shouldn't know.
"[5] As described by David Browne for Entertainment Weekly, Carey "paints herself" in the lyrics as "A wayward child, with the weight of the world".
"[8] During the chorus, Carey lightens the mood of the song by singing about having courage to face times of adversity, "But I closed my eyes, steadied my feet on the ground, raised my head to the sky.
"[9] In an interview with CNN on September 7, 2012, where she was honored by Broadcast Music, Inc. for her songwriting, Carey declared "Close My Eyes" as one of her favorite and most revealing songs that she has written.
On Carey's official Facebook page on May 12, 2012, shortly after the release, she wrote, "I spent four years writing this song, only because after I performed in Schenectady, NY, I started hearing this melody and singing it over and over to myself as I was taking a bath, looking at the moon.. Four years later, as I was leaving a devastating part of my life behind, I wrote the second verse, the bridge and the outro.