Mariah Carey was born March 27, 1970 and is an American R&B and pop singer-songwriter, record producer and occasional actress. Mariah Carey made her debut in 1990 under the guidance of Columbia Records executive Tommy Mottola, and became both the most successful and best-selling artist for that decade, according to Billboard magazine and the World Music Awards.


After marrying Tommy Mottola in 1993, albums such as Music Box (1993) and Daydream (1995) consolidated her position as one of Columbia's most successful acts. Mariah Carey separated from Tommy Mottola in 1997, and in her subsequent albums Mariah Carey attempted to distance herself from the career trajectory that he had plotted for her; her later albums presented a more overtly sexual and hip hop-oriented sound and image. In 2001, issues between Mariah Carey and her label executives led her to part ways with them, and Mariah Carey signed a lucrative deal with Virgin Records shortly after. However, Mariah Carey was dropped the following year after a highly publicised physical breakdown and the notoriously poor reception of Glitter, her film and soundtrack project. After signing to Island Def Jam Records in 2002, Mariah Carey returned to the forefront of popular music in 2005 with the success of her ninth studio album The Emancipation of Mimi.


Since her debut, Mariah Carey has scored seventeen number-one singles on the U.S Billboard charts, the most by a solo female artist. In 2003, Mariah Carey was declared "the most successful" and "number-one selling female artist in the history of recorded music" by the IFPI. Mariah Carey is also well-known for her five-octave vocal range, where the use of the whistle register and melisma are central features of her singing style.

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