Mariah+Carey

Mariah Carey, born on March 27, 1970 in Huntington New York, is one of the best-selling female recording artists worldwide. She has been the most successful artist of the 1990's and is now a prominent singer, songwriter, record producer, and music video director. Carey has one of the best-rated voices among singers of her genre. She is a Dramatic Coloratura Soprano and is perhaps most famous for her five-octave vocal range and talent for hitting high notes in the whistle register. BACKGROUND Mariah Carey is the daughter of Irish-American opera singer and voice coach Patricia Hickey and Venezuelan-African aeronautical engineer Alfred Roy Carey. Marah is the youngest of three children. Because the family was multiracial, the Careys often faced discrimination, violence, and hostility. Due to the struggle and stress, they moved frequently and Carey's parents eventually divorced. Living with her mother, Carey grew up very quickly and was often alone, as her mother worked two to three jobs at a time and her brother was rarely home. Carey felt that music uplifted her from the trauma and loneliness she had experienced during her childhood.

Carey began singing at age three, as she often watched her mother's opera rehearsals. She had her first performance at the age of six, and began writing songs in grade school. Mariah had never been in her school choir. After high school, Carey moved to New York City and attended beauty school. Her first major gig arose in New York, as she became a backup singer for [|Brenda K. Starr], a Puerto Rican singer. Carey entered the record industry after meeting [|Columbia Records]Executive [|Tommy Mottola]at a party. After listening to her demo tape, he had been impressed and tracked her down to sign her to a recording contract. The two later became romantically involved, getting married in 1993.

CAREER At the age of twenty, Mariah Carey became a virtual overnight pop success with the release of her first album in 1990, which produced four number-one singles, including "Vision of Love," for which she won a [|Grammy Award] in 1991 for vocal performance. She also won a Grammy for Best New Artist. Also in 1991, Carey produced another number-one hit,"Emotions", with the release of her second album, also titled [|Emotions.] With this achievement, Carey became the only singer whose first five singles have gone to number one on the Hot 100 chart. Carey's performance of "Emotions" on [|MTV's Unplugged] in 1992 publically showcased the amazing range of her whistle register.

Carey's success continued as she released her third album, [|Music Box], in 1993, which sold the largest worldwide. From this album originate two of Carey's signature and most famous songs, "Hero" and "Without You." In addition, Carey continued to generate hit after hit nationally and internationally. She became one of the most-played musicians on the radio in 1993 and 1994. In 1995, Carey began experiementing with mixes of different genres of music, which was evident in her extremely successful album, [|Daydream], which yielded wildly popular singles like "Fantasy," debuting at number one, "Always Be My Baby," and "One Sweet Day," which spent a record-breaking sixteen weeks at number one.

Mariah Carey began to emerge into the R&B charts with the release of her 1997 album (and second consecutive number-one debut). Carey had recently divorced her husband, Mottola, during the same year, and her new album, [|Butterfly], manifested her unhappiness and sense of being controlled in her married life. Her single "My All" became her thirteenth number-one hit, a rare accomplishment among female recording artists. In 1998, Carey released a collection of all of her U.S. number-one singles, titled #1's, and in 1999, she released [|Rainbow], which yielded her fifteenth number-one single, "Thank God I Found You," although it was comparatively her least successful album. This album signalled a downturn in her successful career. In 2001 it was reported that Carey suffered from emotional and physical exhaustion. The failure of her semi-autobiographical film "Glitter" and weak showing of the movie's ensuing album were in part the results of her emotional state.

After a few years of comparatively mediocre successes, the offical "Return of the Voice" occurred in 2005 with Carey's release of [|The Emancipation of Mimi], considered her comeback album, which debuted at number-one and became a triple-platinum success. "We Belong Together," Carey's sixteenth number-one single, became the biggest single of her career. It has been a major national and international hit, reaching number one in Australia and number two in the U.K. The song has become the most-played single in the history of American radio. Carey has clearly held her ground through the turn of the century and the arrival of a new decade; her latest album, E=MC2, has added another number-one hit to her list.

Mariah Carey is one of the most successful and popular female recording artists in America. She has one of the most outstanding voices among American recording artists. During her 1991 performance of "Emotions," Carey hit one of the highest notes produced by the human voice in the history of recorded music (several times). Carey has written and co-written the majority of her number-one hits, more than any other woman. She also holds the record for the artist with the most consecutive years with a number-one single on the Billboard charts. She has spent the most weeks at number-one than any other living artist, making her second only to [|Elvis Presley]. Among several awards and recognitions throughout her career, she is a recipient of Billboard's Artist of the Decade award (1990's), the Diamond Award, and the Legend Award.

WORKS CITED Frere-Jones, Sasha. "On Top". The New Yorker. 3 Apr 2006 

Akeny, Jason. "Mariah Carey". Answers.com. All Music Guide. 2008 http://www.answers.com/topic/mariah-carey