Colosseum’s latest resident Mariah Carey got a Vegas house

“The butterfly lands and takes off again,” Mariah Carey says.

It’s a joke that brings a laugh from those surrounding her in a dressing room beneath the Colosseum at Caesars Palace. And it will make more sense soon, in full context, along with the follow-up, “I hate a loud butterfly.”

That was the ironic one, considering the butterfly landed more like a helicopter at Caesars on Monday evening.

It’s become custom to stage an elaborate photo-op “arrival” for new divas playing the Colosseum. And Carey had not one but two. First she rolled up to the front door in a pink vintage convertible, trailing a parade of 18 rolling-billboard trucks displaying the hits promised in “Mariah #1 to Infinity,” which opens May 6.

Then it was inside to walk a roped-off red carpet leading to the Colosseum steps and official welcomes from Caesars Entertainment and AEG Live executives. But all this was coordinated with Sunday’s release of “Infinity,” the one new track from a greatest hits album due May 18.

Thus, the arrivals were followed downstairs by more than three hours of short, successive interviews, most of them on video with Carey standing on a lighted studio set created just for the occasion. I suggested that for a print interview, the star could remain seated in the side room where she had kicked off her heels and put her feet up during hair and makeup touch-ups. “I’m appreciative of that,” she said.

And so at 10:42 p.m. came a short-but-relaxed chat that still managed to include two cryptic sources of intrigue for fans of the 45-year-old diva.

The first: Even though this is the first time Carey has performed more than a single-night concert in Las Vegas, “I have a place (as in house) here now.”

Part of the lure in signing on for repeated shows — the first batch through May 24 followed by nine more in July — is the same that appealed to working-mother Celine Dion. “I think that it’s just a good time in my life for me to be in one place for a substantial amount of time,” she said.

Her twins, Monroe and Moroccan, turn 4 this week. “As much as they love to travel, it’s good for them to be in an area where they can have their backyard and have the things that they enjoy.”

They tell her, “We want to go to the other New York City.”

“They don’t really know the places, but they know that they love to travel,” she says.

“It’s cool,” she says of her Las Vegas residence. “It’s just that I’m a little bit of a tough customer when it comes to houses. I like things to be perfect. It’s not a permanent residence, and neither is this.”

And here is where she says, “The butterfly lands and takes off again. And hopefully comes back.”

When it’s said she’s not frequently sighted in these parts and so must have a surprising ability to butterfly right under the radar, that’s when she replies, “I hate a loud butterfly. I like things to myself when not in song.”

The other point of intrigue comes when she’s asked about Internet reaction to the new single being widely interpreted as a shot at her ex, comedian and “America’s Got Talent” host Nick Cannon. Various Web headlines suggest the playful tune “destroys,” “disses” or “puts the blast on” the father of the twins.

But, she notes, most of her songwriting is devoted to falling in or out of love. “Every song is somehow relationship driven. It’s not like I do a lot of, you know, political satire material. Can’t wait for that album to come out!” she says with a laugh echoed by others in the room.

Then: “Actually I did have an album that will remain unsung, dah-ling. It was a secret album that I have that nobody knows about. You would be getting a good scoop on that.”

Is this a slap-happy joke from one who’s been on her feet all night, or for real? Feel free to drop us a line, Mimi obsessives.

Back to the dissing-Nick business. “I have a song called ‘H.A.T.E.U.,’ ” which came out in 2009, a happier time for she and Cannon. “Did that mean it was about him at that time? No. Songs are, for me, they’re just a release.

“I’ve always gone to music as my solace and my saving grace. This is like no different than anything else,” she adds. “It’s just different parts of the way I write.” “Infinity” starts with “a satirical moment and then it turns into a more elegant ending, a la ‘Vision of Love.’ ”

When not speculating about Cannon, some reactions to the new song cited what seems to be a deliberate blending of musical phases from the singer’s career, all the way to her 1990 debut single “Vision of Love.”

There she will agree with you. “It’s hard to put your finger on what it is, but it is an evolution. And it is also kind of like a throwback,” she says.

The hook of the new show is also its challenge. Those rolling billboards promise all 18 of Carey’s No. 1 pop hits. And it makes good sense on the business side, sort of a palate cleanser, as the singer reboots her career with Epic Records after the underwhelming sales of her last two studio albums.

But those hits were recorded over 25 years, which included musical and image makeovers for a star who shifted from sentimental adult-contemporary ballads to sexier, thumpier R&B over the years.

“It’s a difficult task,” she agrees, “to make things work in chronological order when there’s ballads and up-tempos and midtempos and remixes.”

Fortunately, the show is being directed by Ken Ehrlich, who helms the annual Grammy Awards broadcast and also helmed Dion’s most recent show at Caesars, filling it with visual interest without pulling focus from the star.

The revue also will feature dancers overseen by Las Vegas celebrity choreographers Napoleon and Tabitha D’Umo. But a show too caught up in its dance moves has “never been my thing,” Carey says. “It’s really about the music and about the songs. It’s about having an experience together with the audience.”

Will it be hard to reconnect with early singles such as “Someday” or “Emotions”?

“As the writer of 17 of the 18 No. 1s, it’s hard to say. They’re me, they’re a part of me. The evolution of how I got here. Wherever here is,” she adds with a laugh.

“No really, it’s a musical journey and my life has always been about music. There have been people who have been inspired by — and I try to say this as humbly as possible — by my previous work, so I was inspired by some of my previous work when I did this.

“It’s kind of like going with me through my career, to the place where I’m at right now.”

Read more from Mike Weatherford at bestoflasvegas.com. Contact him at mweatherford@reviewjournal.com.