On a recent Monday morning, Mariah Carey flew the red-eye from New York to Los Angeles, stopped by Ryan Seacrest's morning radio show to chat, recorded a background vocal track for the song "I Stay in Love" for her upcoming album, then recorded a video for Wal-Mart's "Soundcheck" series, which will be used as bonus footage online and played in stores.

By the time all of this was done, it was just past noon. Her afternoon consisted of another radio interview, and in the evening she returned to the studio to work on mastering the album, "E=MC2" -- due April 15 via Island Def Jam.