s-- symbol in the United States.
Biography
Mariah Carey was named after the song They Call The
Wind Mariah from the movie Paint Your Wagon.
Her career began in with the release of her debut
album in 1990, when she was just twenty years old.
She became a critical and commercial success almost
overnight, and the album produced four huge number
one hit singles: "Vision Of Love," "Someday," "Love
Takes Time," and "I Don't Want To Cry". Carey's
second album, Emotions, was released in the fall of
1991 and its first single, the title track, also was
an American number one hit. This gave Carey the
record of being the only musician or band to ever
have had their first five singles all hit the top of
the
Billboard charts in America. Emotions had
several other top five singles, such as "If It's
Over," "Can't Let Go," and "Make It Happen".
In
1992, Carey performed all her hits on
MTV Unplugged, as well as a new song, a cover of
the
Jackson 5's "I'll Be There". It, too, rose
quickly to the top of America's pop charts.
Carey's next studio album, Music Box, was
released in
1993 and spawned the hits "Anytime You Need A
Friend," "Never Forget You," and the
hugely popular
number one songs "Hero" and "Dreamlover". These
songs, and Carey's duet with Luther Vandross of
Diana Ross' "Endless Love," made Carey one of the
most-played musicians on the radio in 1993 and 1994.
During the Christmas season of 1994, Carey released
the album Merry Christmas, and had a perennial hit
with her original holiday song, "All I Want For
Christmas Is You".
In
1995, Carey released Daydream. This album and
her previous studio album, Music Box, would
eventually go on to sell over 20 million copies each
worldwide, making them Carey's two most popular
albums. Daydream's first single, "Fantasy," was one
of her biggest hits ever. It got heavy play on urban
radio, thanks to a remix which featured a rhyme by
the
Wu-Tang Clan's ODB. This also marked the start
of a new trend for Carey's singles. She realized
that she had a higher potential at having massive
crossover hits if she employed the use of various
genre-specific remixes for each single. Daydream's
second and third singles, "One Sweet Day," a duet
with
Boyz II Men, and "Always Be My Baby,"
respectfully, were arguably even bigger hits than
"Fantasy". "Always Be My Baby" received huge airplay
from
pop, adult contemporary, and adult top 40 radio,
and its urban remix which featured rhymes by
Da Brat and a more soulful sounding chorus, sung
by R&B group
Xscape got huge airplay on urban, rap, and R&B
radio stations. "Forever," the last single off of
the album tanked compared to the first three, but
was still a top 40 airplay hit in America.
Carey's
1997 album, Butterfly, saw her continuing to
move in an R&B/hip hop direction. The first single,
"Honey" was a number one hit and featured a remix
with rappers
Puff Daddy, The Lox, and
Mase. Its video, filmed shortly after her
divorce from Tommy Matolla displayed a much more
s--ual Carey than any previous video. Other singles
and videos off the album included "Butterfly;" "The
Roof;" "Breakdown," a duet with Bone Thugs-n-Harmony
featuring Carey singing in a style similar to the
way the Bone Thugs rap; and the number one hit "My
All".
In 1998, Carey released the album 1's, a
collection of all her American number one singles up
to that point. It also included the new singles
"When You Believe," a duet with
Whitney Houston which featured in the Disney
movie, The Prince Of Egypt; "Sweetheart," a hip-hoppy
duet with Jermaine Dupri; "I Still Believe," a cover
of the 80's song by Brenda K. Starr; and "Whenever
You Call," a soulful duet with popular R&B singer
Brain McKnight.
Among her most famous songs are Vision of
Love and Emotions. She has had 15
number one singles in the United States (hence, the
"Ones" album). That is the most of any female artist
currently. She currently has the record for the most
weeks at number one in the American charts with her
single One Sweet Day, featuring
Boyz II Men, totaling a full 16 weeks at the
top spot.
Though her release singles are usually in the pop
genre, she has also combined her talents with
rap artists such as Lord Tariq, Peter Gunz, and
Bone Thugs-N-Harmony. Most of her recent singles
have also been remixed as
dance music, where she worked with DJs such as
David Morales and Junior Vasquez.
Mariah Carey spent a number of years married to
Tommy Mottola, VP of
Sony Records.
In what will no doubt go down as one of the more
memorable moments in her career, in the year
2001 Carey suffered an emotional and mental
breakdown. Her acting debut in the film "Glitter"
(panned by many popular movie critics) coupled with
her many years of excessively hard work appeared to
take a toll on her mentally. Her then-current album,
Rainbow wasn't selling as well as her
previous albums, and she complained her new record
label wasn't promoting it. Finally, Mariah made an
appearance on
MTV's
TRL, where she was scantily clad and acting
strangely. After that, she checked into a mental
health facility and announced that she was taking a
break from performing.
Mariah has since released a new album, called
Charmbracelet, in
October of
2002. It is perhaps her least commercially
successful album to date, and included the singles
"Through The Rain" and "Boy (I Need You)" featuring
rapper
Cam'ron. Neither of the two singles really took
off.
However, Carey's latest single, a duet with
Busta Rhymes entitled "I Know What You Want" has
fared considerably better, having reached the top
ten of
Billboard's pop singles chart and the top ten in
rap radio airplay. It is also featured on he
latest release "The Remixes", a double CD containing
her best remixes.
