The formative years...

At a Glance

There is no reason to expect that Mariah Carey would inevitably have become a musical star of her current proportions. The streets of Los Angeles and New York are filled with men and women with talent, looks, and a briefcase full of songs, none of them recorded, let alone at number one.

Mariah's career emerged from her determination (her absolute unwillingness to admit any other possibility), her voice, and a series of circumstances that made the most of those two features.

Born in New York in 1970, Mariah always knew that, without a doubt, she would be a singing star. When asked by her teachers to do her homework, she'd reply that it was unnecessary because she'd never need to go to college for her career as a superstar. Her mother's request to clean her room was answered similarly: when Mariah was a superstar, she'd have a maid. Mariah, you see, might be the last person in the world to admit that her stardom was not inevitable.

Mariah's father was black and Venezuelan. Her mother, the daughter of Irish immigrants, was an opera singer. Mariah took after her mother in the pursuit of developing her vocal talents. Her seven-octave range is certainly, at moments, reminiscent of any number of divas. But her vocal styles are drawn from gospel and rhythm & blues.

In fact, upon the release of her first couple of albums, Mariah faced charges that she was just "another white girl" capitalizing on black music. She immediately confronted the issue in Ebony, telling them that her father was black. In addition, American music styles are themselves so much derived from black music that it might be hard not to record an album drawing upon those influences. Mariah says of herself, "My mother is Irish, my father is black and Venezuelan, and me-- I'm tan, I guess."

As a teenager, she was already devoting an inordinate amount of time to singing, so much so that her nickname in high school was "Mirage." But she met up with songwriting partners, and found places to rehearse, and by the time she graduated high school, she moved to New York fully expecting to record any day.

She became, like almost every aspiring singer, actor, or musician, a waitress. An astonishingly bad one, to hear her tell of it. She went through any number of waitressing jobs during those years, getting fired from a number of them, many times for her "attitude", possible meaning her attitude that waiting tables was not as important as recording music. Perhaps she was right.

During this time, she also met Ben Margulies, with whom she wrote many of her early songs. He had a place to rehearse, and they spent an endless amount of time together writing and performing. Eventually she had a demo tape. But nowhere to go with it.

One friend was the drummer for a singer named Brenda K. Starr, who had just lost a back-up singer in her band. Mariah began to sing with her, and the two became close. Brenda K. Starr was supportive of Mariah from the first, and Carey still has nothing but good to say of her. It was through Starr that the 18-year-old Mariah got her big break.

Starr convinced Mariah to come with her to a record-industry party. Mariah brought one of her tapes along. Near the end of the party, Mariah tried to give her tape to Jerry Greenberg, from Columbia Records. Another executive, by the name of Tommy Mottola, who happened to be the president of the label, intercepted the tape. He put it in his cassette player on the way home, and decided to sign her.

Once he found her (she had neglected to put her name on the tape), he signed her to Columbia (now Sony), and set her to work on her first album. She was not yet nineteen.

The next few years were a rush of cross-continental album production. Her first album, Mariah Carey, was produced by Narada Michael Walden, whose work with Whitney Houston and George Michael was some of their most popular work. One track was also produced by Walter Afanasieff, then fairly unknown, but later to become quite important to Mariah.

The album produced four number one singles in a row. This is interesting not only because it's fairly unique, but because Sony has always made a big deal about Mariah's "number one's", even to the point of seeming disappointed about one single only hitting number two. The four singles, Vision of Love, Love Takes Time, Someday, and I Don't Wanna Cry, all reflect Mariah's lyrical base in romance. It's by far the most popular subject for Mariah's songs. She says that she thinks "that everyone can pretty much relate to songs about love...Love is something that everyone has experienced."

She released her second album, Emotions, the following year. She had her fifth consecutive number one single. Emotions was partially produced by Walter Afanasieff and partially by the team of Clivilles and Cole (the C&C behind the Music Factory). The album included a number of dance numbers that pushed her ability to emote, rather than her ability to hit the "high stuff". And she began to test the waters on touring.

Mariah has always had a different relationship to touring than most artists. She has performed what might be called boutique concerts, avoiding the grueling schedules and long periods away from home that the music business demands of many artists. So her concert tours are always very short, very well rehearsed, to the point, and always sold out.

Her most spectacular and successful live performance was not a huge stage show, but an intimate audience show. MTV Unplugged provided Mariah with the opportunity to perform live the way she wanted to. And with the success of the show, the video, the album, and especially her version of the Jackson 5's I'll Be There, Mariah's career was confirmed.

Her next move was purely personal. She got married. In June of 1993, to Tommy Mottola, the man who discovered her, provided her with an atmosphere in which she could perform and record, and who had made sure her albums received the full amount of attention that they were due. And the man who, now, cooked for her, cared for her, had married her. In a wedding that Mariah patterned after the one of Prince Charles and Lady Diana a decade before, the two were married in a Manhattan church in front of Bruce Springsteen, Barbra Streisand, and Robert DeNiro.

Her next album, Music Box, was different from the earlier Emotions, in her decreasing reliance on studio production, and a move to a more spare sound. You wouldn't go so far as to say the album had a raw, live sound. But with the number of producers and writers who worked on the album (including Afanasieff, Babyface, and Clivilles and Cole), the fact that it hangs together as a whole says that no single influence pushed her too far.

But the album didn't please critics. Where they had loved the Unplugged album, they found this one "passionless" or "limp". It didn't stop the album from being a success, nor from it meaning a great deal to people.

As a Long Island girl, she was profoundly affected by the LIRR shootings that year, and dedicated Hero, the second single, to the victims. As she says of Hero, "One person could say Hero is a schmaltzy piece of garbage, but another person can write me a letter and say, 'I've considered committing suicide every day of my life for ten years until I heard that song and I realized after all I can be my own hero.' ...it meant something to someone."

Merry Christmas, her November 1994 release, balanced old Christian hymns and new songs: it was, in fact, two original songs which were the singles from the album. Miss You Most At Christmastime and All I Want For Christmas Is You.

And in 1995, she released Daydream, a break with past albums. For one thing, it contained a number of collaborations that weren't simply song writing efforts. Her duet with Wu-Tang rapper Old Dirty Bastard, Fantasy hit number one (she directed the video for that one herself), and the Boyz II Men collaboration "One Sweet Day" soon followed with a record-breaking 16 weeks at number one.

On September 16th, 1997, Mariah's fans were blessed for a seventh time with yet another album. Titled Butterfly, this album did not surprise anyone when it debuted at the number one spot; a spot where Mariah has become a regular since the beginning of her illustrious career. The first single Honey, also debuted at the top spot, making it Mariah's unprecedented third single to debut at #1.

Life looks pretty good. The fantasy she never wanted to admit was one is now a reality. Whatever in her career might have been contingent has been sealed down. All she has to do now is keep writing and singing...and perhaps a little acting in the near future.

This biography was taken from VH1 and edited by Cloud Lockhart.