Early Childhood Mariah Carey was born on March 27, 1970 near Long Island, N.Y., to Alfred and Patricia Carey. She has an older brother and sister, Morgan and Alison. When she was around three years old, her parents divorced due in part to racial prejudice against them (Alfred is Venezuelan and African-American, Patricia is Irish). She was raised by her mother, a voice coach and opera singer, and was forced to move often because of difficult finances. It was around the time she was three that she began to sing, often singing to her brother's radio or to spite her parents.
After High School
Mariah attended Harborfields High School in Greenlawn, N.Y.,
She was not much of a student. During this time, she sang for her brother's band and recorded her first demo in a studio her friend worked for. Borrowing the studio meant they were forced to record into the early hours of the morning. As a result Mariah often missed school, bringing her the nickname "Mirage". Just days after graduating from high school, Mariah moved to New York City with a friend, where they shared a mattress on the floor of a dingy apartment. During her time in the city, Mariah worked a variety of odd jobs to support her, including hat/coat-checking, hostessing, and sweeping hair salons. Before long, she won a job singing backup for pop star Brenda K. Starr, which eventually became her road to success.
Road To Success.
At a party with Starr in the late eighties, Mariah met with record executive and attempted to give one her demo. Instead Tommy Mottola of then CBS Records heard. He listened to it in the limo and shortly after signed her to his label.Once he found her (she had neglected to put her name on the tape), he signed her to Columbia(now Sony), and set her to work on her first album. She was not yet nineteen. Mariah's 1990 debut album created quite a stir, largely because of the incredible virtuosity of her voice, which many say is rivalled only by that of Whitney Houston. Critics babbled on and on about her remarkable octave dancing (Mariah has a vocal range of between five and seven octaves, based on varying reports), but generally agreed that there wasn't much substance to what she was saying.
To this present day, Mariah writes and co-writes most of her songs, but her debut album was penned by professional hit-makers and it was a massive success. Nothing the critics said mattered
much after the album sold over six million copies and made Mariah an overnight sensation: two singles from the album shot to No. 1, and the music community awarded the newcomer with a
gaggle of Grammy's for her impressive debut.
Latest Success
Mariah's latest release, Butterfly, features 11 new tracks written by Mariah and a host of music's most illustrious collaborators including Sean "Puffy" Combs, David Morales; guest musicians Mase & The Lox and Krayzie Bone and Wish Bone from Bone-Thugs-N-Harmony and covers The Artist's "The Beautiful Ones." "Honey," the first single from Butterfly, debuted on "Billboard's" Hot 100 at No. 1 giving Mariah the most chart toppers of any solo female artist in the rock era. According to "Billboard's" Hot 100, only six singles have debuted at No. 1 and Mariah Carey owns half of them.
