Mariah Carey (born March 27 1970) is an
American pop and R&B singer, songwriter,
record producer, music video director, 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's highest-selling
act. According to Billboard magazine, she is the most successful artist of the 1990s in the United States.[1]
Carey took much more control over her image and music following her separation from Mottola in 1997, and she introduced
elements of hip hop into her album material. Her popularity was in decline when she left
Columbia in 2001, and she was dropped by Virgin Records the following year after a highly
publicized physical and emotional breakdown, and the poor reception of Glitter;
her film and soundtrack project. In 2002, Carey signed with Island Records, and after an
unsuccessful period, she returned to the forefront of pop music in 2005.
Carey was named the best-selling female pop artist of the millennium at the 2000 World
Music Awards.[2] She has
recorded the most number-one singles for a female solo artist (seventeen) in the United States, where she is the third
best-selling female recording artist, according to the Recording
Industry Association of America (RIAA).[3] In
addition to her commercial accomplishments, she has earned five Grammy Awards, and is
well-known for her vocal range, power,
melismatic style, and use of the whistle register.
However, some critics have said Carey's efforts to showcase her vocal talents have been at the expense of communicating true
emotion through song.[4][5]
Life and music career
Childhood and youth
Carey was born in Huntington, Long
Island, New York. She is the third and youngest child of Patricia Hickey, a former
opera singer and vocal coach of Irish American descent,
and Alfred Roy Carey, an aeronautical engineer of African American and Venezuelan descent.[6] As a multiethnic family, the Careys
endured racial slurs, hostility, and sometimes violence, causing the family to relocate frequently throughout the New York area.
Carey's parents divorced when she was three years old.[7]
Carey had little contact with her father, and her mother worked several jobs to support the family. Spending much of her time
at home alone, Carey turned to music as an outlet. She began singing at around the age of three, and her mother began teaching
her after Carey imitated her practicing Verdi's opera Rigoletto in Italian.[8] Carey performed for the first time in public during elementary school and was
writing her own songs by junior high. She graduated from Harborfields High
School in Greenlawn, New York, although she was frequently absent because of
her popularity as a demo singer for local recording studios; her classmates consequently
gave her the nickname "Mirage".[9] Her renown in the Long Island music scene gave her opportunities to work with musicians such as
Gavin Christopher and Ben Margulies, with whom
she co-wrote material for her demo tape. After moving to New York City, Carey worked
part-time jobs to pay the rent and completed five hundred hours of beauty school.[10] Eventually, she became a backup singer for
Puerto Rican freestyle singer Brenda K. Starr.
In 1988, Carey met Columbia Records executive Tommy Mottola at a party, where Starr
gave him Carey's demo tape. Mottola played the tape when leaving the party and was very impressed with what he heard. He returned
to find Carey, but she had left. Nevertheless, Mottola tracked her down and signed her to a recording contract. This
Cinderella-like story became part of the standard publicity surrounding Carey's entrance into
the industry.[11]
1990–1992: Early commercial success
Carey co-wrote the tracks on her 1990 debut album, Mariah Carey, and she has continued to co-write nearly all her material during her career. She
expressed dissatisfaction with the contributions of producers such as Ric Wake and
Rhett Lawrence, whom executives at Columbia had enlisted to help make the album
commercially viable.[12] With substantial promotion, it
ascended to number one on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart, where it remained for
several weeks. It produced four number-one singles and made Carey a star in the United States, but it was less successful
elsewhere. Critics rated the album highly, and Carey won Grammy Awards for Best New Artist and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance (for her debut single,
"Vision of Love").
Carey conceived Emotions, her second album, as a homage to Motown soul music (see Motown
Sound), and she worked with Walter Afanasieff and Clivillés & Cole (from the dance group C&C Music Factory) on the record. It was
released soon after her debut album — in late 1991 — but was neither critically nor commercially as successful;
Rolling Stone described it as "more of the same, with less interesting material ...
pop-psych love songs played with airless, intimidating expertise".[13] The title track "Emotions" made Carey the only recording
act to have their first five singles reach number one on the U.S. Hot 100 chart,
though the album's follow-up singles failed to match this feat. Carey had been lobbying to produce her own songs, and beginning
with Emotions, she has co-produced most of her material. "I didn't want [Emotions] to be somebody else's vision of
me," she said. "There's more of me on this album".[14] She
began writing and producing for other artists, such as Penny Ford and Daryl Hall, in the coming year.
Although Carey performed live occasionally, stage fright prevented her from embarking on
any major tours. Her first widely seen concert appearance was on the television show MTV
Unplugged in 1992, and she said she felt that her performance proved her vocal abilities were not, as some had
previously speculated, simulated using studio techniques.[15] Alongside acoustic versions of some of her earlier songs,
Carey premiered a cover of The Jackson 5's
"I'll Be There" with back-up singer Trey Lorenz.
Released as a single, the duet reached number one in the U.S. and led to a record deal for Lorenz, whose debut album Carey
co-produced. Because of high ratings for the Unplugged television special, the
concert's set list was released on the EP MTV Unplugged, which
Entertainment Weekly called "the strongest, most genuinely musical record
she has ever made ... Did this live performance help her take her first steps toward growing up?".[16]
1993–1996: Worldwide popularity
Carey and Tommy Mottola had become involved romantically during the making of her debut
album, and in June 1993, they were married.
Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds consulted on the album
Music Box, which was released later that year and became Carey's most
successful worldwide. It yielded her first UK Singles Chart number-one, a cover of
Badfinger's "Without You", and the U.S. number-ones
"Dreamlover" 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",[17] but TIME magazine 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".[18] In
response to such comments, Carey said, "As soon as you have a big success, a lot of people don't like that. There's nothing I can
do about it. All I can do is make music I believe in."[19] Most critics slighted the opening of her subsequent U.S. Music Box
Tour.[20]
In late 1994, after her duet with Luther Vandross on a cover of Lionel Richie and Diana Ross's "Endless Love" became a hit, Carey released the holiday album Merry Christmas. It contained cover material and original compositions such as
"All I Want for Christmas Is You", which became Carey's biggest single
in Japan and, in subsequent years, emerged as one of her most perennially popular songs on U.S.
radio.[21] Critical reception of Merry
Christmas was mixed, with All Music Guide calling it an "otherwise vanilla set ...
pretensions to high opera on 'O Holy Night' and a horrid danceclub [sic] take on 'Joy to the World'".[22] It became the most successful Christmas album of all time.[23]
In 1995, Columbia released Carey's fifth album, Daydream, which
combined the pop sensibilities of Music Box with downbeat R&B and hip hop
influences. A remix of "Fantasy", its first single, featured rapper
Ol' Dirty Bastard. Carey said that Columbia reacted negatively to her intentions for
the album: "Everybody was like 'What, are you crazy?'. They're very nervous about breaking the formula."[24] It became her biggest-selling album in the U.S., and its singles achieved
similar success — "Fantasy" became the second single to debut at number one in the U.S. and topped the Canadian Singles Chart for twelve weeks, "One Sweet Day"
(a duet with Boyz II Men) spent a record-holding sixteen weeks at number one in the U.S.,
and "Always Be My Baby" (co-produced by Jermaine
Dupri) was the most successful on U.S. radio in 1996, according to Billboard magazine. Daydream generated
career-best reviews for Carey,[25] and publications such
as The New York Times named it one of 1995's best albums; the Times
wrote that its "best cuts bring pop candy-making to a new peak of textural refinement ... Carey's songwriting has taken a leap
forward, becoming more relaxed, sexier and less reliant on thudding clichés".[26] The short but profitable Daydream World Tour augmented
sales of the album, which received six Grammy Award nominations.
1997–2000: New image and independence
Carey and Mottola separated in 1996. Although the public image of the marriage was a happy one, she said that in reality she
had felt trapped by her relationship with Mottola, whom she often described as controlling.[27] They officially announced their separation in 1997, and their divorce became
final the following year. Soon after the separation, Carey hired an independent publicist and a new attorney and manager. She
became a major songwriter and producer for other artists during this period, contributing to the debut albums of Allure and 7 Mile through her short-lived imprint Crave
Records.
"
Honey" (1997), Carey's first heavily
hip
hop-influenced single, presented a more overtly sexual image of her than had been previously seen.
Audio
sample?
Carey's next album, Butterfly (1997), yielded the number-one
single "Honey", the lyrics and music
video for which presented a more overtly sexual image of her than had been previously seen.[28] She stated that Butterfly marked the point that she attained full
creative control over her music, which continued to move in a hip hop direction with material co-written and co-produced by
rappers such as Sean "P. Diddy" Combs and Missy
Elliott. However, she added: "I don't think it's that much of a departure from what I've done in the past ... It's not
like I went psycho and thought I was going to be a rapper. Personally, this album is about doing whatever the hell I wanted to
do."[29] Reviews were generally positive:
LAUNCHcast said Butterfly "pushes the envelope", a move its critic thought "may prove
disconcerting to more conservative fans" but praised as "a welcome change".[30] The Los Angeles Times wrote, "[Butterfly]
is easily the most personal, confessional-sounding record she's ever done ... Carey-bashing just might become a thing of the
past."[31] The album was a commercial success — though
not to the degree of her previous three albums — and "My All" (her thirteenth Hot 100 number-one) gave her the record for the most U.S. number-ones by a female artist.
Towards the turn of the millennium, Carey was developing the film project Glitter, and she wrote songs for the films Men in
Black (1997) and How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000). During the
production of Butterfly, Carey became romantically involved with New York
Yankees baseball star Derek Jeter. Their
relationship ended in 1998, with both parties citing media interference as the main reason for the split.[32] The same year, Columbia released the album #1's, a collection of her U.S. number-one singles up to that point. Carey said she
recorded new material for the album as a way of rewarding her fans,[33] and included "When You Believe", a duet with
Whitney Houston; the song was from the soundtrack of The Prince of Egypt (1998), and won an Academy Award.
#1's sold above expectations, but a review in NME labeled Carey "a purveyor of
saccharine bilge like 'Hero', whose message seems wholesome enough: that if you vacate your mind of all intelligent thought,
flutter your eyelashes and wish hard, sweet babies and honey will follow".[34] Also that year, she appeared on the first televised VH1
Divas benefit concert program, though her alleged prima donna behavior had already led many to consider her a diva.[35] By the following year, she had entered a relationship with
singer Luis Miguel.
Rainbow, Carey's seventh studio album, was released in 1999. It
comprised more R&B/hip hop-oriented songs, many of them co-created with Jimmy Jam
and Terry Lewis. "Heartbreaker" and "Thank God I Found You" (the former featuring Jay-Z, the latter
featuring Joe and boy band 98 Degrees) reached number
one in the U.S., and the success of the former made Carey the only act to have a number-one single in each year of the 1990s. A
cover of Phil Collins's "Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)" went to number one in the UK after
Carey re-recorded it with boy band Westlife. Media reception of Rainbow was generally
enthusiastic, with the Sunday Herald saying the album "sees her impressively
tottering between soul ballads and collaborations with R&B heavyweights like Snoop Doggy
Dogg, Usher ... It's a polished collection of pop-soul".[36] VIBE magazine expressed
similar sentiments, writing, "She pulls out all stops...Rainbow will garner even more adoration",[37] but it became Carey's lowest selling album up to that point, and there
was a recurring criticism that the tracks were too alike. When the double A-side
"Crybaby" (featuring Snoop Dogg)/"Can't Take That Away (Mariah's Theme)" became her first single to peak outside the
U.S. top twenty, Carey accused Sony of under promoting it: "The political situation in my professional career is not positive ...
I'm getting a lot of negative feedback from certain corporate people", she wrote on her official website.[38]
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