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Mariah Carey was born in Long Island, New York to an American mother, who was an opera singer, and an African-American father, who left when Carey was very young. Carey showed an interest for music at a very young age and began singing and writing her own music. The striving artist made herself known locally and then moved into the city of New York to pursue her career.
 

In 1988, Carey met Columbia Records executive Tommy Mottola, whom she married in 1993. He listened to one of her demos and was impressed with her talent. Mottola signed Carey to a contract with Columbia Records.

After two years of hard labor, Mariah Carey released her self-titled debut album, Mariah Carey. The album had enormous success. The singles Vision of Love, Love Takes Time, Someday and I Don't Wanna Cry were at the top of the charts in the United States and around the world. The album sold more than 17 million copies, and Mariah Carey’s career was propelled to the top. After the album’s launch, Carey went on tour and started working on her second album. The same year, Mariah Carey won two Grammy Awards for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance and Best New Artist.

Less than one year later Carey released her second album, Emotions. Critics did not give it as much praise as the first album, but it still had commercial success.  The album was a homage to Motown music and sold 13 million copies. It made Mariah Carey the only artist to have had her first five singles hit the top 5 on American radio stations.

In 1992, Mariah Carey released MTV Unplugged which was a recording of her television appearance on MTV.  Fans loved the song I’ll Be There and it sold millions of copies. In 1993, Carey released Music Box which was a tremendous album that made her well-known internationally. Dreamlover and Without You were played on stations around the world, and the album sold more than 30 million copies. Carey started a huge world tour. At the end of 1994, she did a Christmas album entitled Merry Christmas, which sold 16 million copies, much more than anticipated. The single All I Want For Christmas Is You became a popular holiday song.

The following year, Carey came out with another album…Daydream. Carey’s popularity had not faded and it sold millions of copies. This album had a hip hop/R&B genre, and it had singles such as One Sweet Day, Fantasy and many others. Carey did another tour and also won six Grammy Awards for the album Daydream.
 
After many years of working with Mottola, Carey’s husband and manager, Carey decided to put an end to her marriage and found a new manager.

In 1997, the new Mariah Carey released her album Butterfly. The reviews were positive. The album had the collaboration of P.Diddy and Missy Elliott. The success kept growing for Carey who had become the female artist with the most number-ones on American radio.

In 1998, Carey released #1’s, an album with all of her number one singles. She also added a duet with Whitney Houston. The album sold 18 million copies and Carey was already working on her seventh album. The R&B/hip hop album, Rainbow, was released in 1999. The singles Heartbreaker and Thank God I Found You, were big hits and Carey did another tour to promote this album.

In 2000, Carey had a setback in her career and decided to change record labels. She left Columbia and signed on with Virgin Records. In 2001, the soundtrack album Glitter, from the semiautobiographical movie Glitter, was released. The movie was a box office flop and the album was also a failure.  In fact, Carey won a Razzie Award for Worst Actress in a movie. Columbia Records released Greatest Hits in 2001 which was another album that did not do well, but was beyond Carey’s control since it was part of a contractual agreement the singer had with her previous label. Following a couple of failures Carey was often in the tabloids between 2001 and 2002. The tabloids described Carey as down and depressed.

In 2002, Carey made a comeback and launched her own record company MonarC.  During her difficult period, Carey’s father died of cancer and she decided to do the album Charmbracelet in honour of her father. Although the album did not have as much success as she would have liked, she still did a tour with more than 60 shows around the world. She then did The Remixes, an album of her hit songs.

In 2005, Carey had come out of her difficult period with 170 million albums sold and launched one more…The Emancipation of Mimi. With the collaboration of many R&B/hip hop figures, Carey made a strong comeback. The album was the best-seller for 22 consecutive weeks, and sold 5.8 million copies in the U.S. alone. Carey won three Grammy Awards, and reached the same level as the legendary Elvis Presley for the most number-ones by a solo act. The same year The Emancipation of Mimi platinum edition was released.

After finishing her world tour “The Emancipation of Mimi”, Carey collaborated with renowned directors Jermaine Dupri and Will.i.am, as well as C. “Tricky” Stewart, The-Dream, DJ Toomp, Stargate, Bryan Michael Cox, Nate “Daniahandz” Hills, and James Poyser for the creation of her new album E=MC2.  This disc, which has pop ballads and urban music, was launched in April 2008.  The same month Carey beat Elvis Presley and became the second artist to have the most No. 1 hits on the Billboard.  The song “Touch My Body” was the diva’s 18^th single to hit number one on the charts.

On April 30, 2008, Carey surprised the public when she married rapper Nick Cannon after dating for less than two months.