BIOGRAPHY

 Mariah Carey was born on March 27, 1970. Raised in New York by her mother, a former opera singer with the New York City Opera and a vocal coach, Mariah Carey began singing at age four. By the time she was in junior high school, she had begun to write songs. After her high school graduation, she got her first big break, singing backup for Brenda K. Starr, a break that led to her signing with Columbia Records. Mariah's 1990 eponymous debut album launched an unparalleled unbroken string of successes. Mariah Carey has sold more than 17 million copies worldwide, was certified 8x RIAA-platinum, and yielded a record-setting four consecutive #1 singles: Vision of Love, Love Takes Time, Someday, and I Don't Wanna Cry. The title track of 1991's quadruple-platinum Emotions generated her fifth consecutive #1 single, placing Mariah Carey in the Top Ten All-Time achievers of Most Consecutive #1 Hits. Emotions earned Mariah two Grammy® nominations (Best Pop Vocal, Female and, with Walter Afanasieff, Best Producer) and an American Music Award (Favorite Female Artist, Soul/R&B). On March 17, 1992, Mariah appeared on MTV Unplugged, leading to the release of Mariah's sixth #1 single (I'll Be There) as well as an EP which has been certified triple platinum in the U.S. and has sold more than nine million copies worldwide.

 In 1993, Mariah released Music Box, an album which has sold more than 27 million copies worldwide, has been certified ten times RIAA platinum, and generated her seventh and eighth #1 singles Dreamlover and Hero as well as the Top 10 hit Without You and Top 15 hit Anytime You Need A Friend. Mariah followed up with her holiday album, Merry Christmas, which sold 9 million copies worldwide shortly after its release in November 1994. Merry Christmas has been certified quadruple platinum by the RIAA. Mariah's 1995 album, Daydream, debuted at #1 on the Billboard Top 200 Albums chart; generated three consecutive #1 singles -- Fantasy, One Sweet Day (her duet with Boyz II Men which, having spent 16 weeks at #1, which still holds the record as the longest-running #1 single in history), and Always Be My Baby (Mariah's ninth, tenth, and eleventh #1's) -- and has been certified 10x platinum. With Daydream, she became the first female artist in history to have three studio albums to each sell in excess of eight million copies. Mariah's 1997 album, Butterfly, a heady sensuous mix of contemporary R&B and pop, generated the #1 hits Honey (featuring Ma$e & The Lox) and My All (her twelfth and thirteenth #1's). Butterfly has been certified quadruple platinum.

 In November 1998, Mariah released her #1's album, a collection of her 13 chart-topping megahits as well as four brand-new bonus recordings: When You Believe (from The Prince Of Egypt), a duet with Whitney Houston; Whenever You Call, a duet with Brian McKnight; I Still Believe; and Sweetheart. #1's has achieved RIAA triple platinum status. Her 1999 release, Rainbow, featured Mariah's 14th #1 Hot 100 single, Heartbreaker, which also became her 6th chart-topping R&B single and of course her 15th #1 single Thank God I Found You. Mariah Carey has had more #1 singles than any female artist, surpassing both the Supremes (12) and Madonna (11), and more #1's than any currently active recording artist. She has had more #1 singles (15) than any artist during the 1990s and seen more singles (3) debut at #1 than any artist in history. With more #1 albums (4) than any female artist in the 1990's, Mariah was the first female artist to see two of her albums (Music Box and Daydream) reach over the 10 million mark in sales and is the only female artist to have eight albums certified triple-platinum or better (in Mariah's case, her entire album catalog has achieved RIAA multi-platinum status).

 In fact, Mariah Carey is the only artist to have had a #1 single for every year of the 1990's. The last decade to have an artist hit #1 every single year was the 1920's when Paul Whiteman & his Orchestra hit the top slot each year. (By the end of the 1920's, Whiteman had become a Columbia Records artist.) With the exception of Merry Christmas (from which there was no single release) and #1's (a collection of her first 13 chart-toppers), Mariah has hit #1 with the debut single from every one of her albums. With the exception of her cover version of the Jackson 5's I'll Be There, Mariah has cowritten all of her #1's, including Heartbreaker. With the exceptions of I Don't Wanna Cry, Someday, Love Takes Time and Vision Of Love, Mariah has co-produced all of her chart-topping singles. Mariah received 1990 Grammies for Best New Artist and Best Pop Vocal Female (Vision of Love). The same year, Mariah picked up three Soul Train Awards: Best New Artist, Best Album (Mariah Carey) and Best Single, Female (Vision of Love).

 A perennial favorite at the American Music Awards, Mariah won Favorite Female Artist/R&B in 1992; Favorite Female Artist, Pop/Rock and Favorite Album, Adult Contemporary in 1993; Favorite Female Artist, Pop/Rock in 1995; and Favorite Female Artist, Pop/Rock and Favorite Female Artist, Soul/R&B in 1996. Mariah picked up her first Billboard Awards in 1991 for Top Adult Contemporary Artist, Top Pop Artist, Top Album Artist, Top Pop Singles Artist, and Top Pop Singles Artist/Female. In 1996, she won a Billboard Award for Hot 100 Singles Artist of the Year and, with Boyz II Men, a Special Hot 100 Singles Award for One Sweet Day. At the 1998 World Music Awards ceremony, Mariah won an award for Best Selling R&B Artist and the Legend Award for World's Best Selling Recording Artist of the 1990's. She won her first World Music Awards - World's Best Selling Pop Artist, World's Best American Recording Artist, and World's Overall Best Performing Artist - in 1995. The following year, she was presented with trophies for World's Best Selling R&B Female Artist of the Year, World's Best Selling Overall Recording Female Artist of the Year, World's Best Selling Pop Artist of the Year, and World's Best Selling American Female Artist of the Year. Mariah was presented with the Aretha Franklin Entertainer Award and named Entertainer of the Year at the 1998 Lady Of Soul Awards.

 In 1999, Heartbreaker, the first single from Rainbow, made music history on September 29, 1999, when it became Mariah's 14th #1 single on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart, a feat rivaled only by the Beatles (20) and Elvis Presley (17 or 18, depending on whether one counts Don't Be Cruel b/w Hound Dog as one or two records). With first-week's sales of more than 271,000 singles, Heartbreaker gave Mariah the biggest first-week's sales of her career and her biggest one-week singles sales ever. When Heartbreaker entered its second week at #1, Mariah spent her 60th week at #1 breaking the long-standing 59-week record established by the Beatles as the artist(s) with the most weeks at #1 in the 41-year history of the Hot 100. In 2000, Mariah Carey was named "Artist of the Decade" by the Billboard Music Awards, and the "Best Selling Female Artist of the Millennium" by the World Music Awards. In 2001, Mariah signed a history making record deal with Virgin Records estimated at $100 million. With her only project with Virgin records, Glitter (the movie) & soundtrack of the same name, in my opinion was a great success, despite what others may say. I thought Glitter was one of Mariah's best projects. Other than starring in the movie Glitter, Mariah wrapped the independently produced Wise Girls, in which she co-stars opposite Mira Sorvino. In October 2001, Mariah received the 2001 Radio Music Award For "Most Requested Artist." In 2002, Loverboy, which was the first single from the Glitter soundtrack, also won a Billboard award for the #1 Top R&B/Hip-Hop Single Sales for 2002. Loverboy also hit #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2001. In January of 2002, Mariah became the #1 selling female recording artist of ALL TIME! In May of 2002, Mariah signed a $23 million dollar record deal with Universal Def Jam. Mariah also got her own new record label titled MonarC.

 On December 3, 2002, Mariah released her 11th album, titled Charmbracelet. Charmbracelet debuted on the Billboard 200 album chart at #3, Mariah's second highest debut throughout her whole career. In 2003, Mariah received the Recording Industry Association of America Commemorative Award (Blue Diamond Award) for her 100th RIAA certification. At the end of 2003 and through the beginning of 2004, Mariah went on tour all over the world in support of her album Charmbracelet. It was Mariah's biggest world tour in her whole career! On April 12, 2005, Mariah released her 12th album, titled The Emancipation Of Mimi, which debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart with almost 404,000 copies sold in the first week! This became Mariah's biggest first week sales of her career! The Emancipation Of Mimi has already gone quadruple platinum with over 8 million copies sold worldwide. We Belong Together, her second single off The Emancipation Of Mimi reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100! Making that Mariah's 16th #1 single! We Belong Together is also the biggest radio hit ever in the USA, with over 223 million radio impressions! We Belong Together spent 14 weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100. Just a few months later, Don't Forget About Us became Mariah's 17th #1 and made a tie with Elvis with the most #1 hits! With We Belong Together & Don't Forget About Us, Mariah spent her 77th week at #1, only trailing behind Elvis (80 weeks) for the most weeks spent at #1 on the Hot 100 chart. Mariah is tied with Elvis (17) and is trailing behind The Beatles (20) for the most #1 hits ever! Mariah Carey has sold over 160 million albums & singles worldwide, & earned an astounding 100 RIAA gold, platinum, & multi-platinum certifications for her singles, albums & videos. With the arrival of The Emancipation of Mimi and future releases, Mariah will continue to give voice to the emotions of our age.