Mariah Carey

Mariah Carey ( born March 27, 1969) is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress. An influential figure in music, she is known for her five-octave vocal range, melismatic singing style, and signature use of the whistle register. Carey is also credited with influencing vocal styles, merging hip-hop with pop through her collaborations, popularizing remixes, and helping break down racial barriers for multiracial Americans in popular culture. Referred to as the "Songbird Supreme" by Guinness World Records, she was ranked as the fifth greatest singer of all time by Rolling Stone in 2023, and has been dubbed the "Queen of Christmas" for the enduring popularity of her Christmas music, particularly the 1994 song "All I Want for Christmas Is You", which is the best-selling holiday song by a female artist.

Carey rose to fame in 1990 with her self-titled debut album under the guidance of Columbia Records executive Tommy Mottola, whom she later married in 1993. She is the only artist to date to have their first five singles reach number one on the US Billboard Hot 100, from "Vision of Love" to "Emotions". Carey gained worldwide success with her albums Music Box (1993) and Daydream (1995)―both of which rank among the best-selling albums and spawned singles such as "Dreamlover", "Hero", "Without You", "Fantasy", "Always Be My Baby" and "One Sweet Day". The lattermost of these topped the US Billboard Hot 100 decade-end chart (1990s). After separating from Mottola, Carey adopted a new urban image and began incorporating more hip hop and R&B elements with the releases of Butterfly (1997) and Rainbow (1999). By the end of the 1990s, Billboard ranked Carey as the most successful artist of the decade in the United States. She left Columbia Records in 2001 after eleven consecutive years of US number-one singles and signed a record deal with Virgin Records.

Following a highly publicized breakdown and the failure of her 2001 film Glitter and its accompanying soundtrack, Virgin bought out Carey's contract, and she signed with Island Records the following year. After a brief, mildly successful period, Carey returned to the top of the charts with The Emancipation of Mimi (2005) which became one of the best-selling albums of the 21st century. Its second single, "We Belong Together", topped the US Billboard Hot 100 decade-end chart (2000s). Her subsequent ventures included roles in the films Precious (2009), The Butler (2013), A Christmas Melody (2015), The Lego Batman Movie (2017), and The Star (2017), being an American Idol judge, starring in the docu-series Mariah's World, performing multiple concert residencies, and publishing the memoir The Meaning of Mariah Carey (2020).

Carey is one of the best-selling music artists, with over 220 million records sold worldwide, and is an inductee of the Songwriters Hall of Fame, the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress, and The Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame. In 2019, Billboard named her the top-charting female solo artist, based on both album and song chart success. She holds the record for the most Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles by a solo artist (19), a female songwriter (18), and a female producer (15), spending a record 93 weeks atop the chart. Carey is the highest-certified female artist in the United States and 10th overall, with 75 million certified album units. Among her accolades are 6 Grammy Awards (including the Grammy Global Impact Award), 10 American Music Awards, 20 Billboard Music Awards and 12 Guinness World Records.

Early life
Carey was born on March 27, 1969, in Huntington, New York. Her name is derived from the song "They Call the Wind Maria", originally from the 1951 Broadway musical Paint Your Wagon. She is the youngest of three children born to Patricia (née Hickey), a former opera singer and vocal coach of Irish descent, and Alfred Roy Carey, an aeronautical engineer of both African-American and Afro-Venezuelan lineage. The last name "Carey" was adopted by her Venezuelan grandfather, Francisco Núñez, after he emigrated to New York. Patricia's family disowned her for marrying a black man. Racial tensions prevented the Carey family from integrating into their community. While they lived in Huntington, their neighbors poisoned the family dog and set fire to their car. After her parents' divorce, Carey had little contact with Alfred, and Patricia worked several jobs to support the family. Carey spent much of her time at home alone and began singing at age three, often imitating her mother's take on Verdi's opera Rigoletto in Italian. Her older sister Alison moved in with their father while Mariah and her elder brother Morgan lived with their mother.

During her years in elementary school, she excelled in the arts, such as music and literature. Carey began writing poetry and lyrics while attending Harborfields High School in Greenlawn, New York, where she graduated in 1987. Carey began vocal training under the tutelage of her mother. Though she was a classically trained opera singer, Patricia Carey never pressured her daughter to pursue a career in classical opera. Mariah Carey recalled that she had "never been a pushy mom. She never said, 'Give it more of an operatic feel.' I respect opera like crazy, but it didn't influence me." In high school, Mariah Carey was often absent because of her work as a demo singer. This led to her classmates giving her the nickname Mirage. Working 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, she worked part-time jobs to pay the rent and completed 500 hours of beauty school. Carey moved into a one-bedroom apartment in Manhattan with four female students as roommates. She landed a gig singing backup for freestyle singer Brenda K. Starr.

1988–1990: Career beginnings and debut album
In December 1988, Carey accompanied Starr to a music executive's party, and handed her demo tape to the head of Columbia Records, Tommy Mottola. After listening to the tape during the ride home, he immediately requested the driver turn around. She had already left the event, and Mottola spent two weeks looking for her. Another record label expressed interest and a bidding war ensued. He signed Carey to Columbia and enlisted producers Ric Wake, Narada Michael Walden, and Rhett Lawrence for her first album.

Columbia marketed Carey as the main female artist on their roster, competing with Arista Records's Whitney Houston and Madonna of Sire Records. It spent upwards of $1 million promoting Carey's debut studio album, Mariah Carey. On June 5, 1990, Carey made her first public appearance at the 1990 NBA Finals, singing "America the Beautiful". The highlight was the piercing whistle note toward the song's conclusion, sparking CBS Sports anchor Pat O'Brien to declare, "The palace now has a queen." The album topped the US Billboard 200 for eleven consecutive weeks, after Carey's exposure at the 33rd Annual Grammy Awards, where she won the award for Best New Artist, and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for her single "Vision of Love". The album's singles "Vision of Love", "Love Takes Time", "Someday", and "I Don't Wanna Cry" all topped the US Billboard Hot 100. Mariah Carey was the best-selling album in the United States in 1991, and achieved worldwide sales of 15 million copies.

1991–1992: Emotions and MTV Unplugged
Carey co-wrote, co-produced, and recorded her second studio effort, Emotions, during 1991. She described it as an homage to Motown soul music, and employed the help of Walter Afanasieff, who only had a small role on her debut, as well as Robert Clivillés and David Cole, from the dance group C+C Music Factory. Carey's relationship with Margulies deteriorated over a songwriting royalties dispute. After he filed a lawsuit against Columbia's parent company, Sony Music Entertainment, the songwriting duo parted ways. Emotions was released on September 17 that year. Its title track served as the album's lead single and became Carey's fifth chart topper on the Billboard Hot 100, making her the first artist whose first five singles reached the chart's summit. Though critics praised the album's content and described it as a more mature effort, the album was criticized as calculated and lacking originality. While the album managed sales of eight million copies globally, Emotions failed to reach the commercial and critical heights of its predecessor.

Carey did not embark on a world tour to promote the album. Although she attributed this to stage fright and the vocally challenging nature of her material, speculation grew that Carey was a "studio worm" and incapable of producing the perfect pitch and five-octave vocal range for which she was known. In hopes of ending any speculation of her being a manufactured artist, Carey booked an appearance on MTV Unplugged. The show presented artists "unplugged" or in a stripped setting and devoid of studio equipment. Days prior to the show's taping, Carey and Afanasieff chose to add a cover of the Jackson 5's 1970 song "I'll Be There" to the set-list. On March 16, 1992, she played and recorded an intimate seven-song show at Kaufman Astoria Studios in Queens, New York. The acclaimed revue was aired more than three times as often as the average episode, and critics heralding it as a "vocal Tour de force". Carey's live version of "I'll Be There" became her sixth number-one single on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Sony capitalized on its success and released it as an extended play (EP). It earned a triple-Platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), and earned Gold and Platinum certifications in several European markets.

1993–1994: Music Box and Merry Christmas
After Emotions failed to achieve the commercial heights of her debut album, Carey's subsequent release was to be marketed as adult contemporary and pop-friendly. Music Box was produced by Carey and Afanasieff, and began a songwriting partnership that would extend until 1997's Butterfly. The album was released on August 31, 1993, to mixed reviews from music critics. Carey's songwriting was derided as clichéd and her vocal performances were described as less emotive and lazier in their delivery. In his review of the album, AllMusic's Ron Wynn concluded: "sometimes excessive spirit is preferable to an absence of passion." In promotion of the album, Carey embarked on her debut tour, a six-date concert series, the Music Box Tour. Music Box's first and second singles, "Dreamlover" and "Hero", became Carey's seventh and eighth chart-toppers in the United States, while her cover of Badfinger's "Without You" was a commercial breakthrough in Europe, becoming her first number-one single in Germany, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Music Box remains Carey's best-seller and one of the best-selling albums, with worldwide sales of over 28 million copies.

In mid-1994, Carey and Luther Vandross recorded and released a cover of Lionel Richie and Diana Ross's "Endless Love". Merry Christmas, released on November 1, 1994, became the best-selling Christmas album, with global sales of over 15 million copies. The lead single, "All I Want for Christmas Is You", became a holiday standard and continues to surge in popularity each holiday season. By October 2017, it had become the 11th best-selling single in history with over 16 million copies sold worldwide.

1995–1996: Daydream and Someone's Ugly Daughter
Carey's fifth studio album, Daydream, found her consolidating creative control over her career, leading to tensions with Columbia. The album featured a departure from her allegiance to pop and gravitated heavily towards R&B and hip hop. Critically, the album was described as Carey's best to date. The New York Times named this one of 1995's best albums and wrote it "brings R&B candy-making to a new peak of textural refinement ... Carey's songwriting has taken a leap forward and become more relaxed, sexier and less reliant on thudding clichés." Its lead single, "Fantasy", became the first single by a female artist to debut at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, and the second song overall after Michael Jackson's "You Are Not Alone". "One Sweet Day", a collaboration with R&B group Boyz II Men, served as the second single from Daydream and remained atop the Billboard Hot 100 for a record-breaking 16 consecutive weeks, becoming the longest-running number-one song in the history of the charts at the time. It also opened at the top spot, becoming Carey's second track to do so. The album's third single, "Always Be My Baby", became Carey's eleventh chart-topper, tying her with Madonna and Whitney Houston for the most number-one singles among female artists at the time.

Daydream became Carey's biggest-selling album in the United States, and her second album to be certified Diamond by the RIAA, after Music Box. The album continued Carey's dominance in Asian music markets and sold in excess of 2.2 million copies in Japan alone and over 20 million copies globally. Daydream and its singles were nominated in six categories at the 38th Grammy Awards. Though considered a favorite to win the top awards of the evening, Carey was shut out, prompting her to comment "What can you do? I will never be disappointed again." In early 1996, she embarked on her first international string of concerts, the Daydream World Tour. Its seven dates spanned three in Japan and four throughout Europe. Forbes named Carey the top-earning female musician of 1996, collecting an estimated $32 million.

During the recording of Daydream, Carey also worked on the alternative rock album Someone's Ugly Daughter by the band Chick, contributing writing, production, vocals and art direction. As Columbia Records refused to release the album with her lead vocals, Carey's friend Clarissa Dane was brought in to become the face of Chick, and her vocals were layered on top of Carey's, masking her voice. Her contributions were secret until the release of her 2020 memoir The Meaning of Mariah Carey.

1997–2000: New image with Butterfly and Rainbow
Carey's subsequent musical releases followed the trend that began with Daydream. Her music began relying less on pop and adult contemporary-tinged balladry and instead incorporating heavy elements of hip-hop and R&B. On Butterfly, she collaborated with a bevy of producers other than Afanasieff, such as Sean Combs, Q-Tip, Missy Elliott and Jean Claude Oliver and Samuel Barnes from Trackmasters. Butterfly was released on September 10, 1997, and introduced a more subdued style of singing, with critics noting Carey's incorporation of breathy vocals. Some viewed her lack of propensity to use her upper range as a sign of maturity, while others questioned whether it forebode waning vocal prowess. The music video for the album's lead single, "Honey", her first since separating from Mottola, introduced a more overtly sexual image. Butterfly became Carey's best-reviewed album, with attention placed on the album's exploration of more mature lyrical themes. In their review of the album, Rolling Stone wrote it was "not as if Carey has totally dispensed with her old saccharine, Houston-style balladry ... but the predominant mood of Butterfly is one of coolly erotic reverie." AllMusic editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine described Carey's vocals as "sultrier and more controlled than ever," and felt the album "illustrates that Carey continues to improve and refine her music, which makes her a rarity among her '90s peers.'" "Honey" and "My All", the album's fifth single, both topped the Hot 100, making Carey a female artist with the most number-one singles in the chart's history. Though a commercial success, Butterfly failed to reach the commercial heights of her previous albums, Music Box and Daydream.

After concluding her Butterfly World Tour, Carey participated in the VH1 Divas benefit concert on April 14, 1998, where she sang alongside Aretha Franklin, Celine Dion, Shania Twain, Gloria Estefan, and Carole King. Carey began conceptualizing a film project All That Glitters, later re-titled to simply Glitter (2001), and wrote songs for other projects, such as Men in Black (1997) and How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000). After Glitter fell into developmental hell, Carey postponed the project, and began writing material for a new album. Sony Music executives insisted she prepare a greatest hits collection in time for the holiday season. The album, titled #1's (1998), featured a cover of Brenda K. Starr's "I Still Believe" and a duet with Whitney Houston, "When You Believe", which was included on the soundtrack for The Prince of Egypt (1998). #1's became a phenomenon in Japan, selling over one million copies in its opening week, making Carey the only international artist to accomplish this feat. It sold over 3.25 million copies in Japan in its first three months, and holds the record as the best-selling album by a non-Asian artist.

With only one album left to fulfill her contract with Sony, and with a burning desire to separate herself professionally from the record label her ex-husband still headed, Carey completed the album in three months in mid-1999. Titled Rainbow, the album found Carey exploring with producers whom she had not worked with before. Rainbow became Carey's first album to not feature a collaboration with her longtime writing partner, Walter Afanasieff. She instead chose to work with David Foster and Diane Warren. "Heartbreaker" and "Thank God I Found You" both topped the Billboard Hot 100, while a collaboration with Irish boy band Westlife on the cover of Phil Collins' "Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)" became her second number-one song on the UK charts. Rainbow was released on November 2, 1999, to the highest first-week sales of her career at the time, and debuted at number two on the Billboard 200. Carey's tense relationship with Columbia grew increasingly fractious; she began posting messages on her website, sharing inside information with fans on the dispute, as well as instructing them to request "Can't Take That Away (Mariah's Theme)" on radio stations.

Ultimately, the song was only given a very limited and low-promotion release. Critical reception of Rainbow was generally positive, with the general consensus finding: "what began on Butterfly as a departure ends up on Rainbow a progression – perhaps the first compelling proof of Carey's true colors as an artist." Though a commercial success, Rainbow became Carey's lowest selling album at that point in her career.

2001–2004: Personal and professional setbacks, Glitter and Charmbracelet
Carey received Billboard's Artist of the Decade Award and the World Music Award for Best-Selling Pop Female Artist of the Millennium, and parted from Columbia Records. She signed an unprecedented $80 million five-album recording contract with Virgin Records (EMI Records) in April 2001. Glitter was a musical departure, recreating a 1980s post-disco era to accompany the film, set in 1983. Carey was given full conceptual and creative control over the project. She said that Columbia had regarded her as a commodity, with her separation from Mottola exacerbating her relations with label executives. Carey's three-year relationship with Latin singer Luis Miguel ended.

In July 2001, Carey suffered a physical and emotional breakdown. She began posting disturbing messages on her website, and behaved erratically in live promotional outings. On July 19, Carey made a surprise appearance on the MTV program Total Request Live (TRL). As the show's host Carson Daly began taping following a commercial break, she came out pushing an ice cream cart while wearing a large men's shirt, and began a striptease that revealed a tight ensemble. Days later, Carey posted irregular voice notes on her website. On July 26, she was hospitalized due to exhaustion and a "physical and emotional breakdown". Carey was admitted to a hospital in Connecticut and remained under doctor's care for two weeks, followed by an extended absence from the public. Virgin Records and 20th Century Fox delayed the release of Glitter and its soundtrack. Critics panned Glitter and its soundtrack; both were unsuccessful commercially. The soundtrack became Carey's lowest-selling album to that point. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch condemned it as "an absolute mess that'll go down as an annoying blemish on [her] career." She attributed the poor performance to her state of mind, its postponement and the soundtrack having been released on September 11.

Carey's record deal with Virgin Records was bought out for $28 million. She flew to Capri, Italy, for five months, and wrote material for a new album there. Carey described her time at Virgin "a complete and total stress-fest ... I made a total snap decision which was based on money and I never make decisions based on money. I learned a big lesson from that." She signed a contract with Island Records, valued at more than $24 million, and launched the record label MonarC. Carey's father, Alfred Roy, with whom she had had little contact since childhood, died of cancer that year. Her song "Sunflowers for Alfred Roy" from Charmbracelet is dedicated to his memory. In 2002, she was cast in the independent film WiseGirls alongside Mira Sorvino and Melora Walters, who co-starred as waitresses at a mobster-operated restaurant. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, and received negative reviews, though Carey's performance was praised. Roger Friedman of Fox News described her as "a Thelma Ritter for the new millennium", and wrote, "Her line delivery is sharp and she manages to get the right laughs."

In December 2002, Carey released her ninth studio album, Charmbracelet, which she said marked "a new lease on life" for her. Sales of Charmbracelet were moderate and the quality of Carey's vocals came under criticism. Joan Anderson from The Boston Globe declared the album "the worst of her career, and revealed a voice [that is] no longer capable of either gravity-defying gymnastics or soft coos", while AllMusic editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote, "Mariah's voice is shot, sounding in tatters throughout the record. She can no longer coo or softly croon nor can she perform her trademark gravity-defying vocal runs." To support the album, Carey embarked on the Charmbracelet World Tour, spanning North America and East Asia over three months. While smaller venues were booked throughout the tour's stateside leg, Carey performed in stadiums in Asia and Europe. In the United Kingdom, it was her first tour to feature shows outside London. The tour garnered generally positive reviews, with many praising the production and Carey's vocals.

2005–2007: Resurgence with The Emancipation of Mimi


Carey's tenth studio album, The Emancipation of Mimi in 2005, was produced with the Neptunes, Kanye West and Carey's longtime collaborator, Jermaine Dupri. She described the album as "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 topped the charts in the United States, becoming her fifth number-one album and first since Butterfly (1997), and was warmly accepted by critics. Caroline Sullivan of The Guardian defined it as "cool, focused and urban [... some of] the first Mariah Carey tunes in years which I wouldn't have to be paid to listen to again," while USA Today's Elysa Gardner wrote, "The [songs] truly reflect the renewed confidence of a songbird who has taken her shots and kept on flying." The album's second single, "We Belong Together", became a "career re-defining" song for Carey, after a relatively unsuccessful period and a point when many critics had considered her career over.

Music critics heralded the song as her "return to form," as well as the "return of The Voice," while many felt it would revive "faith" in Carey's potential as a balladeer. "We Belong Together" broke several records in the United States and became Carey's sixteenth chart topper on the Billboard Hot 100. After staying at number one for fourteen non-consecutive weeks, the song became the second-longest-running number one song in US chart history, behind Carey's "One Sweet Day". Billboard listed it as the "song of the decade" and the ninth most popular song of all time. The song broke several airplay records, and according to Nielsen BDS, and gathered both the largest one-day and one-week audiences in history.

During the week of September 25, 2005, Carey set another record, becoming the first woman to occupy the first two spots atop the Hot 100, as "We Belong Together" remained at number one, and her next single, "Shake It Off", moved into the number two spot (Ashanti had topped the chart in 2002 while being a "featured" singer on the number two single). On the US Billboard Hot 100 Year-end Chart of 2005, "We Belong Together" was declared the number one song, a first for Carey. Billboard listed "We Belong Together" ninth on The Billboard Hot 100 All-Time Top Songs and was declared the most popular song of the 2000s decade by Billboard. The album was re-released as The Ultra Platinum Edition, from which "Don't Forget About Us" became her seventeenth number-one in the United States.

The Emancipation of Mimi earned ten Grammy Award nominations: eight in 2006 for the original release, the most received by Carey in a single year, and two in 2007 for the Ultra Platinum Edition. Carey won Best Contemporary R&B Album and Best Female R&B Vocal Performance and Best R&B Song for "We Belong Together". The Emancipation of Mimi was 2005's best-selling album in the United States, with nearly five million units sold. It was the first album by a solo female artist to become the year's best-selling album within the country since Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill in 1996. At the end of 2005, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) reported that The Emancipation of Mimi had sold more than 7.7 million copies globally, and was the second-best-selling album of the year after Coldplay's X&Y. It has since sold 12 million copies worldwide. In support of the album, Carey embarked on her first headlining tour in three years, named The Adventures of Mimi after a "Carey-centric fan's" music diary. The tour spanned 40 dates, with 32 in the United States and Canada, two in Africa, and six in Japan. It received warm reception from music critics and concert goers, many of which lauded Carey's vocals.

2008–2009: E=MC², Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel, and Precious
In early 2007, Carey began to work on her eleventh studio album, E=MC². Although the album was well received by most critics, some of them criticized it for being very similar to the formula used on The Emancipation of Mimi. Two weeks before the album's release, "Touch My Body", the record's lead single, reached the top position on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Carey's eighteenth number one and making her the solo artist with the most number one singles in United States history, pushing her past Elvis Presley into second place according to the magazine's revised methodology. Carey is second only to The Beatles, who have twenty number-one singles. Additionally, it gave Carey her 79th week atop the Hot 100, tying her with Presley as the artist with the most weeks at number one in the Billboard chart history."



E=MC² debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 with 463,000 copies sold, the biggest opening week sales of her career. In 2008, Carey also played an aspiring singer named Krystal in Tennessee and had a cameo appearance in Adam Sandler's film You Don't Mess with the Zohan, playing herself. Since the album's release, Carey had planned to embark on an extensive tour in support of E=MC². However, the tour was suddenly cancelled in early December 2008. Carey later stated that she had been pregnant during that time period, and suffered a miscarriage, prompting the tour's cancellation. On January 20, 2009, Carey performed "Hero" at the Neighborhood Inaugural Ball after Barack Obama was sworn as the first African-American president of the United States. On July 7, 2009, Carey—alongside Trey Lorenz—performed her version of "I'll Be There" at the memorial service for Michael Jackson.

In 2009, she appeared as a social worker in Precious, the movie adaptation of the 1996 novel Push by Sapphire. The film garnered mostly positive reviews from critics, also for Carey's performance. Variety described her acting as "pitch-perfect." In January 2010, Carey won the Breakthrough Actress Performance Award for her role in Precious at the Palm Springs International Film Festival.

On September 25, 2009, Carey's twelfth studio album, Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel, was released. Reception for the album was mostly mixed; Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic called it "her most interesting album in a decade," while Jon Caramanica from The New York Times criticized Carey's vocal performances, complaining she overused softer vocal registers at the expense of her more powerful lower and upper registers. Commercially, the album debuted at number three on the Billboard 200, her first album in seven years not to top the chart. "Obsessed" served as the lead single, and debuted at number eleven in the US before peaked at number seven, and became Carey's 27th top-ten entry within the nation, tying her with Elton John and Janet Jackson for having the fifth most top-tens. Its follow-up single, a cover of Foreigner's "I Want to Know What Love Is", managed to break airplay records in Brazil. The song spent 27 weeks atop the Brasil Hot 100, making it the longest running song in the chart's history.

On December 31, 2009, Carey embarked on her seventh concert tour, Angels Advocate Tour, which visited the United States and Canada and ended on September 26, 2010. A planned remix album of Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel, titled Angels Advocate, was slated for a March 30, 2010, release but was eventually cancelled after Island Def Jam decided to instead distribute "Up Out My Face" with Nicki Minaj and "Angels Cry" with Ne-Yo as stand-alone releases.

2010–2014: Merry Christmas II You and Me. I Am Mariah... The Elusive Chanteuse
Following the cancellation of Angels Advocate, it was announced that Carey would return to the studio to start work on her thirteenth studio album. It was later revealed that it would be her second Christmas album, and follow-up to Merry Christmas. The release date for the album, titled Merry Christmas II You, was November 2, 2010; the track list included six new songs as well as a remix of "All I Want for Christmas Is You". Merry Christmas II You debuted at number four on the Billboard 200 with sales of 56,000 copies, and number one on the R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, making it only the second Christmas album to top this chart. In February 2011, she recorded a duet with Tony Bennett for his Duets II album, titled "When Do The Bells Ring For Me?", and re-recorded "All I Want for Christmas Is You" with Justin Bieber as a duet for his Christmas album, Under the Mistletoe. In November that year, Carey was included in the remix to the mixtape single "Warning" by Uncle Murda; the remix also features 50 Cent and Young Jeezy. Later that month, Carey released a duet with John Legend titled "When Christmas Comes", originally part of Merry Christmas II You.



On March 1, 2012, Carey performed at New York City's Gotham Hall; her first time performing since her pregnancy. She also performed a three-song set at a special fundraiser for US President Barack Obama held in New York's Plaza Hotel. A new song titled "Bring It On Home", which Carey wrote for the event to show her support for Obama's re-election campaign, was also performed. In August 2012, she released a stand-alone single, "Triumphant (Get 'Em)", featuring rappers Rick Ross and Meek Mill. Carey joined the judging panel of the twelfth season of American Idol. Throughout the show there were on-set disagreements between Carey and fellow judge Nicki Minaj. Three years later, Carey did not make an appearance for its original series finale. In 2013, Carey appeared in Lee Daniels' film The Butler and had a guest role voicing as a redneck character on the adult animated series American Dad!.

In February 2013, Carey recorded and released a song called "Almost Home", for the soundtrack of The Walt Disney Studios film Oz the Great and Powerful. The video was directed by photographer David LaChapelle. For her 14th album, she worked with producers including DJ Clue?, Randy Jackson, Q-Tip, R. Kelly, David Morales, Afanasieff, Dupri, The-Dream, and Da Brat. Carey told Billboard: "It's about making sure I have tons of good music, because at the end of the day that's the most important thing... There are a lot more raw ballads than people might expect...there are also uptempo and signature-type songs that represent [my] different facets as an artist." The lead single, "Beautiful", featuring singer Miguel, was released on May 6, 2013, and peaked at number 15 on the Hot 100. Carey taped a performance of "Beautiful" along with a medley of her greatest hits on May 15, 2013. This taping aired on the American Idol season finale the following day. After multiple delays, The album, titled Me. I Am Mariah... The Elusive Chanteuse, was released on May 27, 2014.

In October 2014, Carey announced an annual residency show All I Want for Christmas Is You: A Night of Joy and Festivity. Originally performed at the Beacon Theatre in New York City, the residency began on December 15, 2014, and ended in 2019.

2015–2017: #1 to Infinity residency, television and film projects
On January 30, 2015, it was announced that Carey had left Universal Music Group's Def Jam Recordings to reunite with L.A. Reid and Sony Music via Epic Records. Carey also announced her new #1 to Infinity residency at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas the same month. To coincide with the residency, Carey released #1 to Infinity, a greatest hits compilation album containing all of her eighteen Billboard Hot 100 number one singles at the time, along with a new recording, "Infinity", which was released as a single on April 27. In 2015 Carey had her directorial debut for the Hallmark Channel Christmas movie A Christmas Melody, in which she also performed as one of the main characters. In December 2015, Carey announced The Sweet Sweet Fantasy Tour which spanned a total of 27-dates beginning in March 2016, marking Carey's first major tour of mainland Europe in 13 years. Four stops included shows in South Africa. The tour grossed $30.3 million.



On March 15, 2016, Carey announced that she was filming Mariah's World, a docu-series for the E! network documenting her Sweet Sweet Fantasy tour and her wedding planning process. Carey told The New York Times, "I thought it would be a good opportunity to kind of, like, show my personality and who I am, even though I feel like my real fans have an idea of who I am... A lot of people have misperceptions about this and that." The series premiered on December 4, 2016. Carey guest starred on the musical drama Empire, as a superstar singer named Kitty and sung the song "Infamous" featuring Jussie Smollett. On December 5, 2016, Carey participated in the VH1 Divas Holiday: Unsilent Night benefit concert, alongside Vanessa Williams, Chaka Khan, Patti LaBelle, and Teyana Taylor. On December 31, 2016, Carey's performance on Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve in Times Square received worldwide attention after technical difficulties caused her in-ear monitors to malfunction, resulting in what The New York Times referred to as a "performance train wreck." She said her inability to hear the music without in-ear auditory feedback caused the mishap. Carey's representatives and Dick Clark Productions placed blame on each other.

On February 3, 2017, Carey released the single "I Don't" featuring YG. Later that month, she voiced the Mayor of Gotham City in the animated film The Lego Batman Movie. In July 2017, Carey made a cameo in the comedy film Girls Trip and embarked on a tour with Lionel Richie, titled, All the Hits Tour. She was also featured in the official remix for French Montana's single "Unforgettable", alongside Swae Lee. In October 2017, Carey released a new soundtrack single, "The Star", for the movie of the same name She also voiced a hen named Rebecca in the film. The song was nominated for the Best Original Song at the 75th Golden Globe Awards. Carey additionally developed an animated Christmas film, Mariah Carey's All I Want For Christmas Is You, for which she recorded an original song called "Lil' Snowman". The film was released direct-to-video on November 14, 2017. On December 31, 2017, Carey returned to perform on Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve after the technical difficulties that hindered her previous performance, in what The New York Times described as a "made-for-television act of pop culture redemption".

2018–2019: Caution and Merry Christmas reissue


In July 2018, Carey embarked on a new Las Vegas residency, The Butterfly Returns, which received critical acclaim. Its first 12 shows in 2018 grossed $3.6 million, with dates later extending into 2019 and 2020. Following the residency, Carey embarked on her Mariah Carey: Live in Concert tour in Asia and returned to Europe with her All I Want for Christmas Is You concert series. In September 2018, Carey announced plans to release her fifteenth studio album later in the year. The project was announced alongside the release of a new song titled "GTFO", which she performed on September 21, 2018, when she headlined the 2018 iHeartRadio Music Festival. The album's lead single, "With You", was released in October and performed for the first time at the American Music Awards of 2018. It became Carey's highest-charting non-holiday song on the US Adult Contemporary chart since "We Belong Together" in 2005. This was followed by a second single, "A No No". The album, titled Caution, was released on November 16, 2018, and received universal acclaim from critics. It debuted at number five on the Billboard 200, but became her lowest-selling album to date and ultimately was her final release with Epic Records; she quietly left the label sometime in 2019. By December 2018, the album had been featured on numerous year-end lists by music critics and publications.

In February 2019, Carey commenced the Caution World Tour in support of the album. Later in 2019, Carey engaged in a series of business and television ventures. On September 18, 2019, Carey released "In the Mix", the theme song for the ABC sitcom Mixed-ish. On November 1, 2019, Carey re-released her holiday album Merry Christmas for its 25th anniversary. The album package included the original album and another disc which include live performances from Carey's 1994 concert at St. John the Divine Church, several tracks from Merry Christmas II You, as well as other stand-alone singles such as "Lil Snowman" and "The Star". On December 5, 2019, it was announced that a mini-documentary titled Mariah Carey Is Christmas!, charting the creation and subsequent cultural legacy of "All I Want for Christmas Is You" was to be produced and broadcast on Amazon Music; it premiered later that month. Peaking at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time the same year, the song ended up giving Carey her nineteenth chart-topper in the US.

2020–2023: The Rarities and The Meaning of Mariah Carey
In January 2020, it was announced that Carey would be inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Carey celebrated the 30th anniversary of her debut album through 2020, in a promotional campaign billed "#MC30". The first release consisted of the live EP The Live Debut – 1990 which was released on July 17, 2020. Her memoir, The Meaning of Mariah Carey which was co-written with Michaela Angela Davis, was published in September of the same year. The memoir reached number one on The New York Times Best Seller list after its first week of release. On October 2, 2020, Carey released a compilation album titled The Rarities, which includes rare and unreleased songs that Carey recorded at various stages of her career. Its songs included "Save the Day" featuring Lauryn Hill and a cover of Irene Cara's "Out Here on My Own". At the end of October, Carey was featured on Busta Rhymes' single "Where I Belong". Carey's 2020 Christmas special, Mariah Carey's Magical Christmas Special, premiered on December 4, 2020, on Apple TV+ along with a soundtrack. A new version of Carey's 2010 song "Oh Santa!", featuring Ariana Grande and Jennifer Hudson, was released as a single the same day. "All I Want for Christmas Is You" topped the UK chart for the first time that month, becoming her third number one in the nation, and spent an unprecedented 69 weeks in its top 40 before reaching the summit.



In July 2021, Carey was featured on the track "Somewhat Loved" from Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis' debut studio album Jam & Lewis: Volume One. On November 5, 2021, Carey released "Fall in Love at Christmas", which features Khalid and Kirk Franklin. The single was performed on her second Christmas special, Mariah's Christmas: The Magic Continues. In March 2022, Carey was featured alongside DJ Khaled on the remix of Latto's single "Big Energy", which interpolates Carey's 1995 single "Fantasy". In April, an online course from MasterClass based on singing, in which Carey served as a vocal coach, was released. On September 16, 2022, an expanded version of Butterfly was released for the 25th anniversary of the album. In November, Carey released a children's picture book titled The Christmas Princess, co-written with Michaela Angela Davis and illustrated by Fuuji Takashi. In December 2022, Carey performed two pairs of shows at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto and Madison Square Garden in New York City. Carey also served as a co-producer of Some Like It Hot on Broadway, a musical based on the 1959 comedy film Some Like It Hot. It earned her a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Musical.

In February 2023, the 2009 track "It's a Wrap" experienced a revival on TikTok, prompting Carey to release an EP for the song, which included a new sped-up version. On September 8, 2023, she released a deluxe version of Music Box in celebration of the album's thirtieth anniversary. A remix of "Workin Hard" by Terry Hunter, which featured on the deluxe album, was nominated for Best Remixed Recording, Non-Classical at the 66th Annual Grammy Awards. Carey embarked on her 16-date concert tour, Merry Christmas One and All!, which ran from November 15 to December 17, 2023 in the United States. The tour grossed approximately $30 million and sold more than 200,000 tickets.

2024–present: The Celebration of Mimi
On February 16, 2024, Carey featured on the remix of Ariana Grande's single "Yes, And?", which was included in the "slightly deluxe" edition of Grande's seventh studio album, Eternal Sunshine. On April 12, Carey began a new residency at the Dolby Live in Las Vegas titled The Celebration of Mimi. On May 21, Carey appeared on the remix to Muni Long's "Made for Me". In June, Carey released an expanded edition of Rainbow to coincide with its twenty-fifth anniversary. While promoting the re-release, she said that new music was being worked on.

Influences
Carey has said that from childhood she has been influenced by Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan as well as R&B and soul musicians including Al Green, Stevie Wonder, Gladys Knight, Aretha Franklin, and George Michael. Her music contains strong influences of gospel music, and she credits the Clark Sisters, Shirley Caesar, and Edwin Hawkins as the most influential in her early years. 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, with whom she collaborated on the single "The Roof (Back in Time)" (1998). Carey was heavily influenced by Minnie Riperton, and began experimenting with the whistle register due to her original practice of the range.

During Carey's career, her vocal and musical style, along with her level of success, has been compared to Whitney Houston, whom she has also cited as an influence. 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." Author and writer Lucy O'Brien attributed the comeback of Barbra Streisand's "old-fashioned showgirl" to Carey and Celine Dion, and described them and Houston as "groomed, airbrushed and overblown to perfection." 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." Some have noted that unlike Houston and Dion, Carey writes and produces her own music.

Musical style


Love is the subject of the majority of Carey's lyrics, although she has written about themes such as loss, sex, race, abuse and spirituality. She has said that much of her work is partly autobiographical, but Time magazine's Christopher John Farley 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," applying it to the first stages of her career. He commented that as her albums progressed, so too her songwriting and music blossomed into more mature and meaningful material. Jim Faber of the New York Daily News, made similar comments, "For Carey, vocalizing is all about the performance, not the emotions that inspired it. Singing, to her, represents a physical challenge, not an emotional unburdening." While reviewing Music Box, Stephen Holden from Rolling Stone commented that Carey sang with "sustained passion," while Arion Berger of Entertainment Weekly wrote that during some vocal moments, Carey becomes "too overwhelmed to put her passion into words." In 2001, The Village Voice wrote that "Carey's Strawberry Shortcake soul still provides the template with which teen-pop cuties draw curlicues around those centerless [Diane] Warren ballads."

Following Carey's divorce with Tommy Mottola, Carey broke free of adult contemporary arrangements in favor of what Alex Macpherson of The Guardian described as "a lovingly crafted, hip-hop-inflected quiet storm". Carey often records her layered background vocals, which has been described as "a swooning bank of a hundred Mariahs". The singer claims that "it's because I started out as a backup singer and doing sessions as a background vocalist learning from some of the greatest background vocalists, and also people like Luther Vandross. Growing up, I admired his texture in and of itself but also his use of background vocals". David Foster stated that Carey "thinks like a record producer and lays her vocals down like a virtuoso guitarist". Carey's songwriting is noted for its "eccentric verbosity". Jeffrey Ingold of Vice argues that her lyrics are "among the most verbose in pop music."

Carey's output makes use of electronic instruments such as drum machines, keyboards and synthesizers. Many of her songs contain piano-driven melodies, as she was given piano lessons at age six. Carey said that she cannot read sheet music and prefers to collaborate with a pianist when composing her material, but feels that it is easier to experiment with faster and less-conventional melodies and chord progressions using this technique. While Carey learned to play the piano at a young age, and incorporates several ranges of production and instrumentation into her music, she has maintained that her voice has always been her most important asset: "My voice is my instrument; it always has been."

Carey began commissioning remixes of her material early in her career and helped to spearhead the practice of recording entirely new vocals for remixes. Disc jockey David Morales has collaborated with Carey on several occasions, starting with "Dreamlover" (1993), which popularized the tradition of remixing R&B songs into house records, and which Slant Magazine named one of the greatest dance songs. From "Fantasy" (1995) onward, Carey enlisted both hip-hop and house producers to re-structure her album compositions. Entertainment Weekly included two remixes of "Fantasy" on a list of Carey's greatest recordings compiled in 2005: a National Dance Music Award-winning remix produced by Morales, and a Sean Combs production featuring rapper Ol' Dirty Bastard. The latter has been credited with popularizing the R&B/hip-hop collaboration trend that has continued into the 2000s, through artists such as Ashanti and Beyoncé. Combs said that Carey "knows the importance of mixes, so you feel like you're with an artist who appreciates your work—an artist who wants to come up with something with you."

In an article in The New York Times, writer David Browne discusses how the once-ubiquitous melisma pop style was heavily popularized by singers such as Carey. Browne commented, "beginning [in 1990], melisma overtook pop in a way it hadn't before. Mariah Carey's debut hit from 1990, 'Vision of Love', [set] the bar insanely high for notes stretched louder, longer and knottier than most pop fans had ever heard." Browne further added "A subsequent generation of singers, including Ms. Aguilera, Jennifer Hudson and Beyoncé, built their careers around melisma. (Men like Brian McKnight and Tyrese also indulged in it, but women tended to dominate the form.)"

Voice and timbre
Carey possesses a five-octave vocal range. Referred to as the "Songbird Supreme" by the Guinness World Records due to her ability to sing in the whistle register, she was ranked as the greatest singer of the past twenty years in a 2003 MTV2 online poll. Carey said of the result, "What it really means is voice of the MTV generation. Of course, it's an enormous compliment, but I don't feel that way about myself." In 2023, Rolling Stone named her the fifth-greatest singer of all time and the "architect of modern pop".

Regarding her type of voice, several critics have described her as a lyric coloratura soprano or just a soprano. Jon Pareles of The New York Times described Carey's lower register as a "rich, husky alto" that extends to "dog-whistle high notes." She once described herself as an alto singer. Sasha Frere-Jones of The New Yorker adds her timbre on "Vision of Love" possesses various colors, stating, "Carey's sound changes with nearly every line, mutating from a steely tone to a vibrating growl and then to a humid, breathy coo." In an analysis of Carey's voice for ClassicFM, singer Catherine Bott claims that Carey's chest voice could go up "higher in pitch than any classical singer that I've ever met."

Her sense of pitch is admired and Jon Pareles adds "she can linger over sensual turns, growl with playful confidence, syncopate like a scat singer... with startlingly exact pitch." Carey claims that she has had nodules on her vocal cords since childhood, enabling her to sing in a higher register than others. However, tiredness and sleep deprivation can affect them due to the nodules, and Carey explained that she went through a lot of practice as a child to maintain a balance during singing. Carey is noted for her vocal improvisation skills.

Towards the late 1990s, she began incorporating breathy vocals into her material. Tim Levell from BBC News described her vocals as "sultry close-to-the-mic breathiness," while USA Today's Elysa Gardner wrote "it's impossible to deny the impact her vocal style, a florid blend of breathy riffing and resonant belting, has had on today's young pop and R&B stars." In an interview, Ron Givens of Entertainment Weekly described it this way, "first, a rippling, soulful ooh comes rolling effortlessly from her throat: alto. Then, after a quick breath, she goes for the stratosphere, with a sound that nearly changes the barometric pressure in the room. In one brief swoop, she seems to squeal and roar at the same time."

Alex Macpherson of The Guardian noted that Carey's voice on Butterfly is "an instrument of texture rather than volume, with pillows of lavishly layered vocals and nuanced phrasing magnifying the emotional intensity of the songs." Randy Jackson said that "It's in the tone, that buttery tone that she has with her voice that is unbelievably amazing and unbelievably identifiable."

Stage performances and videos


Despite being called a "show stopper" and "the 1990s pop phenomenon", Carey suffered from stage fright in her early years in the music industry. One of her earliest performances was at MTV Unplugged, which received positive reception as Carey silenced critics saying her vocals were studio-made. Carey's "The Star-Spangled Banner" rendition at the Super Bowl XXXVI was called "stunning" by Billboard. She also performed "America the Beautiful" at the 1990 NBA Finals in which Rolling Stone writer, Brittany Spanos, stated the players were struck "with awe by the incredible talent of a burgeoning young star". The singer received the only standing ovation of the night at the 48th Annual Grammy Awards, after performing the medley of "We Belong Together and "Fly Like a Bird". Although Carey's performance at Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve 2017 was marred by technical issues, she returned to the stage a year later and, according to Time, "effectively redeemed herself".

Carey is known for being very static during her live performances. Some reviewers credited her stage fright and lack of confidence as the reasoning, while others pointed out that her performances focus on her vocals and the quality of her songs. Her onstage hand gesticulations have usually been mimicked, as the singer has a tendency for "using her hands to point, flutter and sweep through the air as she deftly crests each run". When reviewing Carey's 2014 concert, Michael Lallo wrote that "If you're Mariah, you ... stroke your hair a lot. When a high note is on the horizon, you brace yourself by touching your ear and adopting a pained expression, provoking the crowd into losing its collective mind."

Carey had been open about the fact that she had not been happy with some of her early music videos, and has subsequently been noted for self-directing and co-producing her subsequent videography. The music video for "Fantasy" was the first that Carey directed entirely on her own, and "Honey" pushed Carey further towards hip hop and R&B than before. Its music video gained further attention, as Carey, for the first time in her career, was provocatively dressed, giving viewers a "taste of the freer Mariah." In 2007, author Saul Austerlitz wrote Carey had been "marketed as a whitebread pop princess" in her earlier music videos, adding the plots, directorial styles, clothes, and auras from later videos like "Heartbreaker" were very different and she was displayed as an "R&B diva". Billboard ranked Carey 73rd on its list of "The 100 Greatest Music Video Artists of All Time" in 2020, stating that "over three decades, [Carey] has gone from breezy girl next door, flaunting a denim collection as wide as her vocal range, to secret agent, runaway bride and even her own stalker in a collection of music videos that play like mini-dramas". The music video for "The Roof" was ranked 18th on Slant Magazine's "100 Greatest Music Videos. The music videos for "Honey" and "Heartbreaker" remain among the most expensive ever made, costing over $2 million. In 2021, Carey was honoured at the African American Film Critics Association with a Special Achievement Innovator Award for her "visual storytelling in her music videos and specials".

Public image
Carey adopted a polished image at the beginning of her career due to Mottola's influence. She was depicted more sexually in her music videos after their separation. Carey has since been described as a sex symbol. The singer mentions Marilyn Monroe as one of her biggest idols and her "beauty icon", and she referenced Monroe in some of her music videos, such as "I Still Believe" or "Don't Forget About Us". Her album Butterfly has been credited for revamping Carey's image as a pop star where she began to embrace hip hop and R&B themes and fully come into her own self, resulting in butterflies becoming a metaphorical symbol of her impact and legacy upon pop and R&B music. In the early 2000s, Carey was a "tabloid fixture" and her public breakdown during the promotion of her 2001 film, Glitter, became the "stuff of tabloid legend" according to Justin Curto, writer for Vulture. Her return to prominence in 2005 with the album The Emancipation of Mimi is regarded as one of the greatest musical comebacks in history. After joining American Idol as a judge for the twelfth season, Carey became one of the highest paid American television stars ever with a $18 million paycheck. Emilia Petrarca of W stated that "Carey is uber-cautious about cultivating her public image" but that when it comes to style, she is "more do than don't".

Carey has been called a pop icon  and has been labeled a "diva" for her stardom and persona. She said, "I have had diva moments, and then people can't handle it. I guess it's a little intense, because I come from a true diva: My mother is an opera singer. And that's a real diva, you know—Juilliard diva. And I mean it as a compliment, or I wouldn't be the person I am without experiencing that." Carey's fanbase is known as the "Lambily", a portmanteau of "lamb" and "family". With over 10 million followers as of April 2013, Carey is one of the most popular musicians on Twitter. Her fans are credited with originating the internet term "skinny legend", used as a form of praise and endearment for their idol. In 2008, Carey was named one of Time's 100 most influential artists and entertainers in the world. Now writer Kevin Hegge agreed that "Carey's influence is indisputable".



Her style has often been described as "eccentric" and "over the top". Writer Noah Berlatsky noted that "Carey has always reveled in uber-feminine, girly imagery", with her album titles such as Butterfly, Rainbow, Glitter and Charmbracelet being prime examples. In her memoir, she stated, "I refuse to acknowledge time. (...) Not living based on time became a way to hold on to myself, to keep close and keep alive that inner child of mine. It's why I gravitate toward enduring characters like Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy and Tinker Bell. They remind me we can be timeless." Tom Breihan of Stereogum wrote in 2015 that "decades from now, we will be looking back at Mariah Carey as one of the most gloriously batshit pop stars of all time."

Elle called Carey the "Queen of Shade" in 2016. When asked about American singer Jennifer Lopez in a German TV interview, Carey's response was, "I don't know her". The clip became a viral internet meme and has been brought up in other interviews. After the release of "Obsessed", critics heavily compared its lyrics to Eminem who had negatively referenced her several times in songs, and suggested Carey alluded to him and his "obsession" with her. "Obsessed" never mentions the rapper's name, although reviewers felt it to be very obvious. Additionally, Carey played a role that resembled the rapper in the song's accompanying music video.

Due to her large gay fanbase, Carey is recognized as a gay icon and her song "Hero" is regarded as a gay anthem as it touches upon themes of embracing individuality and overcoming self-doubt. According to Carey herself, a lot of her gay fans admitted to also be growing up listening to her song "Outside" and relating to the feeling of isolation and unfitting. Her diva persona has also given her much admiration from gay fans. Carey was honored by GLAAD in 2016 with the GLAAD Ally Award for which she expressed gratitude to her LGBT+ fans. In her speech she thanked the community, "For the unconditional love ... I wish all of you love, peace, [and] harmony".

Fashion has also been a part of Carey's image. She was declared a fashion icon by Insider Inc. writer Susanna Heller who added that "her decadent closet spans multiple rooms and is full of designer clothing, lingerie, shoes, and accessories". CR Fashion Book writer Shepherd also stated that while her "sartorial aesthetic has shifted here and there ..., the music icon largely favors sexy, skin-baring, and often bedazzled looks. During her tours, she has frequently worn Jimmy Choo and Christian Louboutin high-end stiletto footwear, as well as leotards, corsets, and fishnet tights. Laura Antonia Jordan of Grazia called Carey fashion "royalty" and stated that in the 1990s, her go-to looks were "super-tight silhouettes, cropped tops, thigh-grazing hemlines and dangerously high slits." Carey has also been credited for beginning the trend of wearing low-rise jeans in the early 2000s, after cutting off the waistband of the denim she wore for the music video of "Heartbreaker", which have since been described as "iconic".  Vogue writer Christian Allaire stated that in the latter half of her career, Carey has "rarely hit without her evening gowns, often embellished with crystals, sequins, or feathers."

Queen of Christmas


"All I Want for Christmas Is You", as well as its parent album Merry Christmas, have become such a ubiquitous part of wider popular culture that Carey's name became synonymous with the season, and she has since been dubbed the "Queen of Christmas". Both the song and album were hailed as being "one of the few worthy modern additions to the holiday canon" by The New Yorker in 2006. Speaking to Vogue in 2015, Elvis Duran stated that the song's appeal was based on the fact that it was "a modern song that could actually have been a hit back in the '40s", praising its "timeless, classic quality". The success of the song, in particular, has led Carey to build what Billboard described as a "growing holiday mini-empire".

Multiple media sources have referred to Carey as a holiday icon. The singer has often incorporated holiday-themed outfits during her Christmas shows and music videos. Billboard noted that "each year, her reign gets grander and more festive. (...) Over the years, [Carey] has rocked nearly every shade of red for the season's fashions, from plunging gowns and floor-length coats to ensembles inspired by Santa, Mrs. Claus and The Nutcracker toy soldiers. She's also a pro at pulling off winter white, whether she's wearing a snow-white dress covered in crystals or a fluffy hood tailor-made for keeping the December chill at bay." Due to the song's ongoing popularity, as well as social media memes that show retail workers' disdain for the song due to its frequent airplay at their jobs (which sometimes require the round-the-clock display of Christmas music), Carey has taken advantage of this by posting a video on her social media every year since 2019 around midnight Eastern time on November 1, announcing that "it's time" to play the song.

Carey initially rejected the title, saying that "to me, Mother Mary is the Queen of Christmas". Despite this, in March 2021, she attempted to trademark the phrase "Queen of Christmas", which received backlash from singers Darlene Love and Elizabeth Chan. In November 2022, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board denied Carey's request.

Legacy
Carey's enduring popularity as a musician has received extensive recognition, with Anne Branigin from The Root commenting: "There's longevity, then there's Mariah Carey". When reviewing her fifteenth studio album, Caution, Eddino Hadi wrote, "In the last three decades since she made her debut, many female pop stars have scaled the heights that Carey has reached but very, very few have matched her longevity". She is the first artist to reach number-one on the Billboard Hot 100 in the physical, digital, and streaming eras. Carey's music has been recorded, performed or sampled by a variety of artists such as Aretha Franklin, Patti LaBelle, Dolly Parton, Luciano Pavarotti, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Shania Twain, Michael Ball, Bryson Tiller, Drake, Fifth Harmony, and Sigala. The 2019 film Always Be My Maybe was a play-on-words of Carey's 1996 single "Always Be My Baby", which was used as the movie's theme song.



Carey has also been credited for her role in breaking down racial barriers in popular culture and facilitating public discourse surrounding multiracialism during the 1990s. Brittany Luse from Vulture wrote that Carey "rose to fame as public conversations about multiracial identity were expanding in the early '90s", noting that the singer "became something of an avatar for biracial identity, a validating presence for some and a source of both curiosity and discomfort for others". Luse concluded that "Carey's experience of fame could have happened only once; her stardom punched a hole in the sky. Her career matured as current conversations about mixed identity were still forming and while the passing narratives of the past, both brilliant and clumsy, had yet to fade from pop-cultural memory. There was a time when she might have been considered the most famous mixed person of Black and white parentage in America, but now the field's far more crowded". In her book Tragic No More: Mixed-Race Women and the Nexus of Sex and Celebrity, Caroline A. Streeter, an associate professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, also described Carey as one of the "ideal figures through which to consider the post-Civil Rights era's apparent rehabilitation and transformation of the mulatto/a into a biracial subject of representation".

Vocal influence
Carey's vocal style, as well as her singing ability, have significantly impacted popular and contemporary music. She has been considered one of the greatest vocalists. As music critic G. Brown from The Denver Post wrote, "For better or worse, Mariah Carey's five-octave range and melismatic style have influenced a generation of pop singers." According to Stevie Wonder, "When people talk about the great influential singers, they talk about Aretha, Whitney and Mariah. That's a testament to her talent. Her range is that amazing." Carey has inspired singers and songwriters all over the world. In a review of her Greatest Hits album, Devon Powers of PopMatters writes that "She has influenced countless female vocalists after her. At 32, she is already a living legend—even if she never sings another note."

Multiple media sources referred to Carey as the "Queen of Melisma". According to Rolling Stone, "Her mastery of melisma, the fluttering strings of notes that decorate songs like "Vision of Love", inspired the entire American Idol vocal school, for better or worse, and virtually every other female R&B singer since the Nineties." Chart historian Tom Breihan chose "Vision of Love" as one of the chapters in his book The Number Ones: Twenty Chart-Topping Hits That Reveal the History of Pop Music, stating that it "established melisma-heavy R&B as a powerful commercial force". Author Bruce Pollock said the song led "to a generation of aspiring belters from Beyoncé to Rihanna to Christina Aguilera".

In 2008, Jody Rosen of Slate wrote of Carey's influence in music, calling her the most influential vocal stylist of the last two decades, the person who made rococo melismatic singing. Rosen further exemplified Carey's influence by drawing a parallel with American Idol, which to her, "often played out as a clash of melisma-mad Mariah wannabes. And, today, nearly 20 years after Carey's debut, major labels continue to bet the farm on young stars such as the winner of Britain's X Factor show, Leona Lewis, with her Generation Next gloss on Mariah's big voice and big hair." New York magazine's editor Roger Deckker further commented that "Whitney Houston may have introduced melisma (the vocally acrobatic style of lending a word an extra syllable or twenty) to the charts, but it was Mariah—with her jaw-dropping range—who made it into America's default sound." Deckker also added that "Every time you turn on American Idol, you are watching her children." As Professor Katherine L. Meizel said in her book, The Mediation of Identity Politics in American Idol, "Carey's influence [is] in the emulation of melisma or her singing amongst the wannabes, it's also her persona, her diva, her stardom which inspires them ... a pre-fame conic look."

Popularizing remixes
The impact of Carey's artistry has helped popularize rappers as a featured act in pop music through her post-1995 songs. She has been called the "Queen of Remixes" by multiple media sources, with Princess Gabbara of MTV News writing that it is "no secret that [Carey] goes to great lengths to deliver a spectacular remix, often re-recording vocals, penning new lyrics, shooting new music videos, and recording different versions to satisfy pop, R&B, hip-hop, and EDM audiences".

Sasha Frere-Jones, editor of The New Yorker commented, "It became standard for R&B/hip-hop stars like Missy Elliott and Beyoncé, to combine melodies with rapped verses. And young white pop stars—including Britney Spears, 'N Sync and Christina Aguilera—have spent much of the past ten years making pop music that is unmistakably R&B." Moreover, Jones concludes that "[Carey's] idea of pairing a female songbird with the leading male MCs of hip-hop changed R&B and, eventually, all of pop. Although now anyone is free to use this idea, the success of The Emancipation of Mimi suggests that it still belongs to Carey." Judnick Mayard, writer of The Fader, wrote that in regarding of R&B and hip hop collaboration, "The champion of this movement is Mariah Carey." Mayard also said that "To this day ODB and Mariah may still be the best and most random hip hop collaboration of all time", adding that due to the record "Fantasy", "R&B and Hip-Hop were the best of step siblings." Kelefa Sanneh of The New York Times wrote, "In the mid-1990s Ms. Carey pioneered a subgenre that some people call the thug-love duet. Nowadays clean-cut pop stars are expected to collaborate with roughneck rappers, but when Ms. Carey teamed up with Ol' Dirty Bastard, of the Wu-Tang Clan, for the 1995 hit remix of 'Fantasy', it was a surprise, and a smash."

Achievements


Throughout her career, Carey has earned numerous awards and honors. She has won six Grammy Awards (including a Grammy Global Impact Award), nineteen World Music Awards, ten American Music Awards, and twenty Billboard Music Awards. Carey is one of the best-selling recording artists in history, with more than 220 million records sold. She is also an inductee of the Songwriters Hall of Fame and The Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame. As of March 2022, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) lists Carey as the best-selling female albums artist, with shipments of 72 million units in the US, and one of the best-selling digital singles artists. She is the second female singer to amass both diamond-certified albums and singles, with the albums Music Box and Daydream, and the single "All I Want for Christmas Is You"—the only holiday song and the first female song from the 20th century to achieve that. With sales of over 28 million copies worldwide, Music Box and Daydream rank among the best-selling albums of all time. Carey was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2015, and a Billboard Icon Award in 2019. In 2023, she became one of the first 13 recipients of the BRIT Billion Award, for surpassing the milestone one billion streams in the United Kingdom.

Carey has set and broken numerous Hot 100 records. She has topped the Billboard Hot 100 for 91 weeks, the most for any artist in US chart history. On that same chart, she has accumulated 19 number-one singles, the most for any solo artist (second behind the Beatles) and she is also the only artist to have a number-one song in each year of a decade (1990s decade). In 2020, Carey became the first solo artist to top the Billboard Hot 100 over four decades (1990s–2020s). Carey was the first woman to enter at number-one in the United States, with "Fantasy", and the first act to open at number-one multiple times after "One Sweet Day" and "Honey" also arrived at the top spot. Her single "One Sweet Day" spent sixteen consecutive weeks at he top of Billboard's Hot 100 chart in 1996, setting the record for the most weeks atop the Hot 100 chart until surpassed in 2019 by "Old Town Road". "One Sweet Day" and "We Belong Together" became the best performing songs of their respective decades (1990s and 2000s), making Carey the only act to accomplish the feat twice. She also holds the record for the most consecutive years topping the chart (eleven). "All I Want for Christmas Is You" alone broke multiple Billboard records. In 2021, the magazine ranked it as the greatest holiday song of all time. It is the longest-running number-one song on the Billboard Holiday 100 chart (57 cumulative weeks, of the chart's 62 total weeks) and the longest-running holiday number-one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It also holds the record for the longest span of a song's first and last week at the summit of the Hot 100, a record that's annually extended, and the only song to return to number-one in more than two separate chart runs.

In 2008, Billboard listed "We Belong Together" ninth on The Billboard Hot 100 All-Time Top Songs and second on Top Billboard Hot 100 R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. On November 19, 2010, Billboard magazine ranked Carey at number four on their "Top 50 R&B/Hip-Hop Artists of the Past 25 Years" chart. In 2012, Carey was ranked second on VH1's list of the "100 Greatest Women in Music". Billboard magazine ranked her at number five on the Billboard Hot 100 All-Time Top Artists, making Carey the second most successful female artist in the history of the chart. The same publication ranked Carey at number four on their "Top 125 Artists of All Time" chart making her the top female act. In 2021, The Emancipation of Mimi and "Fantasy" were included on the new editions of Rolling Stone magazine's lists of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" and "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time", respectively.

Carey's holiday album Merry Christmas has sold over 15 million copies worldwide, and is the best-selling Christmas album. The lead single, "All I Want for Christmas Is You", became the first holiday song to be certified Diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America, and the only holiday ringtone to reach multi-platinum status in the US. With sales of over 14 million copies worldwide, it is one of the best-selling physical singles in music history and the best-selling holiday song by a female artist. It is also the highest-certified and the longest-charting song by a woman in the UK. In 2018, Carey became the first artist to replace herself at the number one spot on Billboard's Top R&B Albums chart, with Caution being replaced by Merry Christmas. On November 24, 2019, the song won three Guinness World Records. Additionally, it holds the record for the most Spotify streams in a single day (over 20 million plays on December 24, 2022). In 2021, the song earned one billion streams on Spotify, making it both Carey's first song and the first holiday song overall to do so. In 2023, the song was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Recording Registry, due to its "cultural, historical and aesthetic importance" in the American soundscape.

Carey experienced an enduring success in various Asian countries. She is the best-selling Western artist in Japan. #1's was certified with a triple-Million award from the Recording Industry Association of Japan and holds the record as the best-selling international album in the country, while Music Box, Daydream, Butterfly and Merry Christmas all sold over 2 million copies in the country, with the latter one, being the fourth-best-selling international album. Her song "All I Want for Christmas Is You" is the third-best-selling song by a non-Asian artist. In 2018, Sony Music Asia–Pacific presented Carey with a certificate of achievement for 1.6 billion sales units in Asia–Pacific. Carey also holds the record for the longest-running number-one song on the Brasil Hot 100, with her 2009 cover of Foreigner's "I Want to Know What Love Is", which spent 27 weeks atop the Brazilian charts.

Business ventures
Declining offers to appear in commercials in the United States during her early career, Carey was not involved in brand marketing initiatives until 2006, when she participated in endorsements for Intel Centrino personal computers and launched a jewelry and accessories line for teenagers, Glamorized, in American Claire's and Icing stores. During this period, as part of a partnership with Pepsi and Motorola, Carey recorded and promoted a series of exclusive ringtones, including "Time of Your Life". She signed a licensing deal with the cosmetics company Elizabeth Arden, and in 2007, she released her own fragrance, "M". The Elizabeth Arden deal has netted her $150 million. For the fragrance, Carey won a Basenotes Fragrance Award for Best Celebrity Women's Fragrance as well as being nominated in three other categories. She has released a series of fragrances with Elizabeth Arden, including Luscious Pink (2008) and Forever (2009). On November 29, 2010, she debuted a collection on HSN, which included jewelry, shoes and fragrances. In November 2011, Carey was announced as "brand ambassador" for Jenny Craig, Inc. which included "participation in a new company initiative... public service announcements and community and education programs." In 2018, Carey featured in an advertisement for Hostelworld with the tagline "Even Divas are Believers".

On August 25, 2019, Carey signed a $12 million contract with the Walkers crisps brand as part of their Christmas campaign and starred in a commercial for the company. In conjunction with the 25th-anniversary release of Merry Christmas in 2019, she organized a gift guide with Amazon, and partnered for an exclusive Christmas ornament with Swarovski. In December 2020, Carey launched a partnership with Virtual Dining Concepts and restaurateur, Robert Earl, for a biscuit line titled Mariah's Cookies. In 2021, Carey announced the launch of a new line of alcohol called Black Irish, an homage to her Black, Venezuelan, and Irish heritage. That same year, Carey also partnered with McDonald's, promoting an entirely new limited time menu. In 2022, Carey recorded nine video lessons for MasterClass titled "Mariah Carey Teaches the Voice as an Instrument", as well as re-recording "The Roof (Back in Time)" alongside Brandy.

Philanthropy and activism
Carey is a philanthropist who has been involved with several charitable organizations. She became associated with the Fresh Air Fund in the early 1990s, and co-founded 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. Carey has continued her direct involvement with Camp Mariah, and by 2019 the executive director of The Fresh Air Fund reported that "...the kids who have gone to Camp Mariah have higher graduation rates out of high school and college. In 1999, Carey was presented with a Congressional Award for contributing "to expanding opportunities for all Americans through their own personal contributions, and [setting] exceptional examples for young people through their own successes in life. In 2019, she was honoured by Variety Power of Women for her work with The Fresh Air Fund's Camp Mariah.



Carey also donated royalties from her songs "Hero" and "One Sweet Day" to charities. She has worked with the Make-A-Wish Foundation, 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 Police Athletic League of New York City 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. In February 2010, the song, "100%", which was originally written and recorded for the film, Precious, was used as one of the theme songs for the 2010 Winter Olympics, with all money proceeds going to Team USA. In 2017, Carey was awarded with PETA's Angel for Animals Award for promoting animal adoption through her animated movie All I Want for Christmas Is You.

One of Carey's most high-profile benefit concert appearances was on VH1's 1998 Divas Live special, during which she performed alongside other female singers in support of the Save the Music Foundation. The concert was a ratings success, and Carey participated in the Divas 2000 special and a 2016 holiday edition. She appeared at the America: A Tribute to Heroes nationally televised fundraiser in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks and performed before peacekeeping troops in Kosovo. Carey hosted the CBS television special At Home for the Holidays, which documented real-life stories of adopted children and foster families. In 2005, Carey performed for Live 8 in London and at the Hurricane Katrina relief telethon "Shelter from the Storm". In August 2008, Carey and other singers recorded the charity single, "Just Stand Up" produced by Babyface and L.A. Reid, to support Stand Up to Cancer. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Carey participated in the iHeart Living Room Concert for America and Rise Up New York! telethons to raise money for those affected by COVID-19. In response to the murder of George Floyd, Carey took to social media and sang a snippet of her 1990 song "There's Got to Be a Way" while encouraging fans to demand justice.

In 2008, Carey performed in a New Year's Eve concert for the family of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi. She later said she felt "horrible and embarrassed" to have taken part in the concert. To make amends, in March 2011, Carey's representative Cindi Berger stated that royalties for the song "Save the Day", written for her fourteenth studio album, would be donated to charities that create awareness for human rights. Berger also said that Carey "has and continues to donate her time, money and countless hours of personal service to many organizations both here and abroad." "Save the Day" remained unreleased until 2020. In 2013, human rights activists criticized Carey for performing in a concert for Angola's "father-daughter kleptocracy" and accused her of accepting "dictator cash".

Personal life
Carey stated in 2006: "I do believe that I have been born again in a lot of ways. I think what I've changed are my priorities and my relationships with God. I feel the difference when I don't have my private moments to pray... I'm a fighter, but I learned that I'm not in charge. Whatever God wants to happen is what's going to happen. I feel like I've had endless second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth chances. It's by the grace of God I'm still here."

Carey began dating Tommy Mottola while recording Mariah Carey, and they were married at the Episcopal Saint Thomas Church in New York City on June 5, 1993, in a half-million dollar ceremony. The newlyweds moved into a custom-built mansion, located on a 51-acre estate in Bedford, New York, referred to by Carey as "Sing Sing" (alluding to her feeling imprisoned there). After the release of Daydream and the success that followed, Carey began focusing on her personal life, which was a constant struggle at the time. Their relationship began to deteriorate due to their growing creative differences in terms of her music, as well as Mottola's controlling nature. They separated in December 1996, and announced it publicly on May 30, 1997. The couple divorced on March 4, 1998. Their home together was sold shortly afterwards for $20.5 million to Nelson Peltz and burned down in 1999.

Carey was in a relationship with baseball player Derek Jeter from 1997 to 1998, and with singer Luis Miguel from 1998 to 2001. She met actor and comedian Nick Cannon while they shot the music video for her song "Bye Bye" on an island off the coast of Antigua. They were married on April 30, 2008, in the Bahamas. In the same year, Carey suffered a miscarriage. At 35 weeks into her next pregnancy, she gave birth to their fraternal twins, Moroccan and Monroe, on April 30, 2011, via Caesarean section. In August 2014, Cannon confirmed he and Carey had separated. He filed for divorce on December 12, 2014, which was finalized in 2016.

In 2015, Carey began dating Australian billionaire James Packer and, on January 21, 2016, she announced they were engaged. By October, however, they had called off the engagement. In October 2016, she began dating American choreographer Bryan Tanaka. On December 26, 2023, Tanaka confirmed that he and Carey had parted ways after seven years of dating. In April 2018, Carey opened up about taking therapy sessions and medication for her struggle with bipolar II disorder. She was diagnosed in 2001 and initially kept the diagnosis private.

Discography

 * Mariah Carey (1990)
 * Emotions (1991)
 * Music Box (1993)
 * Merry Christmas (1994)
 * Daydream (1995)
 * Butterfly (1997)
 * Rainbow (1999)
 * Glitter (2001)
 * Charmbracelet (2002)
 * The Emancipation of Mimi (2005)
 * E=MC² (2008)
 * Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel (2009)
 * Merry Christmas II You (2010)
 * Me. I Am Mariah... The Elusive Chanteuse (2014)
 * Caution (2018)

Filmography

 * The Bachelor (1999)
 * Glitter (2001)
 * WiseGirls (2002)
 * Death of a Dynasty (2003)
 * State Property 2 (2005)
 * Tennessee (2008)
 * You Don't Mess with the Zohan (2008)
 * Precious (2009)
 * The Butler (2013)
 * A Christmas Melody (2015)
 * Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping (2016)
 * The Keys of Christmas (2016)
 * The Lego Batman Movie (2017)
 * Girls Trip (2017)
 * The Star (2017)
 * All I Want for Christmas Is You (2017)
 * Mariah Carey's Magical Christmas Special (2020)
 * Mariah's Christmas: The Magic Continues (2021)

Tours and residencies
 Headlining tours 
 * Music Box Tour (1993)
 * Daydream World Tour (1996)
 * Butterfly World Tour (1998)
 * Rainbow World Tour (2000)
 * Charmbracelet World Tour (2003–2004)
 * The Adventures of Mimi (2006)
 * Angels Advocate Tour (2009–2010)
 * Australian Tour 2013 (2013)
 * The Elusive Chanteuse Show (2014)
 * The Sweet Sweet Fantasy Tour (2016)
 * Mariah Carey: Live in Concert (2018)
 * Caution World Tour (2019)
 * Merry Christmas to All! Tour (2022)
 * Merry Christmas One and All! (2023)

 Co-headlining tours 
 * All the Hits Tour (with Lionel Richie) (2017)

 Residencies 
 * Live at the Pearl (2009)
 * All I Want for Christmas Is You: A Night of Joy and Festivity (2014–2019)
 * #1 to Infinity (2015–2017)
 * The Butterfly Returns (2018–2020)
 * The Celebration of Mimi (2024)