Mariah Carey

Mariah Carey is an American singer, record producer, actress and philanthropist. Her nicknames are Songbird, MC, Mirage, Mimi, and The Voice.

She is 5’9’ (1.75m) tall.

Mariah Carey made her singing debut at age 20 in 1990.

Also See:Mariah Carey Suffers Major Fashion Fail With Oscars Red Carpet Nip Slip

She married Tommy Mottola on 5th June 1993 and they divorced on 5th March 1998. She remarried on 30th April 2008 to Nick Cannon and they have two children.

Monroe and Moroccan are twins from Mariah’s marriage to Nick Canno, they were born on 30th April 2011. Her daughter was named after actress Marilyn Monroe and her son was named after the Moroccan-style room in her home where husband Nick Cannon proposed.

Carey’s name was derived from the song, “They call the wind Mariah”, originally from the 1951 Broadway “Paint Your Wagon”

She was born on March 27, 1970 to Patricia Hickey and Alfred Roy Carey on Long Island, in Huntington, New York.

Also See: Mariah Carey's Estranged Husband Refuses to Sign Divorce Papers

Her father, Alfred Roy was of African American and Venezuelan descent, while her mother, Patricia (nee Hickey), is of White Irish descent. The last name Carey was the product of a name-change by her Venezuelan grandfather, Francisco Nunez, after emigrating to New York.

Her mother, Patricia developed a career as an occasional opera singer and vocal coach and met Alfred in 1960.

Alfred was an aeronautical engineer. He eloped with Patricia and they moved to a small suburb in New York.

When Patricia’s family discovered, they disowned her for marrying a colored man. Carey later explained that growing up; she felt a notion of neglect from her maternal family, a mark that affected her greatly.

During the interval of years in-between Carey’s older sister Alison and the Singer’s birth, the Carey family experienced personal struggles within the community due to their ethnicity.

When Carey was three years old, her parents divorced due to the increasingly strenuous nature of their marriage.

Also See: PHOTOS: Mariah Carey in Lagos

After their separation, Alison moved in with her father, while Carey and her other sibling stayed with her mother.

At age four she recalled sneaking the radio under covers at night, and sing from her heart, trying to find peace within the music.

In Elementary School, she excelled in subjects she enjoyed, such as literature, art and music, while not finding interest in other subjects.

She started song-writing while attending Haborfields High School in Greenlawn, New York.

Also See: Mariah Carey in Another Relationship with Back-up Dancer, Two Months After Split With James Packer

In High School she developed a relationship with Gavin Christopher, with whom she shared musical aspirations.

They composed their first song together titled “Here We Go Round Again”.

Carey and Christopher began writing and composing songs in the basement of his father’s store during Carey’s senior year.

She moved to New York City when she was 17 to fulfill her ambition of becoming a star.

She began living in a one bedroom studio in Manhattan, which she shared with four other female students. During this time Carey worked as a waitress for various restaurants, usually getting fired after two weeks.

While working to pay her rent, Carey’s mind and effort still remained with her musical ambitions as she continued working late into night with Maguiles, in hopes of completing a demo that could be passed on to record executives. After completing her four song-demo tape, Carey attempted to pass it to music labels, but was met with failure each time. Shortly thereafter, she was introduced to rising pop singer Brenda K. Starr.

Also See:US Blasts Mariah Carey For Performing In Nigeria: Says The Country is "Terror Zone".

As Carey’s friendship with Starr grew, so did her interest in helping Carey succeed in the industry.

On a Friday night in December 1988, Carey accompanied Starr to a record executives’ gala, where she handed her demo tape to Tommy Mottola, head of Columbia Records, who listened to it on his way back home. After the first two songs, he became so enamored at the sound and quality of Carey’s voice that he turned around and returned to the event, only to find that Carey had left.

After searching for her for two weeks, and eventually contacting her through Starr’s management, he immediately signed her and began mapping out her debut into mainstream music.

After completing her debut album titled Mariah Carey, Columbia spent an upward $1million to promote it. Though opening with weak sales, the album eventually reached the top of theBillboard 200, after Carey’s exposure at the 33rd annual Grammy Awards. Mariah Carey stayed atop the charts for eleven consecutive weeks, and she won the “Best New Artist” and “Best Female Pop Vocal Performance Awards” for her single “Vision of Love”.

Also See:Pictures: Mariah Carey Leaving Lagos In A Private Jet

Carey became the first artist since The Jackson 5 to have their first four singles reach number one. Mariah Carey finished as the bestselling album in the U.S in 1991, while totaling sales over 15 million copies.

Carey left Columbia in 2000, and signed at $100 million recording contract with Virgin Records. Before the release of her first feature film-Gilter in 2001, she suffered a physical and emotional breakdown and was hospitalized for severe exhaustion. Following the film’s poor reception, she was bought out of her recording contract for $50 million which led to a decline in her career. She signed a multi-million dollar contract deal with Island Records in 2002, and after an unsuccessful period, returned to the top of music charts with “The Emancipation of Mimi”, 2005.

The Emancipation of Mimi’s second single, “We Belong Together” became her most successful single of the 2000s and was later named “Song of the decade” by Billboard.

Carey once again ventured into film with a well-received starring role in precious, 2009, she was awarded the “Breakthrough performance award” at the palm springs international film festival and Black Reel and NAACP Image Award nominations.

In a career spanning over two decades, Carey has sold more than 200 million records worldwide, making her one of the best-selling music artists of all time.

In 1998 she was honored as the world’s best-selling recording artist of the 1990s at the World Music Awards.

Carey was also named the best-selling female artist of the millennium in 2000. According to the recording industry association of America, she is the third best-selling female artist in the United States, with 63.5 million certified albums in 2012, Carey ranked second on VH1’s list of the 100 Greatest Women in Music.

Awards and Honors

Aside from her commercial accomplishments, Carey has won 5 Grammy Awards, 17 World Music Awards, 11 American Music Awards, and 31 Billboard Music Awards.

Referred to as the “Songbird Supreme: by Guinness World Records, she is known for her five-octave vocal range, power, melismatic style and signature use of whistle register.

Honored by the Congressional Award in Washington, D.C. with the 1999 Horizon Award. The Horizon Award is a special recognition from the Joint Leadership of the United States Congress and the Congressional Award Board of Directors. The Horizon Award is presented to individuals from the private sectors who have contributed to expanding opportunities for all Americans through their own personal contributions, and who have set exceptional examples for young people through their successes in life.

The only female artist (and second artist or group ever) to have 18 #1 songs on the US Billboard Hot 100 charts.

Named one of People Magazine's '25 Most Intriguing People of 2001'.

Named #28 in FHM magazine's "100 Sexiest Women in the World 2006" supplement. (2006).

Gave acclaimed performances at State Kremlin Palace, Moscow and in St. Petersburg, Russia in 2003.

March 2003: The Guinness Book of World Records awarded her the record for the highest note hit by a human, after she hit the G7# note during a live performance of "The Star-Spangled Banner". She also held the record for possessing the largest vocal range A2-G7#.

Is the most successful female singer-songwriter of all time, with 17 #1 hits and more than 160 million records sold worldwide.

Voted in at #36 in FHM's Sexiest Girls of 2002 poll, American edition.

Influences

Mariah Carey’s musical career was influenced by Janet Jackson, Mordina Minnie Riperton, Denice Williams, similar to Jennifer Lopez and followed by Beyoncé.

Controversies

Worked a variety of odd jobs to support herself, including hat/coat-checker, hostess, hair sweeper in hair salons, and waitress. She stated that she got fired from all her jobs because of her attitude and was concentrating of becoming a backing singer and mixing demos.

Her paternal grandfather was an Afro-Cuban immigrant and her paternal grandmother was African-American. Her mother, who is Caucasian, is of Irish descent.

According to her spokesperson, Mariah suffered a physical and emotional breakdown, and spent the next couple weeks recovering in a Connecticut mental hospital. [25 July 2001]

2001: Had a breakdown with the press, grabbed an interviewer's tape recorder and spoke directly to her fans: "I want them to know that this is a freaking, complete clown-fest".

1998: Toured Australia and said the highlight of her trip was swimming with dolphins.

Her official website features "Mariahisms", her favorite sayings, including "Lamb", "Bing bong" and "Okie dokie smokey".

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 $80 million.

Albums

Emotions (1991)
Music Box (1993)
Merry Christmas (1994)
Daydream (1995)
Butterfly (1997)

Daydream made music history when its second single “One Sweet Day”, a duet with Boyz II Men, spent a record sixteen weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100, and remains the longest-running number-one song in United States Chart history.

Personal Quotes

[Madison Square Garden, 1995] This is for all of you out there tonight, reaching for a dream - don't ever give up! Never ever listen to anyone, when they try to discourage you, because they do that, believe me!

There is a light at the end of the tunnel . . . hopefully it's not a freight train!

Music is what I love and it's what I feel and it's in me and to know that I can do something that I enjoy and hopefully bring some enjoyment to other people through what I do is an incredible feeling and I am just really thankful for it

[interview in Hip Hop Magazine] A lot of the time they [the media] form the idea in listeners' minds. Calling me a "pop diva" without listening to my work so when I come out with an urban song it's like, "Pop diva goes black". I mean, puh-lease.

Butterflies are always following me, everywhere I go.

I'm not one of those people that goes into details of my personal life on national TV to get attention. Some things are better left unsaid

A lot of people are singing about how screwed up the world is, and I don't think that everybody wants to hear about that all the time.

I'm not vain, I'm insecure.

I decided to make my own ski-wear range after I found there were no fashion outfits for me to wear on the piste.

It's hard to be someone that people talk about and write about, you know? They don't know me.

People all of a sudden just see me and hear me having hit records and it seems to have come out of the blue. But really I have been working towards this my whole life, and this is what I say when people say I haven't paid my dues.

What I write is all from my imagination. Fact is, I haven't had time to experience all that, but that doesn't mean to say that I don't write from the heart, because I do. I put myself in other women's shoes, I can feel their pain and joy when I think about it. It's all the same, we're all women.

There's never been anything else in my life that inspired me at all. It's crazy, but I've always loved music and I've always known this was what I wanted to do. I can't remember a time when I didn't want to be a singer.

Someone said I never paid any dues. I feel my whole life was struggling, because we were poor. We were alone, we had nothing--no security. I feel I have paid my dues. I've been paying my dues all my life.

[on her parents' divorce] They went through some very hard times before I was born. They had their dogs poisoned, their cars set on fire and blown up. It put a strain on their relationship that never quit. There was always this tension. They just fought all the time.

I've always said that my father is half black and half Venezuelan and my mother is Irish. But people don't understand. They can't fathom that I'm African-American, Venezuelan and Irish.

And maybe there are some people out there who think a quarter Venezuelan is not a lot . . . Well, I may be only one quarter, but it's a strong quarter.

There was a time when all I was allowed to do was go to gay clubs, because my quote-unquote husband was so afraid of me being around straight people.

[on her height] I don't know why, but everybody thinks that I'm short. When they see me for the first time, women are always surprised to be obliged to raise their head.

I rarely go to bed before 5 or 6 am. I am a girl of the night. I hate getting up before 2 pm. And when I get up, I don't have breakfast, just a slice of pizza. I'm composing my songs in bed, because I'm getting inspired when I'm about to sink into sleep. The night inspires me.

I'd humbly like to become an inspiration to the biracial kids, who are the population of the new millennium. I'm everything and nothing at the same time: white, black and Latino. If I've managed to be accepted, the others can do it, too.

I can remember when I told myself for the first time, "I'm going to be rich and famous". I was about 5 or 6. I was in my mother's car, an old green dirty car. My sister was there, too. She was humming; she was about 15, she had just gotten married because she was pregnant. We were on a supermarket parking lot, and I was looking at the wealthy people through the window; I told myself, "I am going to be a star and I'll buy all these things for us".

I was the world's worst waitress.

[on not wanting to have kids] I would feel violated . . . I know that's a kind of weird thing to say, but that's how I am . . . It's hard to have kids in this world. I don't think I could properly educate a child right now. Maybe in the future, but I actually haven't thought about it. For now I enjoy my dog Jack's company. It's definitely because of childhood traumatic stuff. The whole not wanting to have a baby as a baby.

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Category: Celebrity/Entertainers

Mariah Carey

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