[1] Carey had believed and often said that Columbia regarded her as a commodity, with her separation from ex-husband Tommy Mottola complicating her relationship with the label.
[1][5] Carey flew to Capri, Italy for a period of five months, in which she began to conceptualize a new album, stemming from uproars in her personal life the previous year.
For The Washington Post, Joshua Klein wrote that the song "incorporates elements of gospel, a much more palatable use of Carey's virtuoso voice than the flights of high-pitched dolphin-speak she sometimes squeaks out".
[15] Commenting that Charmbracelet was "solid but not as definitive as Butterfly", Herald Sun's Cyclone Wehner wrote that Carey "predictably [...] pulled off "My Saving Grace", which he described as a "melodramatic ballad".
[16] Similarly, Tom Moon of the Philadelphia Inquirer thought that Carey was "less forthright" on the album despite him liking "My Saving Grace", which he described as a "routine attempt at gospel".
"[18] Writing for the New Straits Times, a critic thought "My Saving Grace" took "a page out of Whitney Houston's songbook" and was "a song [Carey will] be using for years to come on TV and in concert".
[19] The Houston Chronicle's Michael D. Clark wrote that "the reverberating vocals she leads on My Saving Grace sound like a church group rehearsing in a cathedral".
[20] In a study, scholar Julia L. Johnson Connor grouped "My Saving Grace" among "Can't Take That Away (Mariah's Theme)" (1999) and "Outside" (1997) as songs in which Carey discussed being biracial.