Mariah Carey Background
Where was Mariah Carey born?
Young Mariah Carey was born in Huntington, New York to Alfred Roy Carey and Patricia Carey. She has an older sister, Alison, and a younger brother, Morgan. The singer's real name is Mariah and she hasn't changed it for showbiz, although her Venezuelan grandfather adopted the surname Carey when he emigrated to New York. People often question the singer's ethnicity, and a common question you'll see on forums like Reddit is 'Is Mariah Carey black?'. Mariah's mother Patricia was an opera singer and vocal coach of Irish descent, and Mariah's father Alfred is of Afro-American and Afro-Venezuelan descent. Patricia and Alfred eloped during the 1960s and Patricia's family promptly disowned her for marrying outside her own ethnic group. Indeed, the Careys struggled in New York due to the blended nature of their family and when Mariah was three years old her parents divorced. Mariah and Morgan stayed with their mother, and she gradually grew apart from her father. In later years, she would stop seeing him altogether. It's clear that the separation of Mariah Carey's parents and the several moves they family made had a adverse effect on the singer's childhood. Of her early years, Mariah has said:
Pictured: Patricia and young Mariah enjoy a meal together
Mariah's Childhood
Throughout both primary and high school, Mariah excelled at subjects like music, art and literature. She first began writing songs when she was still a student at Harborfields High School. Mariah graduated in 1987 and moved out with four other girlfriends into a Manhattan apartment. She paid the rent by working various jobs as a waitress, all the while working on a four song demo tape with her friend Ben Margulies. Through Mariah's friendship with successful pop singer Brenda K, she was able to get her demo tape into the hands of Tommy Mottola, the head of Columbia Records. After he played the tape in his car, Tommy spent two weeks trying to find Mariah again so he could sign her to his label.
Pictured: Now this is a story all about how Mariah's life got flipped, turned upside down! We don't know the year that Mariah Carey and young Will Smith posed for this picture, but Mariah says that the photo was taken when she only owned two dresses - one pink and one black!
Tommy Mottola made Mariah Columbia Records' main female recording artist, marketing her as his label's competing force against Whitney Houston who was signed to Arista and Madonna who was contracted with Sire Records. Tommy and Mariah began dating while recording Music Box and they married on 5 June 1993. They would separate after three years of marriage, their creative differences and the Tommy's controlling nature looming large as reasons for the split.
Mariah would marry actor and comedian Nick Cannon after meeting him on the set of her music video 'Bye Bye'. Their wedding took place in 2008, and his is the father of her twins Monroe and Morocco. However, the marriage didn't last and their divorce was finalised in 2016. Mariah got engaged to Australian James Packer on 21 January 2016, but this was called off by October.
Video: Young Mariah singing during the 1990s
Mariah Carey's Measurements
Q. How tall is Mariah?
A. 1.73 m
Q. How much does Mariah Carey weigh?
A. Mariah has struggled with her weight in the past, but she's looking the happiest and healthiest she's ever been in this recent snap with her family at Wet 'n' Wild in Hawaii.
Is Mariah Carey Religious?
Carey is Episcopalian. She spoke publicly about her faith in 2006, saying
"I do believe that I have been born again in a lot of ways. I think what I've changed are my priorities and my relationships with God. I feel the difference when I don't have my private moments to pray. ... I'm a fighter, but I learned that I'm not in charge. Whatever God wants to happen is what's going to happen. I feel like I've had endless second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth chances. It's by the grace of God I'm still here."
Mariah's Greatest Hits
"We Belong Together" peak position No. 1 (14 weeks), peak date June 4, 2005
"One Sweet Day" (Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men), No. 1 (16 weeks), Dec. 2, 1995
"Hero," No. 1 (four weeks), Dec. 25, 1993 (the official video is a very young Mariah singing live in concert)
"When You Believe" (Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey), No. 15, Jan. 30, 1999
Despite being pitted against each other by their respective record companies, Mariah and Whitney were great friends. It's evident from Mariah's Instagram (@mariahcarey) that she misses her late friend dearly.
Video: Mariah and Whitney host an MTV awards show
All I Want For Christmas Is You
It would be a crime to talk about the trajectory of Mariah's career without bringing up her world famous Yuletide hit 'All I Want for Christmas Is You'. Mariah wrote and produced the song herself alongside Walter Afanasieff and Columbia Records released it on 1 November 1994, as the lead single from her fourth studio album and first holiday album, Merry Christmas (1994). Since 1994, "All I Want for Christmas Is You" has been praised by music critics, once getting called "one of the few worthy modern additions to the holiday canon" in The New Yorker. Every Christmas sees the song surge in popularity once again, topping the charts in Australia, Austria, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Hungary, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden and Switzerland while reaching number two in Japan, Germany and the United Kingdom, number three in the United States, and the top 10 in several other countries. With global sales of over 16 million copies, 'All I Want For Christmas Is You' remains Carey's biggest international success and is the 10th best-selling single of all time, earning approximately $60 million in royalties.[5]
Mariah Then And Now
We don't care whether she's 49 or 50, whatever Mariah's anti-aging secret is, we want it! Maybe we should start exclusively using wheely-chairs to get around from now on.