Mariah Carey - Singer, Actress and Philanthropist

Mariah Carey (born March 27, 1970) is an American recording artist 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 was the most successful artist of the 1990s in the United States.

Following her separation from Mottola in 1997, Carey introduced elements of hip hop into her album work, to much initial success, but 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, as well as the poor reception given to Glitter, her film and soundtrack project. In 2002, Carey signed with Island Records, and after a relatively unsuccessful period, she returned to the top of pop music in 2005.

Carey was named the best-selling female pop artist of the millennium at the 2000 World Music Awards. She has the most number-one singles for a solo artist in the United States (eighteen; second artist overall behind The Beatles), where, according to the Recording Industry Association of America, she is the third best-selling female and sixteenth overall recording artist. In addition to her commercial accomplishments, Carey has earned five Grammy Awards, and is well-known for her vocal range, power, melismatic style, and use of the whistle register.

Mariah Carey was born in Huntington, Long Island, New York. She is the third and youngest child of Patricia (née Hickey), a former opera singer and vocal coach of Irish descent, and Alfred Roy Carey, an aeronautical engineer of Afro-Venezuelan descent. Carey’s parents divorced when she was three years old. While living in Huntington, racist neighbors allegedly poisoned the family dog and set fire to her family’s car. After her parents’ divorce, Carey had little contact with her father, and her mother worked several jobs to support the family. Carey spent much of her time at home alone and turned to music to occupy herself. She began singing at around the age of three, when her mother began to teach her after Carey imitated her mother practicing Verdi’s opera Rigoletto in Italian.

Carey began a concert tour in mid-2006, called The Adventures of Mimi Tour, which was the most successful tour of her career, although some dates had to be canceled. In separate appearances on 106 & Park and TRL Carey announced plans to go back on tour in November or December of 2008. She appeared on the cover of the March 2007 edition of Playboy magazine on a non-nude photo session. In early 2007, she was featured with Bow Wow on the Bone Thugs-n-Harmony single “Lil’ L.O.V.E.”. Later in the year, Carey received a “recording star” on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

By spring 2007, she had begun working on her eleventh studio album, E=MC². Asked about the album title and its meaning, Carey said “Einstein’s theory? Physics? Me? Hello! [...] Of course I’m poking fun.” She characterized the project as “Emancipation of Mimi to the second power”, saying she was “freer on this album than” any other. Like her previous one, this album mainly concentrates on pop and R&B, but also borrows hip hop, gospel and even reggae (”Cruise Control”) elements.

Carey’s singles have, collectively, topped the charts for seventy-nine weeks, which places her just behind Presley, who topped the combined charts for eighty weeks. Carey has also had notable success on international charts, though not to the same degree as in the United States. Thus far, she has had two number-one singles in Britain, two in Australia, and six in Canada. Her highest-charting single in Japan peaked at number two.

On April 30, 2008, Carey married actor Nick Cannon, at Carey’s private estate on Windermere Island in the Bahamas. Confirming rumors of the marriage, Carey stated that she felt the pair were “soulmates”. Carey was inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame on October 30, 2008 at the Garden City Hotel in Garden City, New York.

Carey performed “Hero” at the Neighborhood Inaugural Ball after Barack Obama was sworn in as the first African-American president in history on January 20, 2009. In early 2009, singer/songwriter The-Dream stated that he and Carey had already begun working on her next studio album. According to The-Dreams’ information on album, the working title is MC 3.

According to Forbes, Carey was the sixth richest woman in entertainment as of January 2007, with an estimated net worth of US $225 million.

Carey directed or co-directed several of the music videos for her singles during the 1990s. 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.

Carey is a philanthropist who has donated time and money to organizations such as the Fresh Air Fund. She became associated with the Fund in the early 1990s, and is the co-founder of a camp located in Fishkill, New York, that enables inner-city youth to embrace the arts and introduces them to career opportunities. The camp was called Camp Mariah “for her generous support and dedication to Fresh Air children”, and she received a Congressional Horizon Award for her youth-related charity work. She is well-known nationally for her work with the Make-a-Wish Foundation in granting the wishes of children with life-threatening illnesses, and in November 2006 she was awarded the Foundation’s Wish Idol for her “extraordinary generosity and her many wish granting achievements”. Carey has volunteered for the New York City Police Athletic League and contributed to the obstetrics department of New York Presbyterian Hospital Cornell Medical Center. A percentage of the sales of MTV Unplugged was donated to various other charities. In 2008, Carey was named Hunger Ambassador of the World Hunger Relief Movement. She is giving a free download of her song, “Love Story”, to customers who donate to the organization at participating restaurants.

Source [ Wikipedia ]