Mariah Carey

Mariah Carey is one of the most popular pop singers of America. She is also an established R&B singer-songwriter and record producer, apart from being an actress. Though she started singing and writing songs at a very tender age, she released her debut album, Mariah Carey, in the year 1990, under the guidance of Tommy Mottola, Columbia Records executive. The popularity of Mariah and her songs started increasing day and day and she became the first recording artist to have her first five singles top the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart. Though, after her divorce, she suffered a setback in her career, she has come back with a bang.

 

Carey was born on 27^th March 1970, in Huntington, Long Island (New York). She was the third and the youngest child of Alfred Roy Carey, an aeronautical engineer of Afro-Venezuelan descent, and Patricia Hickey, a former opera singer and vocal coach of Irish descent. Her parents got divorced in 1973, when she was only three years old, and she spent most of her time with her mother. Around the same time, Mariah started singing under the guidance of her mother. She went to Harborfields High School in Greenlawn, New York.

 

During her graduation, Mariah worked as a demo singer for local recording studios and got the opportunity to work with musicians like Gavin Christopher and Ben Margulies. Around late 1980s, Mariah Carey moved to New York and started working, first part time and then, as a backup singer for Puerto Rican freestyle singer Brenda K. Starr. In 1988, Carey got the opportunity to meet Tommy Mottola, Columbia Records executive, at a party. Impressed with her demo tape, he signed a recording contract with her.

 

Mariah Carey released her debut album, Mariah Carey, in the year 1990 and it became so popular that it reached number one on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart. Carey also won Grammy for ‘Best New Artist’ and ‘Best Female Pop Vocal Performance’ for her debut single, "Vision of Love". She released her second album Emotions in the following year, but it did not generate much heat. However, with this album, Carey started co-producing most of her material. It was in the year 1992 that her first widely seen appearance was featured on the television show, MTV Unplugged.

 

In 1993, Mariah Carey married Tommy Mottola and also released her third full-length album, Music Box. In the following years, she released a holiday album, Merry Christmas and another album, Daydream. With the latter, she became the female performer to have a single debut at #1. Carey and Mottola officially announced their separation in 1997 and the following year, they got divorced. During this time, she released Butterfly and #1s (compilation of her 13 singles), both of which were huge hits.

 

In 1999, Mariah released Rainbow, which did not create much ripples. This period was very traumatic for her and she was said to be suffering from severe depression. Even her movie Glitter, released in 2001, was almost a failure. She signed a contract with Virgin around this time, but they broke it in 2002 and paid her US$28 million. The same year, she launched her ninth album, Charmbracelet and set up her own label - MonarC Music. It was with the release of ‘The Emancipation of Mimi’, Mariah’s tenth album, that things started turning in her favor.

 

Released in 2005, the album was touted as the ‘Comeback of Mariah Carey’. It became 2005's best-selling album in the US. It also got her a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary R&B Album and the single "We Belong Together" won Best Female R&B Vocal Performance and Best R&B Song. Mariah Carey started her concert tour in mid-2006. In March 2007, she appeared on edition of Playboy magazine, on a non-nude photo session. Presently, Carey is working on her eleventh studio album, E=MC², due to be released in April, 2008.

 

Mariah Carey Timeline