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Mariah Carey (born March 27, 1970) is a R&B; and pop singer, songwriter, record producer and occasional actress of the 1990s and 2000s. Making her debut in 1990, she became the most successful and best-selling artist of the coming decade according to Billboard magazine and the World Music Awards. In 2000, the World Music Awards show named her the best-selling female recording artist of all time.

Carey is noted for her distinctive singing style that makes frequent use of melismas and other ornamentation, and she possesses a five-octave vocal range. She released a throng of number-one hits while signed to Columbia Records, formerly run by then-husband Tommy Mottola, and several of them broke chart records. By the turn of the millennium, however, Carey's popularity with critics and the public had entered decline, and she was dropped from her new record label following a highly-publicised physical breakdown and an unsuccessful foray into film. In 2005, Carey returned to the forefront of popular music with the release of the multi-platinum The Emancipation of Mimi.

Biography and music career
Early life and discovery
Carey was born in Huntington, New York. She is the third and youngest child of Patricia Hickey, a Catholic opera singer and voice coach of Irish-American descent, and Alfred Roy Carey (né Núñez), an aeronautical engineer of Afro-Venezuelan descent. She was named after the song ""And They Call the Wind Maria"", from the musical Paint Your Wagon. Carey's siblings include her older sister Alison, and her older brother Morgan. As a multiracial family, the Carey household was met with racial slurs, hostility, and sometimes violence, causing the family to move frequently around the New York area. The strain on the family led to the divorce of Carey's parents when she was three years old. Carey had little contact with her father, and her mother worked several jobs to support the family.

Spending much of her time at home alone, Carey turned to music as an outlet. She began singing at the age of four, and first performed in public at the age of six. She began writing songs while in grade school, and her mother and the members of her opera company were impressed with her talents when Carey hit a cue note that her mother had missed. Carey attended and graduated from Oldfield Middle School and Harborfields High School in Greenlawn, New York, although she was frequently absent due to efforts to break into the music business. After moving to New York City, she eventually landed a role as a backup singer for Brenda K. Starr.

In 1988, Carey met Columbia Records executive Tommy Mottola at a party, where Starr gave him a demo tape. Mottola played the tape while leaving the party and was very impressed by what he heard. He returned to the party to find Carey, but she had already left. Nevertheless, Mottola tracked her down and signed her to a recording contract. This Cinderella-like story became part of the standard publicity surrounding Carey's entrance into the industry.

1990–1992: Early commercial success
Carey's professional music career began with the release of her eponymous debut album, Mariah Carey, in 1990. Carey co-wrote all of the compositions on her debut album with songwriter-producers such as Ric Wake and Rhett Lawrence, and would continue to co-write nearly all of her material for the rest of her career. The album debuted low on t