Mariah Carey (born March 27 1970) is an American pop and R&B; singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress. Carey made her debut in 1990 under the guidance of Columbia Records executive Tommy Mottola and became the first recording act to have its first five singles top the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart. Following her marriage to Mottola in 1993, a series of hit records established her position as Columbia's highest-selling act. According to Billboard magazine, she was the most successful artist of the 1990s in the United States.Shapiro, Marc. Mariah Carey (2001). pg. 145. UK: ECW Press, Canada. ISBN 1-55022-444-1.

Carey took more control over her image and music following her separation from Mottola in 1997, and she introduced elements of hip hop into her album material. Her popularity was in decline when she left Columbia in 2001, and she was dropped by Virgin Records the following year after a highly publicized physical and emotional breakdown and the poor reception of Glitter, her film and soundtrack project. In 2002 Carey signed with Island/Def Jam, and after an unsuccessful period she returned to the forefront of pop music in 2005.

In 2000 the World Music Awards named Carey the best-selling female artist of all time,"Winners of the World Music Awards". World Music Awards. May 2000. Retrieved November 19, 2006 from the Wayback Machine; "Michael Jackson And Mariah Carey Named Best-Selling Artists Of Millennium At World Music Awards In Monaco". [[Jet (magazine)|]]. May 29, 2000. Retrieved November 19, 2006. and she has recorded the most U.S. number-one singles for a female solo artist. In addition to her commercial accomplishments, she is well-known for her melismatic singing voice, vocal range, power, and use of whistle register. Some critics have said that Carey's efforts to showcase her vocal talents have been at the expense of communicating true emotion through song.Farber, Jim. "More like a screaming 'Mimi'". New York Daily News. April 12 2005. Retrieved March 10 2006.Tannenbaum, Rob. "Mariah Carey: Emotions". Rolling Stone. RS 617, November 14 1991. Retrieved March 12 2006.

Biography

Carey was born in Huntington, Long Island, New York. She is the third and youngest child of Patricia Hickey, a former opera singer and voice coach of Irish American extraction, and Alfred Roy Carey (formerly Nuñez), an aeronautical engineer of Afro-Venezuelan heritage.Shapiro, pg. 16. As a multiethnic family, the Careys endured racial slurs, hostility, and sometimes violence, causing the family to frequently relocate throughout the New York and Rhode Island areas. The strain on the family led to the divorce of Carey's parents when she was three years old.Shapiro, pg. 19–20.

Carey had little contact with her father, and her mother worked several jobs to support the family. Spending much of her time at home alone, Carey turned to music as an outlet. She began singing at around the age of three, performing for the first time in public during elementary school, and was writing her own songs by junior high. Carey graduated from Harborfields High School in Greenlawn, New York although she was frequently absent because of her popularity as a demo singer for local recording studios. Her renown within the Long Island music scene gave her opportunities to work with musicians such as Gavin Christopher and Ben Margulies, with whom she co-wrote material for her demo tape. After moving to New York City, Carey worked numerous part-time jobs to pay the rent and completed five hundred hours of beauty school.Handelman, David. "Miss Mariah". Cosmopolitan. December 1997. Eventually, she became a backup singer for Puerto Rican freestyle singer Brenda K. Starr.

In 1988 Carey met Columbia Records executive Tommy Mottola at a party, where Starr gave him Carey's demo tape. Mottola played the tape while leaving the party and was very impressed with what he heard. He returned to find Carey, but she had left. Nevertheless, Mottola tracked her down and signed her to a recording contract. This Cinderella-like story became part of the standard publicity surrounding Carey's entrance into the industry.Gardner, Elysa. "Cinderella Story". VIBE. April 1996.

1990–1992: Early commercial success

Carey co-wrote the tracks on her 1990 debut album Mariah Carey, and she continued to co-write nearly all her material for the rest of her career. She expressed dissatisfaction with the contributions of producers such as Ric Wake and Rhett Lawrence, whom executives at Columbia had enlisted to help make the album commercially viable.Shapiro, pg. 47, 60. With substantial promotion it ascended to number one on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart, where it remained for several weeks. It produced four number-one singles and made Carey a star in the United States, but its success elsewhere was limited. Critics rated the album highly, and Carey won Grammy Awards for "Best New Artist" and "Best Female Pop Vocal Performance" (for her debut single "Vision of Love").

Carey's 1992 MTV Unplugged concert showed her ability to reproduce her vocal style outside a studio setting. Audio sample of "Emotions"�(help·info)

Carey conceived Emotions, her second album, as an homage to Motown soul music (see Motown Sound), and she worked with Walter Afanasieff and the dance group C&C; Music Factory on the record. It was released soon after her debut album in late 1991, but was neither critically nor commercially as successful; Rolling Stone described it as "more of the same, with less interesting material ... pop-psych love songs played with airless, intimidating expertise".Evans, Paul. The Rolling Stone Album Guide (1992). pg. 110–111. UK: Virgin Books. ISBN 0-86369-643-0. The title track "Emotions" made Carey the only recording act to have their first five singles reach number-one on the U.S. Hot 100 chart, though the album's follow-up singles failed to match this feat. Carey had been lobbying to produce her own songs, and beginning with Emotions, she would co-produce most of her material. "I didn't want [Emotions] to be somebody else's vision of me," she said. "There's more of me on this album."Shapiro, pg. 62. She began writing and producing for other artists, such as Penny Ford and Daryl Hall, within the coming year.

Although she had occasionally performed live, stage fright had prevented Carey from embarking on any major tours. Her first widely seen concert appearance was on the television show MTV Unplugged in 1992, and she said she felt that her performance proved her vocal abilities were not, as some had previously speculated, simulated using studio techniques.Shapiro, pg. 69. In addition to acoustic versions of some of her earlier songs, Carey premiered a cover of The Jackson 5's "I'll Be There" with back-up singer Trey Lorenz. Released as a single, the duet reached number one in the U.S. and led to a record deal for Lorenz, whose debut album Carey co-produced. Because of strong ratings for the Unplugged television special, the concert's set list was released on the EP MTV Unplugged, which Entertainment Weekly called "the strongest, most genuinely musical record she has ever made ... Did this live performance help her take her first steps toward growing up?"Sandow, Greg. "MTV Unplugged EP". Entertainment Weekly. June 19 1992.

1993–1996: Worldwide popularity

Carey and Tommy Mottola had become romantically involved during the making of her debut album, and in June 1993 they were married.

Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds consulted on the album Music Box, which was released later that year and became Carey's most successful worldwide. It yielded her first UK number-one, a cover of Badfinger's "Without You", as well as the U.S. number-ones "Dreamlover" and "Hero". Billboard magazine proclaimed it as "heart-piercing ... easily the most elemental of Carey's releases, her vocal eurythmics in natural sync with the songs",White, Timothy. "Mariah Carey's stirring 'Music Box'". Billboard. New York: pg. 5, August 28 1993, Vol. 105, Iss. 35. but TIME magazine lamented Carey's attempt at a mellower work: "[Music Box] seems perfunctory and almost passionless ... Carey could be a pop-soul great; instead she has once again settled for Salieri-like mediocrity".Farley, Christopher John. "Hurray! a B Minus!". Time. September 6 1993. Retrieved March 4 2006. When most critics slated her subsequent U.S. Music Box Tour, Carey said, "As soon as you have a big success, a lot of people don't like that. There's nothing I can do about it. All I can do is make music I believe in."Shapiro, pg. 78.

Carey and Boyz II Men recording "One Sweet Day" (1995), one of both acts' biggest singles. Audio sample�(help·info)

After a successful duet with Luther Vandross on a cover of Lionel Richie and Diana Ross' "Endless Love" in late 1994, Carey released the holiday album Merry Christmas. It contained cover material and original compositions such as "All I Want for Christmas Is You", which became Carey's biggest single in Japan and in subsequent years emerged as one of her most perennially popular songs on North American radio.Cohen, Sandy. December 1 2004. "Carey's 'Christmas' re-enters Canadian airplay top-forty for a tenth consecutive year". Toronto Star. F1."Mariah Carey – Billboard Singles". All Music Guide. Retrieved September 19 2006. Critical reception of Merry Christmas was mixed, with All Music Guide calling it an "otherwise vanilla set ... pretensions to high opera on 'O Holy Night' and a horrid danceclub [sic] take on 'Joy to the World'".Parisien, Roch. "Merry Christmas – Review". All Music Guide. Retrieved March 17 2006. It became the most successful Christmas album of all time.Healey, Mitchell. "Carey On". V. January 20 2006.

In 1995 Columbia released Carey's next album Daydream, which combined the pop sensibilities of Music Box with downbeat R&B; and hip hop influences. A remix of "Fantasy", its first single, featured the late rapper Ol' Dirty Bastard. Carey said that Columbia reacted negatively to her intentions for the album: "Everybody was like 'What, are you crazy?'. They're very nervous about breaking the formula."Shapiro, pg. 92. It became her biggest-selling LP in the U.S. and its singles achieved similar success: "Fantasy" became the second single to debut at number-one in the U.S. and topped the Canadian Singles Chart for twelve weeks, "One Sweet Day" (with Boyz II Men) spent a still-record sixteen weeks at number one in the U.S., and "Always Be My Baby" (co-produced by Jermaine Dupri) led the Hot 100's 1996 year-end airplay chart. Daydream generated career-best reviews for CareyShapiro, pg. 94–96. and publications such as The New York Times named it one of 1995's best albums; the Times wrote that its "best cuts bring pop candy-making to a new peak of textural refinement ... Carey's songwriting has taken a leap forward, becoming more relaxed, sexier and less reliant on thudding clichés".Holden, Stephen. "Mariah Carey Glides Into New Territory". The New York Times. pg. 76, October 13 1995. The short but profitable Daydream World Tour augmented sales of the album, which received six Grammy Award nominations.

1997–2000: Independence and new image

Carey and Mottola separated in 1996. Although the public image of the marriage was a happy one, she said that in reality she had felt trapped by her relationship with Mottola, whom she often described as controlling.Shapiro, pg. 97–98. They officially announced their separation in 1997, and their divorce became final the following year. Carey hired a new attorney and manager soon after the separation, as well as an independent publicist. She became a major songwriter and producer for other artists during this period, contributing to the debut albums of Allure and 7 Mile through her short-lived Crave Records imprint.

"Honey" (1997), Carey's first heavily hip hop-influenced single, presented a more overtly sexual image of her than had been previously seen. Audio sample�(help·info)

Carey's next album Butterfly (1997) yielded the number-one single "Honey", the lyrics and music video for which presented a more overtly sexual image of her than had been previously seen.Shapiro, pg. 101; Handelman. She stated that Butterfly marked the point that she attained full creative control over her music, which continued to move in an R&B;/hip hop direction with material co-written and co-produced by rappers such as Sean "Puffy" Combs and Missy Elliott, but added: "I don't think it's that much of a departure from what I've done in the past ... It's not like I went psycho and thought I was going to be a rapper. Personally, this album is about doing whatever the hell I wanted to do."Shapiro, pg. 101. Reviews were generally positive: LAUNCHcast said Butterfly "pushes the envelope", a move its critic thought "may prove disconcerting to more conservative fans" but praised as "a welcome change".Reynolds, J.R. "Album Review: Butterfly". Yahoo! Music. September 16 1997. Retrieved March 17 2006. The Los Angeles Times wrote: "[Butterfly] is easily the most personal, confessional-sounding record she's ever done ... Carey-bashing just might become a thing of the past."Johnson, Connie. Los Angeles Times. pg. 58, September 14 1997. The album was a commercial success, and "My All" (her thirteenth Hot 100 number-one) gave her the record for the most U.S. number-ones by a female artist. Towards the turn of the millennium, Carey developed the film project Glitter, and she wrote songs for the films Men in Black (1997) and How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (2000).

During the production of Butterfly, Carey became romantically involved with New York Yankees baseball player Derek Jeter. Their relationship ended in 1998, with both parties citing media interference as the main reason for the split.Shapiro, pg. 112. That year saw the release of #1's, a collection of her U.S. number-one singles up to that point. Carey said she recorded new material for the album as a way of rewarding her fans,Shapiro, pg. 116. and included "When You Believe", an Academy Award-winning duet with Whitney Houston from the soundtrack to The Prince of Egypt (1998). #1's sold above expectations, but a review in NME labeled Carey "a purveyor of saccharine bilge like 'Hero', whose message seems wholesome enough: that if you vacate your mind of all intelligent thought, flutter your eyelashes and wish hard, sweet babies and honey will follow"."#1's". NME. Retrieved March 10 2006. Also that year she appeared on the first televised VH1 Divas benefit concert program, though her alleged prima donna behavior had already led many to consider her a diva.Haring, Bruce. "Mariah: I'm Not a Diva". Yahoo! Music. May 14 1998. Retrieved March 17 2006. By the following year, she had entered a relationship with singer Luis Miguel.

Rainbow, Carey's sixth studio album, was released in 1999. It comprised more R&B;/hip hop-oriented songs, many of them co-created with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. "Heartbreaker" and "Thank God I Found You" (the former featuring Jay-Z, the latter featuring Joe and boy-band 98 Degrees) reached number one in the U.S., and the success of the former made Carey the only act to have a number-one single in each year of the 1990s. Media reception was generally enthusiastic, with the Sunday Herald saying the album "sees her impressively tottering between soul ballads and collaborations with R&B; heavyweights like Snoop Doggy Dogg, Usher ... It's a polished collection of pop-soul."Virtue, Graham. "Rainbow, Mariah Carey". Sunday Herald. November 7 1999. VIBE magazine expressed similar sentiments, writing, "She pulls out all stops...Rainbow will garner even more adoration","Mariah Carey, Rainbow". VIBE. pg. 258, December 1999. but despite this it became Carey's lowest-selling LP up to that point, and there was a recurring criticism that the tracks were too alike. When the double A-side "Crybaby"/"Can't Take That Away (Mariah's Theme)" became her first single to peak outside the top twenty, Carey accused Sony of under promoting it: "The political situation in my professional career is not positive ... I'm getting a lot of negative feedback from certain corporate people", she wrote on her official website.Shapiro, pg. 134.

2001–2004: Personal and professional struggles

After receiving Billboard's "Artist of the Decade" Award and the World Music Award for "Best-Selling Female Artist of the Millennium", Carey parted from Columbia and signed a contract with EMI's Virgin Records worth a reported US$80 million. She often stated that Columbia had regarded her as a commodity, with her separation from Mottola exacerbating her relations with label executives. Just a few months later, in July 2001, it was widely reported that Carey had suffered a physical and emotional breakdown. She had left messages on her website complaining of being overworked,Friedman, Roger. "Mariah Melts Down; Madonna Disappoints". FOX News. July 26 2001. Retrieved March 17 2006. and her relationship with Luis Miguel was ending. In an interview the following year, she said, "I was with people who didn't really know me, and I had no personal assistant. I'd be doing interviews all day long, getting two hours of sleep a night, if that."Gardner, Elysa. "Mariah Carey, 'standing again'". USA Today. November 28 2002. Retrieved March 17 2006. During an appearance on MTV's Total Request Live, Carey handed out popsicles to the audience and began what was later described as a "strip tease"."Carey Shocked by MTV Striptease Fuss". The Internet Movie Database. December 3 2002. Retrieved March 17 2006. By the month's end, she had checked into a hospital, and her publicist announced that she would be taking a break from public appearances.Cook, Shanon. "Mariah before breakdown -- 'It all seems like one continuous day'". CNN. August 14 2001. Retrieved March 17 2006.

A scene from Carey's film Glitter (2001).

Critics panned Glitter, Carey's much delayed semi-autobiographical film, and it was a box office failure. The album Glitter, inspired by the music of the 1980s, generated her worst showing on the U.S. chart. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch dismissed it as "an absolute mess that'll go down as an annoying blemish on a career that, while not always critically heralded, was at least nearly consistently successful",Johnson, Kevin C. "Mariah Carey's New "Glitter" Is a Far Cry from Golden". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. pg. F.5, September 16 2001 [FIVE STAR LIFT Edition]. while Blender magazine opined, "After years of trading her signature flourishes for a radio-ready purr, [Carey]'s left with almost no presence at all.""Glitter". Blender. pg. 118, August–September 2001. "Loverboy" reached number two on the Hot 100 thanks to a price cut, but the album's follow-up singles failed to chart.

Columbia released the low-charting album Greatest Hits shortly after the failure of Glitter, and in early 2002 Virgin bought out Carey's contract for $28 million, creating further negative publicity. Carey said her time at Virgin had been "a complete and total stress-fest ... I made a total snap decision which was based on money, and I never make decisions based on money. I learned a big lesson from that.""The fall and rise of Mariah Carey". BBC.co.uk. February 8 2006. Retrieved March 12 2006. Later that year, she signed a $20 million contract with Island Records' Def Jam and launched the record label MonarC. To add further to Carey's emotional burdens, her father, with whom she had had little contact since childhood, died of cancer that year.

Following a well-received supporting role in the film WiseGirls, Carey released the album Charmbracelet, which she said marked "a new lease on life" for her. Sales of Charmbracelet were moderate, and the quality of Carey's vocals came under severe criticism. The Boston Globe declared the album as "the worst of her career, revealing a voice no longer capable of either gravity-defying gymnastics or soft coos",Anderman, Joan. "For Carey, the Glory's Gone but the Glitter Lives On". Boston Globe. pg. D.4, September 10 2003 [THIRD Edition]. and Rolling Stone commented: "Carey needs bold songs that help her use the power and range for which she is famous. Charmbracelet is like a stream of watercolors that bleed into a puddle of brown."Walters, Barry. "Charmbracelet". Rolling Stone. New York: pg. 93, December 12 2002, iss. 911. Singles such as "Through the Rain" failed on the charts and with pop radio, whose playlists had become less open to maturing "diva" stylists such as Carey, Whitney Houston and Celine Dion.

"I Know What You Want", a 2003 Busta Rhymes single on which Carey guest-starred, fared considerably better and reached the top five in the U.S. Columbia later included it on the remix collection The Remixes, Carey's lowest-selling album. That year, she embarked on the Charmbracelet World Tour and was awarded the World Music Chopard Diamond Award for selling over 100 million albums worldwide."Diamond Award". World Music Awards. Retrieved April 7 2006. She was featured on rapper Jadakiss' 2004 single "U Make Me Wanna", which reached the top ten on Billboard's R&B;/Hip-Hop chart.

2005–present: Return to prominence

Carey's ninth studio album The Emancipation of Mimi was released in 2005 and contained contributions from producers such as The Neptunes, Kanye West and Carey's longtime collaborator Jermaine Dupri. Carey said it was "very much like a party record ... the process of putting on makeup and getting ready to go out ... I wanted to make a record that was reflective of that."Ferber, Lawrence. "Mariah Carey: Free at last". HX. April 4 2005. Mimi became the year's best-selling album in the U.S., won three Grammy Awards (including "Best Contemporary R&B; Album") and received some of Carey's most favorable reviews in some time; The Guardian defined it as "cool, focused and urban ... [some of] the first Mariah Carey tunes in years I wouldn't have to be paid to listen to again".Sullivan, Caroline. "Mariah Carey, The Emancipation of Mimi". The Guardian. April 1 2005. Retrieved March 17 2006. The second single "We Belong Together" held the Hot 100's number-one position for fourteen weeks (her longest run at the top as a solo artist) and was the biggest hit of 2005 in the U.S., while "Shake It Off" made Carey the only female artist to occupy the Hot 100's top two positions simultaneously.Jeckell, Barry A. "Mariah Matches Hot 100 Milestone". Billboard. September 1 2005. Retrieved June 9 2006. "Don't Forget About Us" became her seventeenth number-one in the U.S., tying her with Elvis Presley for the most number-ones by a solo act according to Billboard magazine's revised methodology (their statistician Joel Whitburn still credits Presley with an eighteenthBronson, Fred. "Chart Beat Chat". Billboard. December 22 2005. Retrieved March 17 2006.). By this count Carey is behind only The Beatles, who have twenty number-ones.

Carey began a concert tour, The Adventures of Mimi, in mid-2006. According to a backstage interview with Entertainment Tonight, she has already begun work on her next studio album, which is expected for release sometime during spring 2007."One on One with Mariah!". Entertainment Tonight. August 31 2006. According to a November 2006 Reuters report, Universal Music Group CEO Doug Morris has stated that Carey will release two albums in the next year."Universal Music CEO sees best ever sales, profit in '07". Reuters. November 28 2006. Also in 2007, she will receive a "recording star" on the Hollywood Walk of Fame"Hollywood Walk of Fame names 2007 honorees". Associated Press. June 23 2006. Retrieved August 1 2006. and be inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame.

Acting career

Carey began to take professional acting lessons in 1997, and within the coming year, she was auditioning for film roles. She made her debut as an opera singer in the romantic comedy The Bachelor (1999) starring Chris O'Donnell and Renée Zellweger, and >CNN derisively referred to her casting as a talentless diva as " letter-perfect ... the "can't act" part informs carey's entire performance".Tatara, Paul. "Review: 'The Bachelor' -- cold feet, bad film". CNN.com. November 9 1999. Retrieved March 17 2006.

Carey's first starring role was in Glitter (2001), in which she played a struggling musician in the 1980s who breaks into the music industry after meeting a disc jockey (Max Beesley). While Roger Ebert said "[Carey]'s acting ranges from dutiful flirtatiousness to intense sincerity",Ebert, Roger. "'Glitter' glosses over important moments". Chicago Sun-Times. September 23 2001. Retrieved from the Wayback Machine on March 17 2006. most critics panned it: Halliwell's Film Guide called it a "vapid star vehicle for a pop singer with no visible acting ability",Walker, John. Halliwell's Film Guide 2004: 19th Edition (2003). pg. 338. UK: HarperCollins Publishers Inc. ISBN 0-06-055408-8. and The Village Voice observed: "When [Carey] tries for an emotion—any emotion—she looks as if she's lost her car keys."Atkinson, Michael. "Eat Drink Man Mariah". The Village Voice. September 26–October 2 2001. Retrieved March 17 2006. Glitter was a box office failure, and