Mariah Carey

Mariah Carey

Mariah Carey was born March 27, 1970 in Huntington, Long Island, New York. She is the third and youngest child of Patricia (nee Hickey), a former opera singer and vocal coach, and Alfred Roy Carey, an aeronautical engineer.  Her mother is Irish American and her father is of Afro-Venezuelan and African American descent; her paternal grandfather, Roberto Nuñez, changed his surname to Carey to better assimilate upon moving to the United States from Venezuela.    Carey has two siblings, Morgan and Alison Carey. Carey was named after the song "They Call the Wind Mariah.  Carey's parents divorced when she was three years old. Mariah Carey an American pop singer-songwriter, record producer and actress. She made her recording debut, in 1990, under the guidance of Columbia Records executive Tommy Mottola, and became the first recording artist to have her 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 Records' highest-selling act.

Mariah Carey

Carey graduated from Harborfields High School in 1987. She was frequently absent, because of her work as a demo singer for local recording studios; her classmates consequently gave her the nickname "Mirage".  Her work in the Long Island music scene provided opportunities to work with musicians, such as Gavin Christopher and Ben Margulies, with whom she co-wrote material for her demo tape. Carey co-wrote the tracks on her 1990 debut album Mariah Carey and she has co-written most of her material since. During the recording, she expressed dissatisfaction with the contributions of producers such as Ric Wake and Rhett Lawrence, whom the executives at Columbia had enlisted to help to make the album more commercially viable.  Critics were generally enthusiastic (See Critical reception section of the album article). Backed by a substantial promotional budget, the album reached number one on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart, where it remained for several weeks. It yielded four number-one singles and made Carey a star in the United States but it was less successful in other countries.

Mariah Carey

Carey and Tommy Mottola became romantically involved during the making of her debut album and were married in June, 1993. Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds consulted on the album Music Box, which was released later that year and became Carey's most successful worldwide. The album maintained a presence on the Billboard 200 for 128 weeks.  It yielded her first UK Singles Chart number-one,  a cover of Badfinger's "Without You", and the U.S. number-ones "Dream lover" and "Hero". Billboard magazine proclaimed it "heart-piercing easily the most elemental of Carey's releases, her vocal eurythmics in natural sync with the songs", but TIME magazine's Christopher John Farley 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. The music industry took note of Carey's success-she won two awards at the American Music Awards for her solo efforts: Favorite Pop and Rock Female Artist and Favorite Soul/R&B Female Artist. Daydream and its tracks were respectively nominated for six categories in the 38th Grammy Awards. Carey, along with Boyz II Men, opened the event with a performance of "One Sweet Day," which was mightily applauded.  In contrast, throughout the night, she was not called to the stage to receive even one Grammy. The cameras started to focus on Carey, revealing the fact that it was becoming harder for her to retain a smile. Her disappointment was becoming obvious. Although many critics proclaimed Daydream as the best album of 1995, she ended that night with no awards. Carey eventually was able to deal with this incident. "What can you do?" The singer asked.

Mariah Carey

Mariah Carey

   

After she received 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 that complained of being overworked,  and her relationship with the Latin icon Luis Miguel ended.  In an interview the following year, she said, Carey's tenth studio album, The Emancipation of Mimi (2005), 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." The Emancipation of Mimi became 2005's best-selling album in the U.S. The Guardian reviewer defined it as "cool, focused and urban some of the first Mariah Carey tunes in years which I wouldn't have to be paid to listen to again".but New York Daily News states,

Mariah Carey

Mariah Carey

Mariah Carey

Mariah Carey possesses a five-octave vocal range, and was ranked first in a 2003 MTV and Blender magazine countdown of the 22 Greatest Voices in Music, as voted by fans and readers in an online poll. Carey said of the poll, "What it really means is voice of the MTV generation. Of course, it's an enormous compliment, but I don't feel that way about myself." She also placed second in Cove magazine's list of "The 100 Outstanding Pop Vocalists".  Regarding her voice, Carey states, Slant magazine named the video for "The Roof Back in Time, which Carey co-directed with Diane Martel, one of the twenty greatest music videos of all time.  In 2008, Carey made Time's annual list of 100 most Influential people. In January 2010, Carey announced via Twitter that she is launching a new rose champagne brand called Angel Champagne.  On November 29, 2010, Mariah debuted a collection on HSN, the collection range included jewelry, shoes and fragrances. She returned on Friday, February 11 with a new range of products.