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Sales of Carey’s Recordings

Mariah Carey was the best-selling female performer of the 1990’s in the United States, and by 2011, she had sold more than 200 million singles, albums, and music videos worldwide. Carey was recognized as the best-selling pop female artist of the millennium at the 2000 World Music Awards. Carey also was the first female artist in the United States to have eight albums go platinum five times or more. Her album Merry Christmas (1994) has sold more than12 million copies to date, making it one of the top-selling holiday albums of all time. Carey surpassed Elvis Presley’s record in 2008 when “Touch My Body” became her eighteenth Billboard Top 100 hit; by 2011, Carey had the most number one Hot 100’s of any female artist, and Billboard dubbed her single “We Belong Together” the top song of the first decade of the twenty-first century.

Great Lives from History: Latinos

Mariah Carey

by Anastasia Pike

American singer and actor

Best known for her extraordinary vocal range and her record-setting record sales, Carey has had a successful, multifaceted career as a singer, songwriter, actor, and entrepreneur. She also has been recognized for her philanthropic work.

Areas of achievement: Music; acting

Early Life

Mariah Angela Carey was born on March 27, 1970, in Huntington, New York, to Patricia Carey (née Hickey) and Alfred Roy Carey and was named after the song “They Call the Wind Mariah,” from the Broadway musical Paint Your Wagon (1951). Patricia, an opera singer and vocal coach, is Irish American; Alfred, an aeronautical engineer, was of African and Venezuelan ancestry, and his father changed his surname from Nuñez to Carey upon arriving in the United States. The Carey family was subjected to racial prejudice and occasional violence that caused them to move several times; the stress eventually led to Patricia and Alfred’s divorce when Carey was three years old. Carey’s sister Alison moved in with their father, while Carey and her brother Morgan remained with their mother.

Mariah Carey.

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(AP Photo)

Carey demonstrated an early interest in music: When she was only three years old, Patricia discovered her daughter attempting to imitate her as she sang from Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Rigoletto (1851). As a result, Patricia began teaching Carey how to develop her vocal talent, and at the age of six, Carey gave her first public performance. She quickly became involved in the New York music scene, missing so many days as a student at Harborfields High School that she was nicknamed “Mirage” by her peers. After graduating from high school, Carey moved to New York, working several part-time jobs and completing five hundred hours of cosmetology school while trying to forge her music career. Carey eventually found work as a backup singer for Brenda K. Starr, and it was Starr who gave Columbia Records executive Tommy Mottola a copy of Carey’s demo tape. Mottola offered Carey a record deal within the week. Her eponymous debut album was released in 1990 to enormous commercial success.

Life’s Work

Carey’s debut album spawned four hit singles and garnered her two Grammy Awards. It was the best-selling album in the United States in 1991. The title track from her second album, Emotions (1991), became Carey’s record-setting fifth consecutive number-one single. Her next album, MTV Unplugged (1992), was recorded during an appearance on MTV’s acoustic-music show and featured a cover of the Jackson Five single “I’ll Be There” that quickly became another number-one hit.

Carey and Mottola started dating while she worked on her debut album and were married in a lavish ceremony—modeled on the wedding of Princess Diana and Prince Charles—at St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Manhattan on June 5, 1993. That same year, Carey released her third album, Music Box, which produced the hit singles “Dreamlover” and “Hero,” and began her first U.S. tour.

“All I Want for Christmas Is You,” from Carey’s 1994 album, Merry Christmas, became one of her best-selling singles to date. Her fourth studio album, Daydream (1995), deviated from her previous pop sound and contained more hip-hop and rhythm-and-blues influences, including a remix of her single “Fantasy” with rapper Ol’ Dirty Bastard from Wu Tang Clan. The then-controversial collaboration proved successful, and many credit Carey for influencing the now-common practice of combining the musical styles. Other successful singles from the record include “One Sweet Day,” a collaboration with Boyz II Men, which spent sixteen weeks at the top of the Billboard charts, and “Always Be My Baby,” which became Carey’s eleventh number-one single in the United States and was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Female R&B Performance.

In 1997, Carey and Mottola separated, and a year later, they divorced. Carey’s next album, Butterfly (1997), continued her successful run. Its first single, “Honey,” featured a more provocative Carey in both fashion and musical style. Carey also began composing songs for film sound tracks and released an album of number-one hits alongside some new music (#1’s, 1998). “When You Believe,” a duet with Whitney Houston, was featured on the sound track for the animated film The Prince of Egypt (1998).

Carey’s sixth studio album, 1999’s Rainbow, was her final recording with Columbia Records and her lowest-selling album to date. She began taking acting lessons and auditioning for roles, eventually making her film debut with a small role in The Bachelor (1999). Carey was honored with Billboard’s Artist of the Decade award in 1999, and received a World Music Award for best-selling female artist of the millennium before signing a new contract with EMI’s Virgin Records.

By 2001, Carey’s grueling schedule had taken a toll on her health. She checked into a hospital to treat what her publicist described as “an emotional and physical breakdown.” Carey next starred in the film Glitter (2001), which was widely panned, and the soundtrack failed to match Carey’s previous success, prompting EMI/Virgin to buy out the remainder of her contract in 2002. Later that year, Carey signed a new deal with Island Records, and her father died of cancer; Charmbracelet (2002), her first album on the Island label, received mixed reviews and included a song dedicated to him.

In 2005, Carey’s tenth studio album, The Emancipation of Mimi, became a critical and commercial success. It was the year’s best-selling album in the United States and garnered Carey three more Grammy wins. “Touch My Body,” the lead single from Carey’s next album, E = MC² (2008), catapulted Carey past Elvis Presley as the artist with the most number-one singles; however, it did not sell as well as her previous album. On April 30, 2008, Carey married actor and rapper Nick Cannon at her Bahamian estate; the following year, she released her twelfth studio album, Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel, and began her seventh concert tour. In 2010, Carey released a second Christmas album, Merry Christmas II You, and announced that she was pregnant with twins. The twins, Moroccan and Monroe, were born in April, 2011.

Significance

Carey’s vocals have influenced numerous other singers both in the United States and abroad, and she often is credited for bringing hip-hop and rhythm-and-blues styles into mainstream pop music. Carey also is recognized for her songwriting—a skill that set her apart from some of her musical contemporaries—and her significant record of album sales. Despite an inauspicious beginning, Carey’s acting skills also have garnered her attention, and she won critical acclaim for her supporting role in the film Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire (2009). Carey’s philanthropic activity includes work with organizations such as the Fresh Air Fund and the Make-a-Wish Foundation.

Citation Types

Type

Format

MLA 9th

Pike, Anastasia. "Mariah Carey." Great Lives from History: Latinos, edited by Carmen Tafolla & Martha P. Cotera, Salem Press, 2012. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=GLL_10013240012301001.

APA 7th

Pike, A. (2012). Mariah Carey. In C. Tafolla & M. P. Cotera (Eds.), Great Lives from History: Latinos. Salem Press. online.salempress.com.

CMOS 17th

Pike, Anastasia. "Mariah Carey." Edited by Carmen Tafolla & Martha P. Cotera. Great Lives from History: Latinos. Hackensack: Salem Press, 2012. Accessed October 22, 2025. online.salempress.com.

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