Background
Mariah Carey is an American treasure whose talents have set her apart in the industry. She is an Aries, born March 27, 1969, in Huntington, New York. Carey is the youngest of three children. Her mother, Patricia, was an opera singer and vocal coach, while her father, Alfred Roy, was an aeronautical engineer. Carey is of Irish, African-American, and Afro-Venezuelan descent. Her parents soon divorced, and Carey had little contact with her father. She began singing at age three. She excelled in arts, music, and literature at Harborfields High School in Greenlawn, New York, where she wrote poetry and lyrics. Carey graduated high school in 1987 and began voice training. She moved to New York City and soon landed a gig singing backup for Brenda K. Starr.
In December 1988, Carey accompanied Starr to a C.B.S. record executives’ gala. At this event, she handed her demo to Tommy Mottola, the head of Columbia Records, who engaged in a bidding war before finally signing her to Columbia Records. On June 12, 1990, her eponymous debut studio album, “Mariah Carey,” dropped. The label spent $one million promoting the album, and it paid off, topping the Billboard 200 charts for 11 consecutive weeks and eventually winning Carey her first two Grammy Awards. The album became the best-selling album in the U.S. in 1991. In September of the same year, she released her sophomore album, “Emotions.” She released her third studio album, “Music Box,” in 1993 before her fourth studio album, “Merry Christmas,” in 1994. This album contained the lead single, ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You,’ which has become a Christmas standard, selling over 16 million copies worldwide. In 1995, her fifth studio album, “Daydream,” dropped. This album became her biggest-selling album in the U.S. and won her six nominations at the 38th Grammy Awards ceremony. She released “Butterfly,” her sixth studio album, in 1997 before signing a $100 million five-album record deal with Virgin Records (E.M.I.) in April 2001. This deal was then bought out for $28 million, and she signed with Island Records for $24 million. Carey’s tenth studio album, “The Emancipation of Mimi,” was released in April 2005. The album contained the hit single ‘We Belong Together,’ which re-defined her career, breaking several records and becoming the second longest-running #one song in U.S. chart history. “The Emancipation of Mimi” earned her 10 Grammy Award nominations, winning three. In 2009, she starred in “Precious” and won the breakthrough actress performance award at the Palm Springs Intl. Film Festival for her performance.
Carey has released 15 studio albums, with the most recent, “Caution,” released in 2018. She was an American Idol judge and starred in a docu-series and several movies before publishing her 2020 memoir, “The Meaning of Mariah Carey.” Carey’s success and legacy are inspirational. She is the highest certified female artist in the U.S. and was named the greatest female artist of all time by “Billboard” in 2019. For someone of such success and fame, Carey’s personal life has been public. She married Tommy Mottola in June 1993, and their divorce was finalized in 2000. Carey then dated Luis Miguel while separated from Mottola in 1998. They split in 2001, and she married Nick Cannon in April 2008. They separated in August 2014 after two kids together. Carey then began dating James Packer in 2015, and by January 2016, they were engaged. However, they called off the engagement in October. Carey shares her success with her family and friends.
