Mariah Carey

Pop Musician

• Born: March 27, 1970
• Place of Birth: Huntington, Long Island, New York

AMERICAN SINGER AND ACTOR

Best known for her extraordinary vocal range and her record-setting record sales, Carey has had a successful, multifaceted career as a singer, songwriter, actor, and entrepreneur. She also has been recognized for her philanthropic work.

AREAS OF ACHIEVEMENT: Music; acting

Early Life

Mariah Carey was born on March 27, 1970, in Huntington, New York, to Patricia Carey (née Hickey) and Alfred Roy Carey and was named after the song “They Call the Wind Maria,” from the Broadway musical Paint Your Wagon (1951). Patricia, an opera singer and vocal coach, is Irish American; Alfred, an aeronautical engineer, was of African and Venezuelan ancestry, and his father changed his surname from Nuñez to Carey upon arriving in the United States. The Carey family was subjected to racial prejudice and occasional violence that caused them to move several times; the stress eventually led to Patricia and Alfred’s divorce when Carey was three years old. Carey’s sister Alison moved in with their father, while Carey and her brother Morgan remained with their mother.

Carey demonstrated an early interest in music: When she was only three years old, Patricia discovered her daughter attempting to imitate her as she sang from Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Rigoletto (1851). As a result, Patricia began teaching Carey how to develop her vocal talent, and at the age of six, Carey gave her first public performance. She quickly became involved in the New York music scene, missing so many days as a student at Harborfields High School that she was nicknamed “Mirage” by her peers. After graduating from high school, Carey moved to New York, working several part-time jobs and completing five hundred hours of cosmetology school while trying to forge her music career. Carey eventually found work as a backup singer for Brenda K. Starr, and it was Starr who gave Columbia Records executive Tommy Mottola a copy of Carey’s demo tape. Mottola offered Carey a record deal within the week. Her eponymous debut album was released in 1990 to enormous commercial success.

Life’s Work

Carey’s debut album spawned four hit singles—“Vision of Love,” “Love Takes Time,” “Someday,” and “I Don’t Want to Cry”—making Carey the first artist since the Jackson 5 to have their first four singles top the charts in the United States. The album also garnered her two Grammy Awards for best female pop vocal performance and best new artist. It was the best-selling album in the United States in 1991. The title track from her second album, Emotions (1991), became Carey’s record-setting fifth consecutive number-one single. Her next album, MTV Unplugged (1992), was recorded during an appearance on MTV’s acoustic-music show and featured a cover of the Jackson 5 single “I’ll Be There” that quickly became another number-one hit.

Carey and Mottola started dating while she worked on her debut album and were married in a lavish ceremony—modeled on the wedding of Princess Diana and Prince Charles—at St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Manhattan on June 5, 1993. That same year, Carey released her third album, Music Box, which produced the hit singles “Dreamlover” and “Hero,” and began her first US tour.

“All I Want for Christmas Is You,” from Carey’s 1994 album, Merry Christmas, became one of her best-selling singles to date. Her fourth studio album, Daydream (1995), deviated from her previous pop sound and contained more hip-hop and rhythm-and-blues influences, including a remix of her single “Fantasy” with rapper Ol’ Dirty Bastard from the Wu Tang Clan. The then-controversial collaboration proved successful, and many credit Carey for influencing the now-common practice of combining the musical styles. Other successful singles from the record include “One Sweet Day,” a collaboration with Boyz II Men, which spent sixteen weeks at the top of the Billboard charts, and “Always Be My Baby,” which became Carey’s eleventh number-one single in the United States and was nominated for a Grammy Award for best female R & B performance.

In 1997, Carey and Mottola separated, and a year later, they divorced. Carey’s next album, Butterfly (1997), continued her successful run. Its first single, “Honey,” featured a more provocative Carey in both fashion and musical style. Carey also began composing songs for film sound tracks and released an album of number-one hits alongside some new music (#1’s, 1998). “When You Believe,” a duet with Whitney Houston, was featured on the sound track for the animated film The Prince of Egypt (1998).

Carey’s sixth studio album, 1999’s Rainbow, was her final recording with Columbia Records and her lowest-selling album at that point in her career. She began taking acting lessons and auditioning for roles, eventually making her film debut with a small role in The Bachelor (1999). Carey was honored with Billboard’s artist of the decade award in 1999, and received a World Music Award for best-selling female artist of the millennium before signing a new contract with EMI’s Virgin Records.

By 2001, Carey’s grueling schedule had taken a toll on her health. She checked into a hospital to treat what her publicist described as “an emotional and physical breakdown.” Carey next starred in the film Glitter (2001), which was widely panned, and the soundtrack failed to match Carey’s previous success, prompting EMI/Virgin to buy out the remainder of her contract in 2002. Later that year, Carey signed a new deal with Island Records, and her father died of cancer. Charmbracelet (2002), her first album on the Island label, received mixed reviews and included a song dedicated to him.

In 2005, Carey’s tenth studio album, The Emancipation of Mimi, became a critical and commercial success. It was the year’s best-selling album in the United States and garnered Carey three more Grammy wins as well as a nomination for album of the year. The album’s second single, “We Belong Together,” became her sixteenth song to top the Billboard Hot 100; the song remained at the number-one spot for fourteen nonconsecutive weeks, becoming one of the longest-running number ones in chart history, second only to Carey’s 1996 song “One Sweet Day” with Boyz II Men. In 2010, Billboard named “We Belong Together” the song of the decade. The album's fifth single, “Don’t Forget about Us,” became her seventeenth number-one single after it was released in December 2005.

“Touch My Body,” the lead single from Carey’s next album, E = MC² (2008), catapulted Carey past Elvis Presley as the solo artist with the most number-one singles with a total of eighteen and tied her with Presley as the artist to spend the most weeks at number one in Billboard chart history, at seventy-nine weeks. In 2009, she appeared in the movie Precious to positive reviews; her performance earned her the breakthrough actress award at the Palm Springs International Film Festival. On April 30, 2008, Carey married actor and rapper Nick Cannon at her Bahamian estate; the following year, she released her twelfth studio album, Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel, which debuted at number three on the Billboard 200, and she began her seventh concert tour. In 2010, Carey released a second Christmas album, Merry Christmas II You, her sixteenth top-ten album. She also announced that she was pregnant with twins. The twins, Moroccan and Monroe, were born in April 2011. Her marriage to Cannon ended in divorce in 2015.

In 2012, she released a single titled “Triumphant (Get ’Em)” featuring Rick Ross and Meek Mill. Also in 2012, she was a judge on American Idol for one season. She released her fourteenth studio album, Me. I Am Mariah . . . The Elusive Chanteuse, in 2014. She recorded the album’s lead single, “Beautiful,” with Miguel; the song peaked at number fifteen on the Billboard Hot 100 after it was released in May 2013. In 2015, she announced her residency at the Colosseum at Caesars Place in Las Vegas, Nevada. Also in 2015, Carey released a greatest hits compilation, #1 to Infinity, which includes all eighteen of her Hot 100 number-one singles as well as a new song, “Infinity.”

In early 2015, Carey began a Las Vegas residency at The Colosseum at Caesar's Palace. In conjunction with this came the release of # 1 to Infinity, a greatest hits album. That same year, she debuted as a director in the Hallmark Channel movie A Christmas Melody, in which she also acted.

The year 2016 brought The Sweet Sweet Fantasy Tour, a $30.3 million tour that included stops in Europe and Africa. Carey also filmed a documentary series about the tour called Mariah's World. As 2016 drew to a close, Carey found herself in the midst of a publicity storm resulting from her appearance on Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve. Carey's subpar performance was blamed on faulty equipment that prevented her from hearing the music backing up her performance. A repeat visit to the New Year's show the following year went much better.

Over the next several years, Carey continued to record, perform, and act. This included another multi-year residency in Las Vegas, concert tours of Europe and Asia, and appearances at the iHeartRadio Music Festival and the American Music Awards, both in 2018. Caution, Carey's 2018 album, was her lowest selling to that point but was supported by a tour that last through much of 2019. That year she also rereleased her Merry Christmas album in recognition of its twenty-fifth anniversary. A documentary, Mariah Carey Is Christmas!, touted the success of "All I Want for Christmas" and Carey's legacy in Christmas music history.

During 2020, the thirtieth anniversary of the launch of her career, Carey acknowledged the occasion in several ways. Her memoir, The Meaning of Mariah Carey, was released and reached the top of the best seller's list. She released the compilation album The Rarities in October. Carey was also inducted into the Songwriter's Hall of Fame.

Some of Carey's notable work over the next several years included another Christmas special, Mariah's Christmas: The Magic Continues, in 2021, and serving as a co-producer of the Broadway musical Some Like It Hot, for which she earned a Tony Award nomination.

In 2024, Carey began another Las Vegas residency entitled The Celebration of Mimi at the Dolby Live. She was also planning a Christmas season tour. In August 2024, Carey confirmed that her mother Patricia and her sister Alison both passed away on the same day.

Significance

Carey’s vocals have influenced numerous other singers both in the United States and abroad, and she often is credited for bringing hip-hop and rhythm-and-blues styles into mainstream pop music. Carey also is recognized for her songwriting—a skill that set her apart from some of her musical contemporaries—and her significant record of album sales. Having sold more than 200 million records, she is the third best-selling female artist in the United States, and she ranks second only to the Beatles as the artist with the most Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles. Despite an inauspicious beginning, Carey’s acting skills also have garnered her attention, and she won critical acclaim for her supporting role in the film Precious (2009). Carey’s philanthropic activity includes work with organizations such as the Fresh Air Fund and the Make-a-Wish Foundation.

Bibliography

Caruso, Catherine et al. "Mariah Carey." Biography, 29 Aug. 2024, www.biography.com/musicians/mariah-carey. Accessed 2 Sept. 2024.

Huamani, Kaitlyn. "Mariah Carey’s Mother and Sister Died on the Same Day. The Singer Says Her ‘heart is broken’". Associated Press, 28 Aug. 2024, apnews.com/article/mariah-carey-mom-sister-died-patricia-alison-cd6688c818f0f23064b2015577be5e2b. Accessed 2 Sept. 2024.

Melas, Chloe. "Mariah Carey ‘mortified’ after ‘horrible’ New Year’s Eve Performance." CNN, 4 Jan. 2017, www.cnn.com/2017/01/04/entertainment/mariah-carey-new-years-eve-interview/index.html. Accessed 2 Sept. 2024.

Nickson, Chris. Mariah Carey Revisited: Her Story. New York: St. Martin’s, 1998. Print.

Norment, Lynn. “Mariah Carey: Singer Talks About Storybook Marriage, Interracial Heritage and Sudden Fame.” Ebony (Apr. 1994). Print.

Sapet, Kerrily. Mariah Carey: Singer, Songwriter, Record Producer, and Actress. Broomall: Mason Crest, 2010. Print.

Shapiro, Marc. Mariah Carey: The Unauthorized Biography. Toronto: ECW, 2001. Print.