Carey split cost €31.5m
EMI has confirmed it's paying £19.6m (€31.5m) to end Mariah Carey's recording contract.
In an official statement to the London Stock Exchange, EMI says its Virgin Records America subsidiary will pay Ms Carey $28m (€31.6m).
The company says the payment will be treated as a one-off exceptional charge for this financial year.
EMI points out that it announced a £100m (€161m) restructuring programme in September, which it said would produce savings of around £65 million a year.
It says that Alain Levy's strategic review will result in a higher exceptional charge and greater savings than previously thought.
But it does not say whether ending Ms Carey's contract is part of that strategic review.
EMI says a further announcement regarding the strategic review will be made in March.
Ms Carey had signed the biggest record deal in history with Virgin Records America, which would have netted her £70m (€79m) for five albums.
At the peak of her popularity in 1993, she sold 20 million copies of her album Music Box. But she has been plagued by personal problems since then, including a nervous breakdown and a suicide attempt.
EMI decided to pull the plug on her record deal following the commercial flop of her most recent release, Glitter, which sold only two million copies worldwide.
