Mariah Carey

Career Achievements● 18 #1 singles(2nd only to the beatles)● Highest selling female solo artists of all time● more time on Billboard hot 100 than any other artist● won 256 awards including:5 grammy awards, 19 world music awards, 10

american music awards and 32 billboard music awards● 6 #1 albums(out of 13, none being lower than #4 in the US)● 8th highest selling musician of all time● over 5 octave vocal range, and her famed whistle notes● Net worth of over $520 million

Impact● the style of her singing, the use of melisma is something that forever

changed the music industry, inspiring musicians like Beyonce to practice singing, influencing generations of artists to try and recreate this sound and style of music with this device

● Mariah is one of the first major female solo artists in the pop/R&B world, her only other contemporaries at the start of her career were Whitney Houston and Madonna, along with them she paved the way for numerous artists to create careers in the future

● Mariah brought R&B to the mainstream, she the first pop artist to combine this style of music with her typical ballads or light pop songs, her immense popularity helped the genre take off with all of society

● The style of mixing both strong singing with swiftly spoken versus in pop/R&B music was developed by mariah, the basic formula for all our pop music today stems from her songs in the 90s

18 #1 Hits1.) Vision of Love2.) Love Takes Time3.) Someday4.) I Don’t wanna Cry5.) Emotions6.) I’ll Be There7.) Dreamlover8.) Hero

9.) Fantasy10.) One Sweet Day11.)Always Be My Baby12.)Honey13.) My All14.) Heartbreaker15.) Thank God I Found You16.) We Belong Together17.)Don’t Forget About us18.) Touch My Body

Personal Life● born in Huntington, New York on March 27th, 1970● her mother was an opera singer and vocal coach who

taught Mariah to sing from a young age● considers singers such as Gladys Knight, Stevie

Wonder and Aretha Franklin as main inspirations● Married to Tommy Mottola(president of Columbia

Records) from 1993-98● Married to Nick Cannon in 2008, seperated in 2014● 4 year old twins Moroccan and Monroe

Career beginnings● left home at 17 to begin career in music, she started waiting tables and

making mixtapes of her music to give to executives● got a job as a background singer for a small record label● Was a background singer for Brenda K. Starr who introduced her to

Tommy Mottola at a party, after listening to one of Mariah’s mixtapes at the party he signed her to Columbia Records the next day

● She spent 2 years working on her debut album until its release in 1990● Tommy Mottola spent over a million dollars to promote Mariah and the

album, her first televised appearance was singing America The Beautiful at the NBA playoffs in 1990, she also appeared on The Tonight Show, Good Morning America and Oprah

Mariah Carey● her debut album released in 1990● entered the charts at rank 80, after 4 weeks it

was in the top 20 and after Mariah won the Grammy Awards for Best New Artist and Best Vocal Performance the exposure lead to the album reaching #1 in its 43rd week where it remained for 11 weeks

● Certified 9x Platinum - with over 9 million sales in the US alone, 15 million worldwide

● Mariah’s first 4 singles from the album all peaked at number one(making her the first artist since the Jackson 5 to do so)

● These singles included Vision of Love, Someday, Love Takes Time and I Don’t Wanna Cry

Mariah Carey cont.● Mariah wrote, produced and arranged the album,

along with some of the best in the industry(part of Mottola’s plan to make her a star)

● Overall the album is full of Mariah’s trademark ballads full of melisma, the songs are very vocally challenging to sing showing off Mariah’s vocal talent as well as her abilities as a lyricist

● received great critical reception for its combination of pop ballads as well as the uplifting R&B songs, as well as her topic coverage from love to political issues such as war and hunger

Emotions● released in 1991● certified 4x Platinum● Mariah was again the co-writer/producer on all of her

songs in this album● seen as a more mature album, showing off not only

some of her talent as a songwriter but also her almost 7 octave vocal range

● the most iconic song from this album is mariah’s 5th #1 single Emotions, which shows off her entire vocal range complete with the whistle notes that make her famous

Music Box ● Mariah’s highest selling album in the US● certified diamond, with over 7 million copies

sold in the US and over 32 million worldwide● tones down the vocal showboatiness to have

more calm songs, that are a bit more fast paced

● begin to see the more fast paced songs and less ballads(although it still has its #1 ballad Hero and and #3 ballad Without You)

● criticized for not having this same level of vocal power that she had shown before, however it was still perfectly designed to be a pop hit and begins to show some of her love for R&B in the music

Daydream, Butterfly and RainbowDaydream● Released in 1995● diamond certified

album: 7.6+ million sold in US, over 25 million worldwide

● nominated for 6 grammy awards

● first real introduction of R&B feel into Mariah’s music with songs like One Sweet Day and Always Be My Baby

Butterfly● Released in 1997● 5x platinum● Mariah’s first real

R&B album, bringing the genre to the mainstream

● along with the more traditional R&B feel of songs like Honey it still keeps Mariah’s love for ballads with My All

Rainbow● Released in 1999● 3x Platinum● first major decline in record sales● still maintained significant popularity however due

to songs like Heartbreaker which featured Jay Z● as Mariah had already reached the status of being

the most successful solo artist of the 90s and one of the most successful of all time she paired with other major artists like Jay Z to diversify her audience

● maintains the R&B feel of Butterfly as the genre was becoming immensely popular with groups like Destiny's Child appearing and a new generation of Female artists

Glitter and Charmbracelet● Movie Starring Mariah and a Soundtrack featuring her● Soundtrack released on Sept. 11, 2001● movie flopped in box office:grossing only about $5 million● soundtrack only certified Platinum selling only about

650,000 copies● after this flop and the stress of working on the film,

soundtrack and a tour Mariah had a nervous breakdown

● Released in 2002● certified platinum selling just over 1 million copies in US● although it was an improvement over glitter it was still not

seen to be as strong as Maria’s former albums● One of the few times Maria adds real personal emotion to

her music with the song Through The Rain which is about her recovering from her nervous breakdown

The Emancipation of Mimi● released in 2005● 6x platinum, 6 million sold in US, 12 million worldwide● seen as a comeback album for Mariah as it showed

increased record sales, won multiple grammy awards and broke a variety of industry records

● the song We Belong Together spent the 2nd longest time at #1 on the billboard hot 100(after One Sweet Day)

● broke airway records, by reaching the largest audience of all time

● was the first song to occupy #1 on 9 different Billboard charts

● Mariah was the first artist to occupy both #1 and #2 spots on hot 100 (with Shake it Off)

● nominated for 8 grammy awards, winning 2

● album was both a return to her ballad roots with a mix of modern R&B to make it an instant success

E=MC2 and Memoirs of an Imperfect AngelE=MC2

● Released in 2007● platinum certified● differed from Mariah’s

past albums and songs as she begins to purposely use autotune like T-Pain, distorting her record breaking voice

● shows her being able to continually adapt to the music industry after 17 years, that she can completely change her music style and still be #1

Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel● released in 2009● has more of a focus on

singing than E=MC2 but still has that focus on Mariah’s lyricism

● one of the more personal albums created by mariah as a lot of the songs are about her life

The Elusive Chanteuse and her career todayThe Elusive Chanteuse● released in 2004● features a variety of music styles, from motown

to early R&B to disco and hip-hop● seen as full of feeling, and truly shows her

mastery of her vocal range to convey these feelings as well as her great ability as a songwriter

● recently she just finished a residency show at vegas and released an album of her 18 #1s and a new song Infinity

● Infinity is throwback to the classic Mariah feel, it is about her divorce with Nick Cannon and is supposed to mark a new era for Mariah