Mariah Carey is a singer, songwriter, actress, and record producer from the United States. She is known as the “Songbird Supreme” and the “Queen of Christmas” for her five-octave vocal range, melismatic singing style, and signature use of the whistle register. Carey shot to fame in 1990 with her self-titled debut album. From “Vision of Love” to “Emotions” she was the first artist to have her first five singles reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100.
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Early Life
Mariah Carey was born in Huntington, New York on March 27, 1970. She is of African, Afro-Venezuelan, and Irish ancestry. When her father’s father moved to New York, he changed his surname from Nunez to Carey. Her mother used to be an opera singer and vocal coach. Mariah’s parents divorced when she was three years old.
Siblings
Mariah Carey has two siblings. Morgan and Alison Carey.
Morgan Carey (born August 6, 1960). Morgan is a Model, Entrepreneur, and Record Producer. He is the owner of Victorious Green. Morgan Carey is 63 years old.
Alison (born August 7, 1962) is a complete opposite of her sister. Alison Carey has had a difficult life, which is the polar opposite of her younger sister’s success. Following their parents’ divorce, Alison, then 11, was sent to live with her father, while Mariah remained with her mother. Alison Carey is 61 years old.
Music Career
Mariah began writing poems and early songs while attending Harborfields High School in Greenlawn, New York. She has always been interested in the arts, particularly music. In 1987, she graduated from high school. Mariah met Gavin Christopher and Ben Margulies at Harborfields and soon began writing full songs with lyrics and music with them. Mariah, Gavin, and Ben continued to collaborate after graduation, while living in New York City, to create a full-length demo.
Brenda K. Starr, a pop singer, eventually heard the demo. Brenda continued to distribute the demo throughout town while accompanying Mariah to various industry award ceremonies. The demo tape was given to Tommy Mottola, the head of Columbia Records, at one of these galas. On the way home, he listened to the tape in the car. He was convinced Mariah Carey would become a star after hearing the first two songs.
It took Tommy two weeks to find her, but once he did, he immediately signed Mariah to a record deal and assembled a team to plan her commercial debut. Mariah would be Columbia’s answer to Arista Records’ Whitney Houston, in Tommy’s opinion.
Superstar
Mariah’s self-titled debut album was launched on June 12, 1990. Columbia spent approximately $1 million promoting the album. Sales were slow initially, but the album would eventually be certified 9X platinum in the United States alone, selling more than 15 million copies worldwide. The album debuted at number one on the Billboard charts and earned her a Grammy for Best New Artist and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.
Mariah’s next album, 1991’s “Emotions” was also a huge success, but it was her third album, 1993’s “Music Box” that catapulted her career to new heights. Music Box remained on the Billboard chart for 128 weeks and eventually sold an astounding 28 million copies worldwide. It is one of the most successful albums of all time.
Her success was far from fleeting. Her subsequent album, “Merry Christmas” was also a smash, selling over 15 million copies worldwide. Her next three albums sold a total of 20 million, 10 million, and 8 million copies worldwide.
Mariah Carey”All I Want for Christmas” Royalties
Mariah’s Christmas album is probably best known for featuring the song “All I Want for Christmas Is You” which went on to become one of the best-selling and most profitable singles of all time, selling over 16 million copies worldwide. The song has been featured in dozens of Christmas movies and is a huge hit on streaming services such as Spotify and Pandora during the holidays. The song, which reportedly took only 15 minutes to write, earns Mariah and producer Walter Afanasieff an estimated $600,000 in royalties per year. To date, the song has generated more than $60 million in gross royalties.
Virgins
Mariah left Columbia Records in April 2001 and signed a record-breaking $100 million five-album contract with Virgin Music. After adjusting for inflation, that equates to $150 million. It was the largest contract in music history at the time.
“Glitter” Mariah’s first album with Virgin, was released on August 18, 2001. The album lly a soundtrack to the same-named film, which was a semi-autobiographical portrayal of a fictionalised version of Mariah. Both the album and the film were panned by critics and audiences when they were released on September 21, 2001, ten days after the 9/11 terror attacks. The film is infamous for being one of the biggest box-office blunders of all time.
Mariah had to be hospitalised for extreme exhaustion even before the film’s release. She allegedly had a physical and emotional breakdown.
The album eventually sold 3 million copies. That would be acceptable for any other artist. Unfortunately for Mariah and Virgin’s newly-minted $100 million contract, it was a disaster.
Virgin was so desperate to get rid of Mariah that they paid her $28 million to terminate the contract early. After everything, Mariah was paid nearly $50 million to produce a single album for Virgin.
Island Records
Mariah moved on and signed a $24 million, five-album deal with Island Records after being dropped by Virgin. Her Island albums did moderately well, with her biggest hit, “The Emancipation of Mimi” selling 10 million copies worldwide in 2005.
Mariah released one album with Def Jam before signing with Epic Records in 2015, where she is still signed today.
She was paid $18 million to appear on one season of American Idol in 2012.
She signed a $30 million contract with Caesars Palace in 2015 to do a two-year residency. With $27 million in total earnings, she became one of the highest-earning women in music for the year.
Personal Life
Mariah married Tommy Motalla in 1993. In 1998, they divorced. From 2008 to 2016, she was married to actor Nick Cannon. Nick Cannon and Mariah Carey had two kids together, twin boys born in April 2011. She was engaged to Australian billionaire James Packer for a short time in 2016 and dated singer Luis Miguel from 1998 to 2001.
Quick Facts
- Is the second-best-selling female artist of all time, with more number-one hits than any other female artist.
- Has sold 200 million albums worldwide
- Virgin Records paid her $50 million to produce one album.
- Earned $18 million for one season of American Idol; earns $600,000 per year in “All I want for Christmas” royalties
Net Worth
Mariah Carey is a singer, songwriter, record producer, entrepreneur, and actress from the United States. Mariah Carey has a $320 million net worth. Mariah Carey is one of the top 15 best-selling music artists of all time, with over 200 million albums sold worldwide. She is the second most successful female artist, trailing only Madonna. She has more #1 songs on the US charts than any other female writer/producer. She has five Grammys, ten American Music Awards, and fifteen Billboard Music Awards.
Career Achievement
Carey has received numerous awards and honours throughout her career. Mariah Carey has five Grammys, nineteen World Music Awards, ten American Music Awards, and fifteen Billboard Music Awards to her credit. She is also a Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee. Carey is the best-selling female album artist in the United States as of March 2022, according to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), with 69.5 million unit shipments. Music Box and Daydream are the singer’s two diamond-certified albums. As of 2002, Music Box had sold 23 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling albums of all time. Carey received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in August 2015.
Carey has established and broken several Hot 100 records. [400] She has held the number one spot on the Billboard Hot 100 for the most weeks of any artist in US chart history. She has 19 number-one singles on that same chart, the most for any solo artist (second only to the Beatles), and she is also the only artist to have a number-one song in each year of a decade (1990s decade). Carey became the first artist in four decades to top the Billboard Hot 100 in 2020. (the 1990s, 2000s, 2010s and 2020s). Carey’s songs “Fantasy” “One Sweet Day” and “Honey” have all debuted at the top of the Hot 100 chart. Carey was also the first female artist to have a number one single in the United States with “Fantasy”
Age
Mariah Carey is 55 years old. She was born March 27, 1969.