Mariah Carey

Mariah Carey
Carey in 2023
Born	(1969-03-27) March 27, 1969 (age 55)[a] Huntington, New York, US
Occupations	Singer-songwriter record producer actress
Years active	1988–present
Works	Albums singles songs recorded videography performances
Spouses	Tommy Mottola ​ ​ (m. 1993; div. 1998)​ Nick Cannon ​ ​ (m. 2008; div. 2016)​
Children	2
Awards	Full list
Musical career
Genres	R&B pop hip hop soul
Instruments	Vocals
Labels	Columbia Crave Virgin MonarC Island Def Jam Epic
Musical artist
Website	mariahcarey.com
Signature

Mariah Carey (/məˈraɪə/;^[1]: 0:01 born March 27, 1969)^[a] is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress. An influential figure in music, she is known for her five-octave vocal range, melismatic singing style, and signature use of the whistle register. Carey is credited with influencing vocal styles, merging hip-hop with pop through her collaborations, popularizing remixes, and helping break down racial barriers for multiracial Americans in popular culture. Referred to as the "Songbird Supreme" by Guinness World Records, she was ranked as the fifth greatest singer of all time by Rolling Stone in 2023.

Carey rose to fame in 1990 with her self-titled debut album and became the only artist to date to have their first five singles reach number one on the US Billboard Hot 100. She established herself as a balladeer with the all-time bestsellers Music Box (1993) and Daydream (1995), before adapting a new urban image and hip hop-inflected sound, with the release of Butterfly (1997). With eleven consecutive years of US number-one singles, Billboard ranked Carey as the most successful artist of the decade. Following a career decline and the failure of her 2001 film Glitter, she returned to the top of the charts with The Emancipation of Mimi (2005), one of the best-selling albums of the 21st century, and E=MC² (2008). Carey amassed an extensive catalog of high-charting singles, including "One Sweet Day" and "We Belong Together" – America's most successful songs of the 1990s and the 2000s, respectively – as well as "Vision of Love", "Emotions", "Dreamlover", "Hero", "Without You", "Fantasy", "Always Be My Baby", "Honey", "My All", "Heartbreaker", "Touch My Body" and "Obsessed".

From the 2010s, Carey has also been dubbed the "Queen of Christmas" due to the enduring popularity of her holiday music, particularly Merry Christmas (1994) and its track "All I Want for Christmas Is You" – the best-selling holiday album and single by a female artist of all-time. The latter further became her most successful song on the Billboard Hot 100, topping the chart in every holiday season since 2019 and breaking numerous records. Outside of music, she has had roles in the films Precious (2009), The Butler (2013), A Christmas Melody (2015), The Lego Batman Movie (2017), and The Star (2017), served as an American Idol judge, starring in the docu-series Mariah's World, and published the memoir The Meaning of Mariah Carey (2020). Carey's personal life, including her diva persona, high-profile relationships, and public breakdown in 2001, received widespread media coverage.

Carey is one of the best-selling music artists, with over 220 million records sold worldwide, and is an inductee of the Songwriters Hall of Fame, the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress, and The Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame. In 2019, Billboard named her the top-charting female solo artist, based on both album and song chart success. She holds the record for the most Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles by a solo artist (19), a female songwriter (18), and a female producer (15), spending a record 93 weeks atop the chart. Carey is the highest-certified female artist in the United States and 10th overall, with 75 million certified album units. Among her accolades are 6 Grammy Awards (including the Grammy Global Impact Award), 10 American Music Awards, 20 Billboard Music Awards and 12 Guinness World Records.

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