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Mariah Carey
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.[Anderman, Joan. [http://www.boston.com/ae/music/articles/2006/02/05/carey_on/ "Cary's On"]. ''The Boston Globe''. February 5, 2006. Retrieved March 12, 2008.]
Carey was named the best-selling female pop artist of the millennium at the 2000 World Music Awards.[[http://web.archive.org/web/20001015144058/www.montecarloresort.com/awards/00/w00res00.htm "Winners of the World Music Awards"]. World Music Awards. May 2000. Retrieved November 19, 2006 from the Wayback Machine; [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1355/is_25_97/ai_62590960/ "Michael Jackson And Mariah Carey Named Best-Selling Artists Of Millennium At World Music Awards In Monaco"]. ''Jet''. May 29, 2000. Retrieved November 19, 2006.] She has the most number-one singles for a solo artist in the United States (eighteen; second artist overall behind The Beatles),[Pietroluongo, Silvio. [http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003784083 Mariah, Madonna Make Billboard Chart History]. ''Billboard''. April 2, 2008. Retrieved April 2, 2008] 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 large vocal range, power, melismatic style, and use of the whistle register.
Life and music career
Childhood and youth
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.
Carey graduated from Harborfields High School in Greenlawn, New York. She was frequently absent because of her work as a demo singer for local recording studios; her classmates consequently gave her the nickname "Mirage." Her work 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 she completed 500 hours of beauty school. 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 impressed. 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.[Gardner, Elysa. "Cinderella Story." ''VIBE''. April 1996.]
1990–1992: Early commercial success
Carey co-wrote the tracks on her 1990 debut album ''Mariah Carey'', and she has continued to co-write the majority of her material since. During the recording, she expressed dissatisfaction with the contributions of producers such as Ric Wake and Rhett Lawrence, whom the executives at Columbia had enlisted to help make the album more commercially viable. Backed by a substantial promotional budget, the album reached number one on the U.S. ''Billboard'' 200 chart, where it remained for several weeks. It yielded four number-one singles, and made Carey a star in the United States, but it was less successful in other countries. Critics rated the album highly, and Carey won Grammys for Best New Artist, and—for her debut single, "Vision of Love"—Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.
Carey conceived ''Emotions'', her second album, as an 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." 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, although 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."
Although Carey performed live occasionally, stage fright prevented her from embarking on a major tour. Her first widely seen appearance was featured on the television show ''MTV Unplugged'' in 1992, and she remarked that she felt her performance that night proved her vocal abilities were not, as some had previously speculated, simulated with studio equipment. Alongside acoustic versions of some of her earlier songs, Carey premiered a cover of The Jackson 5's "I'll Be There" with her back-up singer Trey Lorenz. The duet was released as a single, reached number one in the U.S., and led to a record deal for Lorenz,
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", 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." 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." Most critics slighted the opening of her subsequent U.S. Music Box Tour.
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.[[http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:gf2gtq4ztu4a~T51 "Mariah Carey – Billboard Singles"]. Allmusic. Retrieved September 19, 2006.] Critical reception of ''Merry Christmas'' was mixed, with Allmusic calling it an "otherwise vanilla set [...] pretensions to high opera on 'O Holy Night' and a horrid danceclub take on 'Joy to the World'." It became the most successful Christmas album of all time.
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." 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 record on U.S. radio in 1996, according to ''Billboard'' magazine. ''Daydream'' generated career-best reviews for Carey, 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." 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 officially separated in 1997. 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. 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 continued to write and produce for other artists during this period, contributing to the debut albums of Allure and 7 Mile through her short-lived imprint Crave Records.
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. She stated that ''Butterfly'' marked the point when she attained full creative control over her music.[[http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,205054,00.html Mariah Carey's Biography]. Fox News. March 24, 2008. Retrieved April 1, 2008.] 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." 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." 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." The album was a commercial success—although 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.
Toward the turn of the millennium, Carey was developing the film project ''Glitter'' and 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. The same year, Columbia released the album ''#1's'', a collection of Carey's U.S. number-one singles alongside new material, which she said was a way of rewarding her fans. The song "When You Believe," a duet with Whitney Houston, was recorded for 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." Also that year, she appeared on the first televised ''VH1 Divas'' benefit concert program, although her alleged prima donna behavior had already led many to consider her a diva. By the following year, she had entered a relationship with singer Luis Miguel.
''Rainbow'', Carey's seventh studio album, was released in 1999 and comprised more R&B/hip hop–oriented songs, many of them co-created with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis.[[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_2000_August_31/ai_64995670 Hitmaking Producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis Score 14th No. 1 Hit Song]. Business Wire. August 31, 2000. Retrieved March 31, 2008.] "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.,
2001–2004: Personal and professional struggles
After receiving ''Billboard'''s Artist of the Decade Award and the World Music Award for Best-Selling Female Artist of the Millennium,[Gardner, Elysa. [http://www.usatoday.com/life/dcovfri.htm "Mariah Carey, 'standing again'"]. ''USA Today''. November 28, 2002. Retrieved March 17, 2006.] During an appearance on MTV's ''Total Request Live'', Carey handed out popsicles to the audience and began what was later described as a "strip tease". By the month's end, she had checked into a hospital, and her publicist announced that Carey was taking a break from public appearances.[Cook, Shanon. [http://archives.cnn.com/2001/WorldBeat/08/13/mariah.carey/ "Mariah before breakdown - 'It all seems like one continuous day'"]. CNN. August 14, 2001. Retrieved March 17, 2006.]
Critics panned ''Glitter'', Carey's much delayed semi-autobiographical film, and it was a box office failure.[Patterson, Sylvia. [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2008/03/16/sv_mariahcarey.xml Mariah Carey: Come in and smell the perfume]. ''The Daily Telegraph''. March 17, 2008. Retrieved March 31, 2008.] The accompanying soundtrack album, ''Glitter'', was inspired by the music of the 1980s and featured collaborations with Rick James and Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis; it generated Carey's worst showing on the U.S. chart. The ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'' dismissed it as "an absolute mess that'll go down as an annoying blemish on a career that, while not always critically heralded, was at least nearly consistently successful", while ''Blender'' magazine opined, "After years of trading her signature flourishes for a radio-ready purr, [Carey]'s left with almost no presence at all." The lead single, "Loverboy" (featuring Cameo), reached number two on the Hot 100 due to the release of the physical single,
Later in the year, Columbia released the low-charting compilation album ''Greatest Hits'' shortly after the failure of ''Glitter'', and in early 2002, Virgin bought out Carey's contract for $28 million,[Holson, Laura M. [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E04E5D71330F93AA35756C0A9649C8B63 Mariah Carey And Universal Agree to Terms Of Record Deal]. ''The New York Times''. May 9, 2002. Retrieved April 1, 2008.] and launched the record label MonarC. To add further to Carey's emotional burdens, her father, with whom she had little contact since childhood, died of cancer that year.
Following a well-received supporting role in the 2002 film ''WiseGirls'', Carey released the album ''Charmbracelet'', which she said marked "a new lease on life" for her.
"I Know What You Want", a 2003 Busta Rhymes single on which Carey guest starred, fared considerably better and reached the U.S. top five; it was also included a Columbia's release of ''The Remixes'', a compilation of Carey's best remixes and some new tracks. That year, she embarked on the Charmbracelet World Tour and was awarded the Chopard Diamond award for selling over 100 million albums worldwide. She was featured on rapper Jadakiss's 2004 single "U Make Me Wanna", which reached the top ten on ''Billboard'''s R&B/Hip-Hop chart.
2005-present: Return to prominence
Carey's tenth studio album, ''The Emancipation of Mimi'' (2005), contained contributions from producers such as The Neptunes, Kanye West and Carey's longtime collaborator, Jermaine Dupri. Carey said it was "very much like a party record [...] the process of putting on makeup and getting ready to go out [...] I wanted to make a record that was reflective of that."; ''The Emancipation of Mimi'' became 2005's best-selling album in the U.S., and ''The Guardian'' reviewer defined it as "cool, focused and urban [... some of] the first Mariah Carey tunes in years I wouldn't have to be paid to listen to again". The album earned Carey a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary R&B Album, and the single "We Belong Together" won Best Female R&B Vocal Performance and Best R&B Song. "We Belong Together" held the Hot 100's number-one position for fourteen weeks, her longest run at the top as a solo lead artist. Subsequently, the single "Shake It Off" reached number two for a week, making Carey the first female lead vocalist to have simultaneously held the Hot 100's top two positions (While topping the charts in 2002, Ashanti was the "featured" singer on the #2 single.)
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.[http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1591425/20080723/id_0.jhtml] 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.[[http://www.reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idUSN2828389520080329?pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=10152 "Mariah Carey's "E=MC2" offers genre-crossing equation"] ''Reuters''. March 28, 2008. Retrieved March 29, 2008.] Although ''E=MC²'' was well received by most critics, some of them criticized it for being "a clone of ''The Emancipation of Mimi''".[Cromelin, Richard. [http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/music/la-et-mariah12apr12,1,6445816.story CD:Mariah Carey's 'E=MC2'].'' LA Times''. April 12, 2008. Retrieved April 12, 2008.] ''Bleu Magazine'''s critic said that the "facsimiles aren't terrible, they're just boring and forgettable at this point". Two weeks before the album's release, on April 2, 2008, "Touch My Body", her first single from the album, became Carey's eighteenth number-one single on the Hot 100, pushing her past Elvis Presley into second place for the most number-one singles among all artists in the rock era, according to ''Billboard'' magazine's revised methodology. Carey is now second only to The Beatles who have twenty number-one singles.
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.
Also, there is going to be a Broadway show about Carey. The UK ''X Factor'' season 3 winner Leona Lewis is Carey's first choice of potraying the American pop singer herself. High School Musical's Vanessa Hudgens and Eva Longoria from Desperate Housewives are also being considered if Lewis isn't taking the job.
Acting career
Carey began to take professional acting lessons in 1997, and in the coming year, she was auditioning for film roles. She made her debut as an opera singer in the romantic comedy ''The Bachelor'' (1999), starring Chris O'Donnell and Renée Zellweger. CNN referred derisively to her casting as a talentless diva as "letter-perfect [...] the "can't act" part informs Carey's entire performance".
Carey's first starring role was in ''Glitter'' (2001), in which she played a struggling musician in the 1980s who breaks into the music industry after meeting a disc jockey (Max Beesley). Though Roger Ebert said "[Carey]'s acting ranges from dutiful flirtatiousness to intense sincerity", most critics panned it: ''Halliwell's Film Guide'' called it a "vapid star vehicle for a pop singer with no visible acting ability", and ''The Village Voice'' observed: "When [Carey] tries for an emotion — any emotion — she looks as if she's lost her car keys." ''Glitter'' was a box office failure, and Carey earned a Razzie Award for her role. She later said that the film "started out as a concept with substance, but it ended up being geared to 10-year-olds. It lost a lot of grit [...] I kind of got in over my head."
Carey, Mira Sorvino and Melora Walters co-starred as waitresses at a mobster-operated restaurant in the independent film ''WiseGirls'' (2002), which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival but went straight to cable in the U.S. Critics commended Carey for her efforts — ''The Hollywood Reporter'' predicted, "Those scathing notices for ''Glitter'' will be a forgotten memory for the singer once people warm up to Raychel", and Roger Friedman, referring to her as "a Thelma Ritter for the new millennium", said, "Her line delivery is sharp and she manages to get the right laughs". ''WiseGirls'' producer Anthony Esposito cast Carey in ''The Sweet Science'' (2006), a film about an unknown female boxer recruited by a boxing manager, but it never entered production.
Carey was one of several musicians who appeared in the independently produced Damon Dash films ''Death of a Dynasty'' (2003) and ''State Property 2'' (2005). Her television work has been limited to a January 2002 episode of ''Ally McBeal''. Carey had a cameo in Adam Sandler's 2008 film ''You Don't Mess with the Zohan'', playing herself.
In 2006, Carey joined the cast of the indie film ''Tennessee'' (2008), taking the role of an aspiring singer who flees her controlling husband and joins two brothers on a journey to find their long-lost father. Carey will also appear as a social worker in the forthcoming movie adaptation of the 1996 novel by Sapphire, "Push", and is developing a movie musical based on her Christmas album ''Merry Christmas''. The script is written by "High School Musical" writer Peter Barsocchini.[[http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/2008/09/22/2008-09-22_mariah_carey_makes_new_push_into_acting.html]]
Artistry
Carey has said that from childhood she was influenced by R&B and soul musicians such as Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, Gladys Knight, Aretha Franklin, Al Green and Stevie Wonder. Her music contains strong influences of gospel music, and her favorite gospel singers include The Clark Sisters, Shirley Caesar and Edwin Hawkins. When Carey incorporated hip hop into her sound, speculation arose that she was making an attempt to take advantage of the genre's popularity, but she told ''Newsweek'', "People just don't understand. I grew up with this music". She has expressed appreciation for rappers such as The Sugarhill Gang, Eric B. & Rakim, the Wu-Tang Clan, The Notorious B.I.G. and Mobb Deep,
During Carey's career, her vocal and musical style, along with her level of success, has been compared to Whitney Houston and Celine Dion. Carey and her peers, according to Garry Mulholland, are "the princesses of wails [...] virtuoso vocalists who blend chart-oriented pop with mature MOR torch song". In ''She Bop II: The Definitive History of Women in Rock, Pop and Soul'' (2002), writer Lucy O'Brien attributed the comeback of Barbra Streisand's "old-fashioned showgirl" to Carey and Dion, and described them and Houston as "groomed, airbrushed and overblown to perfection".[O'Brien, Lucy. ''She Bop II: The Definitive History of Women in Rock, Pop and Soul'' (2002). pg. 476-477. UK: Continuum. ISBN 0-8264-5776-2 (paperback).] Carey's musical transition and use of more revealing clothing during the late 1990s were, in part, initiated to distance herself from this image, and she subsequently said that most of her early work was "schmaltzy MOR".
Despite the fact that Carey is often credited with co-writing her material, she has also been accused of plagiarism on several occasions. Many of these cases were eventually settled out of court.
Voice
Although she self-identifies as "an alto with a five-octave range,"[''Entertainment Weekly''.] Carey has "a range wide enough to cover all the octaves between an alto and a soprano, and the agility to move between those roles with swiftness and aplomb",[Farber, Jim. [http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/entertainment/2005/04/12/2005-04-12_more_like_a_screaming__mimi_.html "More like a screaming 'Mimi'"]. ''New York Daily News''. April 12, 2005. Retrieved October 21, 2007.] and her vocal trademark is her ability to sing in the whistle register. She has cited Minnie Riperton as the greatest influence on her singing technique and from a very early age, she attempted to emulate Riperton's high notes, to increasing degrees of success as her vocal range expanded. At one point, ''The Guinness Book of Records'' recorded that there was no other singer who could hold a higher note than Carey.
Themes and musical style
Love is the subject of the majority of Carey's lyrics, although she has written about themes such as racism, social alienation, death, world hunger, and spirituality. She has said that much of her work is partly autobiographical, but ''TIME'' magazine wrote: "If only Mariah Carey's music had the drama of her life. Her songs are often sugary and artificial—NutraSweet soul. But her life has passion and conflict." ''The Village Voice'' wrote in 2001 that, in that respect, Carey compared unfavorably with singers such as Mary J. Blige, saying "Carey's Strawberry Shortcake soul still provides the template with which teen-pop cuties draw curlicues around those centerless
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