Mariah Carey (born March 27, 1970) is an
American pop/
R&B singer-songwriter,
record producer and actress. She made her recording debut, in 1990, under the guidance of
Columbia Records executive
Tommy Mottola, and became the first recording artist to have her first five singles top the U.S.
Billboard Hot 100 chart. Following her marriage to Mottola, in 1993, a series of hit records established her position as Columbia Records' highest-selling act.
Following her separation from Mottola, in 1997, she introduced elements of
hip hop into her album work, to much initial success, but her popularity was in decline when she left Columbia, in 2001. She signed a record $80 million dollar deal with
Virgin Records, only to be dropped from the label and bought out of her contract in the following year. This radical turn of events was due to the highly publicized physical and emotional breakdown, as well as the poor reception that was given to
Glitter, her film and soundtrack project. In 2002, Carey signed with
Island Records, and, after a relatively unsuccessful period, she returned to the top of pop music, in 2005, with her album,
The Emancipation of Mimi.
[2][3]According to
Island Def Jam, Carey has sold more than 200 million albums, singles and videos worldwide, which makes her
one of the world's best-selling music artists.
[4][5] Carey was cited as the world’s best-selling recording artist of the 1990s at the 1998
World Music Awards[6][7] and was also named the best-selling female artist of the millennium by the same award-giving body in 2000.
[8][9][10] According to the
Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), she is the
third-best-selling female artist. Carey's total U.S. album sales stand at 64.5 million, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
[11] [12][13] In 2008, Carey earned her eighteenth number one single on the
Hot 100, the most for any solo artist.
[14][15] Aside from her commercial accomplishments, she has earned five
Grammy Awards and is known for her
five-octave vocal range,
power,
melismatic style and use of the
whistle register.