Mariah Carey (born March 27, 1970) is an American R&B 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's highest-selling act. According to Billboard magazine, she was the most successful artist of the 1990s in the United States.[3]
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. She signed to Virgin Records but was dropped from the label and bought out of her contract 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 with the critically acclaimed album, The Emancipation of Mimi.[4][5]
Carey has sold more than 175 million albums, singles and videos worldwide.[6][7][8] She was named the best-selling female pop artist of the millennium at the 2000 World Music Awards.[9] Carey is also the recipient of the Chopard Diamond Award at the 2003 World Music Awards, recognizing sales of over 100 million albums worldwide.[10][11][12][13][14] According to the Recording Industry Association of America, she is the third-best-selling female artist (behind Barbara Streisand and Madonna) and sixteenth overall recording artist with shipments of 63 million albums in the US.[15][16] She is ranked by Nielsen SoundScan as the best-selling female artist of the U.S., as measured from 1991 to the present, and the third best-selling artist overall.[17]
In 1999, Carey surpassed The Beatles' record for most weeks at number one when her song "Heartbreaker" reached the summit of the chart. Then in 2008, she passed Elvis Presley for the most number-one singles for a solo artist in the United States with 18.[18] She has also had three songs debut at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, making her the artist with the most number one debuts in the charts 52 year history.[19] One of those songs, "One Sweet Day" (sung with R&B male group Boyz II Men), is the longest-running number-one single in the history of that chart, logging 16 weeks at the top spot. Aside from her commercial accomplishments, she has earned five Grammy Awards and is known for her five-octave vocal range, power, melismatic style, and use of the whistle register.
****
