After graduating from high school, Mariah got a job waitressing at night while she wrote songs and recorded demos during the day.  Looking for better hours, Mariah tried sweeping hair in a salon but quit after one day when the owner wanted her to change her name.

"As I was sweeping up hair, the owner kept asking me, "What's your name again?'  I told him, "It's Mariah,'" the singer recalled.  "And he said, 'Well now it's Echo.' I said, 'Excuse me, I have to go make a phone call,' and I never went back."

Mariah next worked as a coat-check girl before finally landing a musical gig as a backup vocalist for R&B singer Brenda K. Starr.  One night, Brenda took Mariah to a record industry party where Mariah's demo tape landed in the hands of her future manager and ex-husband, Tommy Mottola, an executive at Sony Music.

Mariah's quick ascent to the top of the music charts is a matter of record, but it wasn't until Mariah played her first show at New York's Paramount Theater in 1993 that she realized how far she'd come.  "I used to work as a coat-check girl at this sports bar right across the street from there," Mariah recalled. "And the whole time I worked there, I kept on telling myself, 'You're going to make it, you're going to get out of this place.' WhenI got up on stage and realized where I was, I knew my dreams had come true."

Her dreams certainly did come true, but it was her hard work that got her there.  "I was really determined, and that's a major key factor," she's said.  "You have to be determined, and you have to have a certain amount of talent."  Oh, and more thing: "I prayed every day," Mariah said.

Today, those prayers have all been answered!