On this day, American pop singer Mariah Carey, (born March 27, 1969 in Huntington, New York, U.S, noted for her remarkable vocal range. She was one of the most successful female performers of the 1990s and remained popular into the early 21st century.
Her mother was a vocal coach and former opera singer, and Carey began performing as a child. After graduating (1987) from high school in Greenlawn, New York, she moved to New York City to pursue a singing career.
Carey made a demo tape that led Tommy Mottola, an executive at Columbia Records, to sign her in 1988; the couple married in 1993. Her debut album, Mariah Carey (1990), showcased her incredible vocal range and blended several musical genres, including gospel, pop, and rhythm and blues (R&B).
It was a huge success, and in 1991 Carey won Grammy Awards for best new artist and best female pop vocalist. That same year the title track from her follow-up album, Emotions, became her fifth consecutive chart-topping single. Subsequent hit albums included Music Box (1993) and Daydream (1995), both of which sold some 10 million copies in the United States, as well as the holiday-themed Merry Christmas (1994).
The latter featured “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” which became a holiday classic and one of the best-selling songs of all time. This and her other recordings were accompanied by music videos that helped make Carey a fixture on the cable network MTV.
In 2001 Carey signed an $80 million contract with Virgin Records that made her the highest-paid recording artist. Her career was soon interrupted, however, when she suffered a breakdown and was hospitalized following erratic behaviour. (Carey revealed in 2018 that she had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder.) She starred in Glitter (2001), but both the semiautobiographical film and its accompanying album did not fare well. In 2002 Virgin terminated its contract with Carey. Later that year she signed with Island/Def Jam, but her first album for the label, Charmbracelet (2002), was a disappointment. However, her follow-up, The Emancipation of Mimi (2005), was a critical and commercial success, becoming the top-selling album of the year in the United States, with more than six million copies sold. It also earned three Grammy Awards, including best contemporary R&B album. “Touch My Body,” from E=MC2 (2008), became Carey’s 18th number one song on the Billboard singles chart, moving her past Elvis Presley on the all-time list and leaving her just two short of the Beatles’ record.
Source: Wikipedia
