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Mariah Carey was born on March 27, 1970. She is the daughter of Alfred Roy and Patricia Carey and she has two older siblings, a brother named Morgan and a sister named Alison. Mariah's parents divorced when she was only three years old and she went to live with her mother where she was raised on Long Island. Mariah's mother Patricia was an opera singer with the New York City Opera and later made a living as a vocal coach, so Mariah was exposed to music at a very early age. She began singing as soon as she began talking. With the radio as her only baby-sitter and spending late nights up with her mothers musician friends, Mariah's love and knowledge of music grew astonishingly and her talent began to develop. She even began to write her own songs in school. For her 16th birthday Mariah's brother Morgan paid for her to record a demo. Soon after she met Ben Margulies and together they wrote songs in Ben's father's woodshop studio in Manhattan. Many of these songs would eventually end up on Mariah's first album. After graduating from high school, Mariah moved to Manhattan and worked various odd jobs before becoming a backup singer for Brenda K. Starr. She attended an Industry party with Starr one night and her demo was snatched from her hands leading to a recording contract with Sony's Columbia Records. 1990 Mariah teamed up with some of the best songwriters and producers of the time, and continued to work with Ben Margulies. On May 15, 1990 her debut album Mariah Carey was released. Supported by the radio success of the album's first single, "Vision of Love," and a whirlwind of promotional appearances which included Arsenio Hall, David Letterman, Jay Leno and Saturday Night Live, Mariah's debut album was phenomenally successful and hit the #1 position on the Billboard Charts. The album has sold more than 12 million copies worldwide and generated a record-setting four consecutive #1 singles: "Vision of Love," "Love Takes Time," "Someday," and "I Don't Wanna Cry." 1991 While her debut album was enjoying massive success, Mariah was already hard at work again in the studio; however, she took a quick break to pick up her first two Grammy awards in 1991 for Best New Artist and Best Pop Vocal Performance for "Vision of Love." On September 17, 1991 Mariah Carey released her follow up album Emotions. The album's title track shot to #1 becoming her fifth consecutive #1 single and making Mariah the only artist in history to have her first five singles go to the #1 position. "Emotions" also made her one of the Top Ten All-Time achievers of Most Consecutive #1 Hits. Emotions also received two Grammy nominations ("Best Pop Vocal, Female" and, with Walter Afanasieff, "Best Producer") and an American Music Award ("Favorite Female Artist, Soul/R&B"). 1992 Even after the success of Emotions, Mariah wasn't finished with 1992 yet! On March 17th, she appeared on a new show by MTV called "Unplugged." Conquering her fear of performing, Mariah dazzled the audience with her amazing voice and silenced the critics who had claimed her talent was nothing more than the results of studio production. That night she performed a cover of the Jackson Five single "I'll Be There" with her friend and backup singer Trey Lorenz. Little did she know that radio would pick up this single all by itself, forcing the release of an EP and placing MTV's Unplugged on the map! Not only that, but "I'll Be There" became Mariah's sixth #1 single and the EP went on to sell more than five million copies worldwide! 1993 By the time 1993 rolled along, Mariah Carey was ready to come back again and show the world she had no intentions of slowing down! On the heels of her June wedding to Tommy Mottola, Mariah Carey released her fourth album, Music Box. Music Box portrayed a softer Mariah with the light and airy vocals of the album's first single, "Dreamlover" which would also go on to land in the #1 spot. Also with Music Box Mariah embarked on her first world tour and filmed a television special in Schnectady, NY that would air with fabulous ratings on NBC, Thanksgiving Day. It was during this television special when Mariah first showed to the world a song that has become synonymous with her name and her image, a song called "Hero." This song, which has given hope and strength to so many, became Mariah's 8th #1 single in August of 1993. After the release of two more singles, "Without You" and "Anytime You Need A Friend," Music Box went on to sell more than 24 million copies worldwide giving Mariah Carey her first diamond album and securing her right to the title of superstar. 1994 1994 was another busy year for Mariah as she worked through the summer months to have her first Christmas album ready for the holidays. In November the album entitled Merry Christmas was released. (And yes, that is real snow in the picture used as the album's cover – the result of a very cold and painful photo shoot! Don't ever let Mariah hear you say differently!) Included in the mixture of religious and non-traditional Christmas songs are Mariah's own "All I Want For Christmas Is You", "Miss You Most (At Christmas time)," and "Jesus, Born on this Day." After two television specials on MTV and VH1, Mariah had the honor of performing a benefit concert at St. John the Divine, which marked the first time she worked with her charity, The Fresh Air Fund. Merry Christmas has sold over eight million copies worldwide. 1995 After closing out the year with another multi-platinum album, Mariah went into the studio yet again to begin work on her most successful album to date, Daydream. The album's first single "Fantasy" had exploded on to radio by the summer of 1995, and Mariah made her directorial debut by directing herself in the hugely popular video. Produced by Sean "Puffy" Combs and featuring a legendary guest performance by rap superstar Ol' Dirty Bastard, "Fantasy" was the first single to really portray Mariah's passion for Hip Hop music. The song was so well accepted by the public that it became the first single by a female artist ever to debut in the #1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100. A few weeks later on October 3rd, 1995 Daydream also debuted at #1 and went on to generate two more #1 singles; "One Sweet Day" (a duet with Boyz II Men which spent 16 weeks at #1 and still holds the record for the longest running #1 single in history) and "Always Be My Baby." Daydream also sent Mariah on her second world tour and supported another television special on CBS. The album was nominated for six Grammy awards and has sold over 25 million copies worldwide. 1996 Later in 1996 Mariah decided to apply her talents to a different area of the Music Industry. She opened her own recording label under Sony and named it Crave. Crave was home to several amazing artists including Allure, The League, 7 Mile and S.O.A.P. Mariah took a personal interest in her label's first group, Allure. She produced their album and co-wrote several of their songs, even making a guest appearance in their debut video. Allure had a top five hit with "All Cried Out" (produced by Mariah) before Crave was unexplainably closed by Sony in 1997. 1997 1997 was a difficult and revolutionary year for Mariah Carey, both in her personal and professional life. She separated from her husband after four years of marriage and submerged herself in the creation of her music. On September 16th, 1997 Mariah reinvented her image with the release of her most personal and urban sounding album appropriately titled Butterfly. Treasured by fans and heralded by critics, Butterfly is an edgy, sensuous mix of R&B, Pop and Hip Hop music. Lyrically, it is considered to be Mariah's best. The album's first single "Honey" took radio by storm. The video, filmed in Puerto Rico, was a massive hit on MTV, VH1 and BET and is among Mariah's favorites. In it, Mariah portrayed a Bond girl escaping on a jet ski from a mansion where she was being held captive. Propelled by this exposure, both Butterfly and "Honey" debuted once again in the #1 spot, followed a few months later by the album's second single "My All." Mariah went on a world tour for the Butterfly album, performing in Tokyo, Taiwan, Hawaii and Australia where she swam with the dolphins. Butterfly has sold over 12 million copies worldwide and is still considered by her fans to be the definitive Mariah Carey album. 1998 As a gift to her fans on November 17th, 1998 Mariah released a compilation album that included all 13 of her #1 singles as well as four brand-new bonus recordings: "When You Believe" (a duet with Whitney Houston), "Whenever You Call" (a duet with Brian McKnight), "I Still Believe" and "Sweetheart." This album has sold over 15 million copies worldwide and should not be, under any circumstances, considered a greatest hits collection. 1999 A year later, she kicked her own ass on MTV. It was for a show called "Making the Video" where Mariah debuted the video for "Heartbreaker", the first single from her ninth album Rainbow. In the "Heartbreaker" video Mariah cat fights with her own alter-ego, Bianca (Mariah sporting a black wig and a British accent). "Heartbreaker" went to #1 and became Mariah's fourteenth #1 single, giving her the record for the most #1's by a female artist and making her only second to the Beatles and Elvis Presley for the most #1's overall. Rainbow was released on November 2nd, 1999, peaked at #2 on the Billboard Album Chart. According to critics, it is Mariah's best album to date and is home to the brilliant "Can't Take That Away (Mariah's Theme)," a song overwhelmingly favored by and supported by her fans. 2000 Mariah received a number of prestigious awards in the year 2000 including the World Music Award's Artist of the Millennium and a very rare Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Music Awards. Also in 2000, Mariah embarked on her Rainbow Tour where she performed in the United States for the first time in seven years before heading to Toronto to film her first ever movie, Glitter. 2001 Mariah had been taking acting lessons for years and had acted as a child as well. She has always wanted to act in films, and finally she got her chance to bring to life an idea that she had been working with for several years with the making of Glitter. The story is of a young girl abandoned at an early age by her mother and how she deals with that on her precarious rise to fame as a singer in New York City. Mariah also completed 12 tracks for the movie's soundtrack, including the funky "Loverboy" which was the #1 selling single of 2001. Glitter the album was released on September 11th, 2001 and the movie hit theaters a week later on September 21st. 2002 2002 looks to be a bright year for Mariah already! She opened the year premiering her newest project, an Independent film called Wise Girls, at the Sundance Film Festival in January and sang the National Anthem in front of millions at this year's Superbowl. Wise Girls has earned Mariah rave reviews as a supporting actress behind Academy Award winner Mira Sorvino and will open premier on HBO in November. In May Mariah signed a $20million album deal with Def Jam Island, a label under the largest music Incorporation in the world, Universal Music. Currently Mariah is in Capri recording her highly anticipated album that will be the first album released on Mariah's own, yet to be named record label. The forthcoming album is due out early 2003 and will feature tracks with producers Jermaine Dupri, 7, DJ Quik and Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis. Source: Mariahbuzz.com