Mariah Carey (no middle name) was born on March 27, 1970 in Long Island, New York. Specifically, she was born in the town of Huntington. In a Native American language, Mariah means "the wind." She was named after the song "They Called The Wind Mariah" from the musical "Paint Your Wagon." On the same day Mariah was born, another song from "Paint Your Wagon" happened to be the number one song in the United Kingdom.
Mariah learned to sing almost as soon as she learned to talk. The first sign of Mariah's talent came at the age of 2 1/2. While her mother Patricia, an opera singer, was rehearsing for the role of Maddalena from Verdi's "Rigoletto", she missed a cue, only to have had Mariah pick it up at exactly the right spot and sing it perfectly - in Italian. Seeing that her daughter had a gift, Patricia started giving Mariah voice lessons at the age of 4. "From the time Mariah was a little girl, she sang on true pitch; she was able to hear a sound and duplicate it exactly," says Patricia (People, '93).
At the age of 3, Mariah's father Alfred Roy Carey, a black Venezuelan aeronautical engineer and her mother Patricia, a white Irish opera singer from Indiana, divorced. Throughout their marriage, they had to deal with the racial prejudices of the people around them. "My mother's family basically disowned her when she married my father (Smash Hits)," says Mariah. "They had their dogs poisoned, their cars set on fire and blown up. It put a strain on their relationship that never quit. There was always this tension. They just fought all the time (People, '93)."
Mariah's parents weren't the only ones faced with racial bias. Her brother Morgan and sister Alison, 9 and 10 years older than Mariah, suffered too. Because Alison had the darkest skin, she got picked on the most. Morgan had cerebral palsy and epilepsy as a child. "They'd shout racial slurs at her and beat her up," says Mariah. "Then my brother would go in and fight for her, even though he was handicapped. It was tough."
Mariah was the only one of the family who did not grow up with Alfred. After the divorce, Mariah and Morgan lived with their mother, while Alison lived with her father. "My father and I had a good relationship for a minute there, right after the divorce," remembers Mariah (People). The visits with her father soon became more and more infrequent. Mariah and Alfred (who now lives in the Washington, DC area) have a cordial but distant relationship to this day.
Being a single mother is not easy today, and perhaps it was even harder back in the 1970's. Mariah and her mother constantly moved around Long Island and New York. When asked why they were moving so much, Mariah says, "I don't know. I'll have to ask her that, one of these days. I think because she didn't own a house or anything and sometimes we didn't have a lot of money. We had to stay with friends a lot of times." And sometimes, they had to sleep on the floors because of lack of space.
This contributed to Mariah's feeling of instability as a child. It didn't help at all that even though Morgan was supposed to baby-sit her, Mariah was left home alone most nights when her mother had to take two other jobs to make ends meet. She recalls, "It was scary growing up like that. I never really felt stable. I always felt the rug could be pulled out from under me (Q Magazine, 6/94)." In addition, Mariah's family was always the one with the smallest house and the oldest car in the neighborhood. Some neighbors didn't even want their children to play with Mariah because she was a "bad influence."
"I guess when you're part Irish and part Venezuelan, you're not completely connected to any one thing," she says. "You grow up like that in a suburban neighborhood with rich kids, you're not popular because you're different. And I never had any financial security. I dreamed of possessing things. Lucky for me I had my music to hold on to as a goal. It was like, these people may not think I'm as good as them, but I can sing!" (Q Magazine, 6/94)
Music was always the one thing that made Mariah feel secure. She had wanted to be a professional singer ever since she could remember. "I always loved music and they had to tear me away from the radio to make me go to sleep. It was something that always made me happy," recalls Mariah (Washington Post, 10/95). She would mimic everything she heard. When watching television, Mariah's favorite part wasn't the shows, but rather singing along with the jingles in commercials and the show themes.
Mariah's early influences were the roots of rhythm and blues. Her favorite artists included Sarah Vaughan, Billie Holiday, Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, and Gladys Knight. Mariah's all-time favorite song was 'Bridge over Troubled Water' by Aretha Franklin. It is not a great surprise then that she considers herself to be an R&B singer rather than a pop singer.
It may be hard to believe, but Mariah was not always the perfect child (but who is). When her mother asked her to clean her room, she would refuse to do it because when she becomes a superstar, she'd have maids to do it. But you have to admit, Mariah was determined. That confident attitude gave her the nickname of "Miss Mod."
According to Mariah, the worst trouble she got in as a kid was when she tried to take revenge. She explains, "There were some older girls in the neighborhood who were really mean to me. When they moved away, I got their phone number. My friend and I pranked called them about 100 times. They didn't know who it was, so they had the calls traced. The police called me and everything. I had to pay for all the calls out of my allowance. The moral of the story is: You always get caught (Disney Adventures, 9/92)."
In high school, Mariah never took school seriously (she insists she doesn't remember her grade-point average). She thought of it more as a time to socialize than learn. Teachers used to write in Mariah's report card, "She's very smart, but she doesn't apply herself unless it's something she likes." And what Mariah liked in school was creative writing - "I was always in the classes with the smart kids. The Honors Creative Writing class. Then I would be in the worst remedial math. I hated math."
Of course, Mariah already knew what she was going to be - a singer (or a "rock star" according to her principal) and she didn't need math or history to be one (but creative writing could help out on the songwriting part). Ironically though, not many people at Harborfields High knew that. Mariah never participated in any singing-related activity in high school. She thought she was "too cool to be in the chorus," which she now says stemmed from her feeling of insecurity.
But beyond school, Mariah was working hard to be one. She didn't want to mix school with singing. While teachers were telling her to stop daydreaming about being a rock star and do her homework, Mariah's mother encouraged but never pushed her to go for her dreams. "She took it seriously like I did," says Mariah. "More than anything, she helped give me the belief in myself to even attempt to do this."
By 15, Mariah was going into Manhattan every night to work with professional musicians and studios. On most nights, they would sing until 3 o' clock in the morning, which meant not always arriving at school on time the next day. Mariah's habit of sleeping late earned her another nickname - "Mirage."
With all that time spent in studios, you wonder if Mariah had any boyfriends. The answer is yes. Still, Mariah says, "Music was my priority, always, so I never took it seriously like anything that was going to last." In her high school yearbook, Mariah was described as liking sleeping late, Corvettes and "guidos" (Italian boys).
Surprisingly, Mariah never thought of herself as pretty (if she could've seen herself now). Her most embarrassing moment came as a result of trying to be prettier. She explains, "When I was in seventh grade, I was an ugly duckling. I had really hairy eyebrows and I didn't know that you were supposed to pluck them. So I started shaving off little bits of my eyebrows. Pretty soon, there were none left. Then I picked up this hair stuff called 'Golden Blond'. I put it on my hair and started drying it with this bright orange blow dryer. The next thing I knew, my hair was the same color as the blow dryer. Of course, the second I left the house, I ran into this kid I was totally in love with and he said 'What happened to you?' (Disney Adventures)"
Not surprisingly, college was never in Mariah's plans. Instead, she was preparing for her singing career. Long before her first album, Mariah had already started writing the lyrics to future hits like "Someday" and "Love Takes Time." No wonder she was so good at creative writing.
One year before graduating, Mariah was introduced to Ben Margulies by her brother Morgan, then a personal trainer. Ben had access to a makeshift studio in the back of his father's woodshop, but only at night. It was in that "woodshop studio" that Mariah cut her first demo with money from her brother.
Within days of graduating from high school in 1987, 17 year-old Mariah packed up her stuffed animals, posters, and tapes and moved into New York City on her own. She lived in a small apartment with her cats and two roommates. To say the least, things were not going so well. "I lived in a loft that was, like, the size of this couch (she indicates the three-seater leather couch she's sitting on) above the kitchen. you had to climb up on the counter to get into it," remembers Mariah (Smash Hits).
To earn money, Mariah worked odd jobs by day. Among other things, she was a waitress and a coat-checker. While working as a waitress, Mariah tried to earn more tips by singing to her customers. She admits, however, that she wasn't the greatest waitress, mainly because of her "attitude." It was the same attitude that she had toward cleaning her room and schoolwork. In other words, she wasn't especially nice towards the customers..
By night, Mariah would continue to work with Ben in the woodshop studio. In return, Ben would get half of her earnings if and when Mariah got a record contract. "After I would waitress until one or two in the morning, I would work in the studio until eight o'clock in the morning writing songs, doing demos...we worked very hard trying to get a record deal. I'd like to say I condensed about 10 years of hard work into four!" explains Mariah.
Mariah and Ben did send several rough demos to several labels. Some labels, including Warners, expressed interest, but then never did anything about it (bet they're regretting it now). Once, a publisher offered to send one of their songs to Whitney Houston. But Mariah refused. She wasn't going to let anyone else sing HER songs.
As you can see, Mariah's fame wasn't all that apparent. Just to have something to fall back on, Mariah took 500 hours of beauty school. "Those were difficult jobs, very boring and I went out very quickly. What did I like to do? I was learning in the beauty salon, and I liked it. I thought to myself, that I have to learn some kind of specialty, just in case I'd fail to be singer. Even now, when I am in good mood, I like to design my friends' hair," says Mariah (Q Magazine).
The worst job Mariah ever had was the one day she spent sweeping floor in a hair salon. According to her, "Everybody had these little name tags with cute little names on them, like Electricity and Lightning. So as I was sweeping up hair, the owner kept asking me, 'What's your name again?' I told him, 'It's Mariah.' And he said, 'Well, now it's Echo.' So I said, 'Excuse me, I have to go make a phone call,' and I never went back (US Magazine, 10/93)."
Mariah then became a backup singer to Brenda K. Starr. Although Mariah didn't know it at the time, that was an important stepping stone to her discovery. One of Starr's backup singers had quit, and she was searching for a replacement. A friend of Mariah's was a drummer for Starr and convinced her to go to the audition. "I really didn't want to do it, but then I thought, 'Well, it's got be better than doing what I'm doing now!' So I went to the audition and Brenda was just such a great person. She really became a great friend to me and was so supportive. I got the audition, obviously, and we became really good friends," explains Mariah.
For nearly a year, Mariah wore the same black outfit and leaky pair of shoes. She could hardly afford to eat. Three months before Mariah's record contract, she was "having a bagel a day and Snapple ice tea drinks. My friend and I would go to the deli and beg this guy to give us some Snapples, he was our friend."
"But it was fun. I was learning, collaborating. Well. it was also a year of crying yourself to sleep every night because you want to do something so badly. It sounds exaggerated, but it's a long time, especially in a young person's life." (Q Magazine)
Then, everything changed.
One Friday night in 1988, Mariah's friend Brenda K. Starr took her to a party hosted by CBS Records (now SONY) after they did a show together. Understandably, Mariah was pretty nervous in the presence of record executives, especially since it was the first time Mariah had been to a party like that. She was "just freaked out to even be there."
Mariah did get the courage however to hand her demo tape to Jerry Greenberg, head of WTG Records (no longer in existence). But in a strange moment, another record executive intercepted the transaction. That record executive was no other than Tommy Mottola, president of Columbia Records. At that time, Tommy was looking for a female singer - the next Whitney Houston. "It was such a quick thing," Mariah recalls. "Jerry's hand went out and Tommy's came in from the side and just grabbed it."
After a while, Tommy left the party. He popped the demo into the cassette deck of his limo. Two songs later, Tommy was convinced he had the voice of the '90's, a five-octave one at that. He immediately turned the car around and rushed back to the party. Unfortunately, Mariah and Brenda K. had already gone home and no one remembered Mariah's name.
So what was Prince Charming to do? He did not even know who Cinderella was (Mariah's name was not on the demo). Using the glass slipper (umm...demo tape) and his many contacts, Tommy spent the weekend tracking Mariah down.
Meanwhile, Mariah was not as confident about her singing as Tommy was. She thought that he had hated the demo and it was somewhere lying in a trash can. No need to say that Mariah was excited when she heard Tommy's message on her answering machine.
"He left the message on my machine. This is Tommy Mottola, CBS Records, call me back.....'Bye.' Well, after you wait so long to hear a call like that, it was shockingly abrupt," Mariah recalls. "I called back, stuttering 'Can I speak to M-Mister M-Mottola?' He said, 'I think we can make hit records.' I was like freaking out!"
The following Monday, Mariah and her mother was in Tommy's office. Within a month, the contract was signed between Columbia Records and the future princess of pop.
And what were the songs on the demo tape that so mesmerized Tommy? They were:
What followed was two years of hard work.
The first thing Mariah did after she signed her record contract was write her first single - one that would later propel her into the spotlight - "Vision Of Love." Mariah says, "It's basically a celebration of how I was feeling at the time. It's not just a love song, it's about feeling good, and I was at a very big turning point in my life at the time, so it's about everything that was going on."
Columbia Records brought in expensive and famous producers to work with Mariah. These included Narada Michael Walden (Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston), Ric Wake (Taylor Dane), and Rhett Lawrence (Michael Jackson).
Mariah admits to her frustration at all the producers. "It took away some of my identity," Mariah says. "When I go back and listen to the demo, in some ways it's better than the album ended up being. Just in terms of the simplicity, it seemed to be more real and innocent and once we got big-name producers involved, it took on another quality. It did very well for me, so I'm not saying anything bad about it (Washington Post)."
Mariah just wasn't the type of singer that allowed producers to take over her songs. SHE wanted to have every part in developing the song. That didn't always play well with the producers, some of whom thought she was hard to work with (or is it just that they can't handle an intelligent woman).
All the struggling and hard work paid off. "Vision Of Love" soared to the top of pop, R&B, and adult contemporary charts in 1990. "I didn't think it would be a big pop hit because it wasn't like everything that was going at the time - it wasn't a dance record, it wasn't a rap song, it wasn't heavy metal. It didn't really fit any particular format and I was pleasantly surprised to see that it caught on the way it did. It makes me feel great thinking about it because it's one of my favorite songs that I've written," remembers Mariah.
In fact, all of the singles released from that self-titled album reached number one on the charts. With a five-octave voice that could reach room-trembling deeps to glass-piercing highs, Mariah mesmerized the world. To this day, the album itself has sold over six million copies in the US alone. It also got her numerous awards, including two Grammys for Best New Artist and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. Mariah's performance of "Vision Of Love" on the 1991 Grammys is featured in a collection of CD's entitled Grammy's Greatest Moments. According to them, Mariah performed the song "with a sense of command and assurance that reinforced the feeling that she had a big career ahead of her."
Mariah did not really get to savor all her success. While everyone was still hyped up about her first album, Mariah was back doing what she loved in the studio - which she calls her "cocoon" or "security blanket." Mariah's second album was in many ways different from her first. For one thing, her success brought her more control over what she did. All the famous producers were gone. Another person that played a big part in Mariah's music career so far and who collaborated with her on almost all the songs of the debut album was also gone - Ben Margulies.
The reason for Ben's departure had to do with the agreement he and Mariah had before her fame. Instead of giving Ben half of the earnings from the publication of the songs they collaborated on, Mariah entitled him to half of her multi-million-dollar album earnings. She blamed the mistake on early desperation. One thing led to another and Ben left. He does however hope to still work with Mariah one day.
"Be careful what you sign. You hear it a thousand times and I heard it a thousand times," Mariah says. "When you're struggling, you still do it. I blindly signed. Later, I tried to make it right so we could continue our professional, our artistic relationship, but he wouldn't accept it. What can you do?"
Mariah's second album did not do as well as the first, which is still extraordinarily well for any other artist. The first single of that album, "Emotions," gave Mariah her fifth consecutive number one single, which is still unprecedented by any other artist in the history of music. After that, it's needless to say Mariah was a bit disappointed that her next two singles reached "only" number two and five.
For these first two albums, Tommy Mottola acted as the executive producer. In addition to discovering her, he guided and encouraged Mariah through it all. In all of Mariah's albums, she thanked Tommy second, right after God. Mariah writes in the liner notes of her debut album, "To Tommy Mottola - I'm so fortunate to have the benefit of your invaluable guidance, expertise, and support. Thank you so much for believing in me."
Gradually, Mariah's relationship with Tommy grew to be more than a student-teacher one. Tommy's marriage of 20 years had fallen apart long ago, and he was in the process of divorce. When Mariah first saw Tommy at the party in 1988, "There was definitely some kind of chemistry going on that was really intense. I remember it. But I was very scared and shy and young, so I just kind of walked away. Shyly." Working together on the debut album, Mariah and Tommy fell in love.
Their courtship was very secretive, even though rumors went as far as having them engaged in 1992. Mariah responded to these rumors by saying "There is not much that is sacred in this business, but to me my private life is." "I didn't talk about it until we decided what we were going to do. He was pretty much my first serious boyfriend - I mean , anyone else was in my high school days," she says. "It just sort of happened. Tommy is just the greatest person. He knows so much; he's funny. I can't imagine anybody else who would be so supportive and so understanding and helpful. He lifts me up (People)."
What they were going to do was to get married. On June 5, 1993, 24 year-old Mariah Carey and 43 year-old Tommy Mottola were married at Manhattan's St. Thomas Episcopal Church. The extravagant wedding would have made Prince Charming and Cinderella jealous. Since Tommy has "a lot of friends who happen to be famous," guests at the ceremony included Robert De Niro, Barbara Streisand, William Baldwin, Bruce Springsteen, Ozzy Osbourne, Michael Bolton, Gloria Estefan, and Billy Joel.
The half-a-million-dollar ceremony was greatly influenced by the royal wedding of Prince Charles and Princess Diana. Among other things, Mariah's tiara was a family heirloom redesigned to look like Di's. She wore a Vera Wang ivory-silk duchess satin gown and her train was 27 feet long. Even her satin pumps, one of which contained a 1893 sixpence for good luck, cost $1000.
It was also reported that Mariah repeated watched the videotape of the 1981 royal wedding. To clear up rumors, Mariah says, "The ceremony was really traditional, so I wanted to look at examples of a traditional wedding to get some ideas. So I watched it, like, twice. I didn't sit at home with the VCR and the clicker and keep rewinding it. I didn't know anything about traditions because I wasn't one of those girls that grew up thinking about getting married - all I thought about was singing."
When Mariah was a child, she didn't think that she would ever get married. Part of the reason was that her parents' divorce made Mariah feel very anti-marriage. That feeling is long gone now, and on Mariah's fingers are two diamond bands and an engagement ring set with a diamond the size of a small rock.
About her husband, Mariah has nothing but good to say. "Tommy is so romantic," she says. "I was in London for a week, and every morning he had two dozen pink roses sent to my room. By the end of the trip, it was filled with roses (People)." Besides being romantic, Tommy is also a great cook. "He's the best chef I've ever encountered and (affecting a serious gourmet voice) I've been eating all over the world. He should actually bottle his spaghetti sauce and sell it, because it's so good!" Mariah says (Smash Hits). "I'm so spoiled by his cooking." (OK, I'm beyond jealous now)
"Tommy's a very musical person, and very creative for a record company guy," Mariah explains. In fact, Tommy was a pop singer for a brief time (his stage name was by TD Valentine) and then became a successful manager of artists such as Hall & Oates, John Mellencamp, and Carly Simon. At a London club, Mariah actually got Tommy to sing in public, with her and her backing singers behind him. "It was pretty funny," she laughs, "and we documented it on film." (Washington Post)
When asked if she does "wifey" things for Tommy such as ironing his shirts, Mariah replies, "Oh! no please! that's not for me! No deal! I mean, when I was growing up, it was my nightmare that I would end up having to do that with some guy. Fortunately, we have people to help us with that kind of stuff." One thing Mariah surely never does with Tommy around is cook.
Then there is the issue of Tommy being nearly 20 years older than Mariah. But love knows no age, and Mariah proves it. "He's a very cool person. We're beyond thinking about age. I mean, occasionally he'll know a song that I've never heard of, or I'll know songs that I'm like, oh, this reminds me of seventh grade, and it was, like, not that long ago," Mariah comments. "I don't think of Tommy as an older person. I think of him as a very special person. Everybody who knows us realize that we're right for each other (People)."
And what is it like being married to your boss? Mariah admits they sometimes get in fights over business. "He's ready to say, 'Do it this way.' At the same time, I'm very independent." Still, Mariah says, "We definitely kid each other about the business side of things, but we try as much as possible not to deal with each other on those issues. It wouldn't be good. And there are certain things he can't be involved in (ie. contract negotiations)."
After a brief honeymoon in Hawaii, Mariah rushed back to the studio to finish recording yet another album and plan her first tour.
Back in Mariah's singing career, the release of "Music Box" continued Mariah's astounding album sales. It became her best-selling album to date, and spawning the #1 singles "Dreamlover" and "Hero." She was also planning her first tour ever, hoping to "give something back" to the fans.
By now, Mariah had already released a MTV Unplugged EP, not really considered an album. It was the recording of her March 16, 1992 appearance on MTV's "Unplugged." Unplugged was actually Mariah's first time really performing ("really" as in not one song performances), which she admits isn't good.
The first leg of Mariah's six-city US Tour was in front of 15,000 people at Miami Arena on Nov. 3, 1993. "I was OK until I had to walk up this ramp on to the stage and I heard this deafening scream and it was kinda like everything in my life, this whole incredible whirlwind I'd been going through, it had all been leading up to that insane moment and there it was."
During that show, Mariah was trying more to hit the high notes rather than to entertain the audience. The next day, she all but got butchered by the critics.
"That was so intense," she says. "And then they killed me. Not the audience - they knew it was my first show, they were very supportive. I got really bad reviews, though. Well, there were a lot of critics out to get me: this girl's sold all these albums, she's never toured, let's get her. So they did. I turned on the TV in bed that night and the CNN guy was saying, 'The reviews are in and it's bad news for Mariah Carey.' It really hurt me a lot."
For the rest of the tour, Mariah improved considerably. The second show she did was in Worchester, Massachusettes. "I put all my anger into it, let go all my inhibitions and just lost myself in performing. Not like this is what matters to me, but the reviews were raves," recalls Mariah. Indeed, the reviews were excellent. The Boston Globe said that it was "a spectacular performance...[which] bowled over the crowd with a confidence that grew before their eyes."
The other cities Mariah hit in her tour were Rosemont, Illinois (Nov. 17), Los Angeles (Nov. 23), Philadelphia (Dec. 2), and New York City (Dec. 10). According to the Los Angeles Times, "After months of media doubts about whether Carey, who has sold more than 10 million records over the last three years without ever touring, could hold her own on stage, the young New Yorker proved more appealing on stage Tuesday than she has the last three years on record."
Mariah does not hide the fact that she's happiest in the studio. She says, "I love to go in and sing all the background parts and then hear like 20 tracks of my own voice coming back out of the speaker." She also rarely tours because of her delicate pipes - "I'm very paranoid and over-protective about my voice. Even if I feel slightly hoarse I won't perform."
And true to her form, the workaholic Mariah once again went back to the studio to record another album - this time a Christmas album. That whole year, Christmas decorations were up in the studio to get the holiday mood. The result was a combination of traditional and original Christmas songs which became the best-selling holiday album ever.
And then came "Daydream," Mariah's latest album. By now, there is no need to say the #1 singles again piled up and the sales soared. "Fantasy," The first single from the album, debuted at #1 on the Billboard charts, making Mariah the first female artist and only the second artist ever to accomplish this. Just one week after "Fantasy" slipped out of #1, Mariah's next single "One Sweet Day" with Boyz II Men debuted at #1 as well. Two singles both debuting at #1 in succession was unheard of, and Mariah became the first artist to do so. As if it wasn't enough, "One Sweet Day" stayed at #1 for 16 weeks - the longest ever.
Mariah then embarked on her second tour, this time a world tour. Compared with her first performances, she was clearly much more comfortable on stage. The Daydream Tour opened with three shows in Japan at the Tokyo Dome. All the shows were sold out, and the approximately 47,000 people who watched the concerts were several of the biggest ever at the Tokyo Dome.
The tour continued with dates in Europe. She performed in Frankfurt, Germany (6/14/96), at the Ahoy in Rotterdam, Netherlands (6/17), at Palais Omnisports in Paris, France (6/20), and finally at Wembley Stadium in London, England (6/23). All of the shows were sold out very quickly, with the fastest being the Frankfurt show - in ten minutes!
All in all, Mariah has had six releases (counting the EP) in six years, keeping us fans very happy. She has won numerous awards, broken countless records, and along the way, became the best-selling female artist of the '90's by selling over 85 million albums. And did we all forget that she is only 26 years old?
Even with all that, Mariah stands out from the rest of the music field by being more than a singer. She is also a writer, a producer, and a video director. This just makes it even more amazing that she still churns out an album a year when a "regular" singer does barely an album every couple of years. Why does Mariah do all this when she could easily have sit back and have someone else do it?
She responds, "I don't do it because I want to be in control. It's just that I think it's part of the creative process for me. It's part of my enjoyment of making music and singing. It's not going in there after someone has written and produced a track and just put vocals on it and leaving. I don't know, I just don't feel comfortable with that and I love writing almost as singing and it's just a part of me."
No story is perfect, so here is the other side. Throughout her career, critics have not exactly been kind to Mariah. They have complained everything from her singing to her success story. (They obviously hasn't affected her popularity though.) The release of "Daydream" saw the best reviews in her career so far, but that in my opinion is still far less than she deserves.
Many of the things critics originally thought were proven totally untrue. For example, when Mariah first became famous, critics charged that she did not pay her dues. But as Mariah's whole life has shown, she did pay for her dues, maybe more so than a lot of the other singers out there. Then the critics alleged that her vocals and range were somehow studio-produced, that there was no way she could have a voice like that. That theory was disproved when Mariah performed on MTV Unplugged.
One thing that Mariah has taken a lot of heat for is her lyrics. Critics call them childish or not deep. The lyrics are too innocent and sweet, they say, like "hackneyed high school poetry set to music." Mariah responds, "One person could say 'Hero' (her 8th American #1) 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 the past 10 years until I heard that song and I realized after all I can be my own hero. And that, that's an unexplainable feeling, like I've done something with my life, y'know? Here I am the propped-up doll tralala singing a song - and it meant something to someone. So you can critique it to the end of time, I've done my job (Q Magazine)."
About her singing, critics have said that she oversings. Mariah's incredible range includes high notes that are beyond human hearing, which some say is "screaming" rather than singing. When she's not hitting the highs, critics call her singing "often sugary and artificial-NutraSweet soul (Time, 1995)."
Some other critics seem to have a vengeance against Mariah and everything she does. They make up their minds before fairly considering all she does. The views of these critics are thus entirely biased. As Mariah so precisely puts it, "It's like having a vegetarian going to review a hamburger joint. It doesn't work."
But the most cruel things critics say are those constant questions like "but is her secret in her pipes or her dream marriage to the most powerful man in music? (Cover of People)" This has led to the less kind description of Mariah "sleeping her way to the top" and others (not worth mentioning). According to a former Sony employee (note the word "former"), "All the special treatment really upset me. They spend $200,000 on a video and Mariah doesn't like it? No big deal. Just junk it and make another. Other artists as talented, as deserving, never get the shot. They didn't marry the chairman of the board (People, '94)." Being married to the head of Sony, they say, ensures great promotion and #1 songs.
My personal opinion of all this crap is that people are jealous of Mariah. They can't or won't believe that Mariah is a real-life Cinderella story. (Oh no, there is no way that a poor girl from Long Island can make it this big. There must be some other way.) The easiest target is her marriage to Tommy. But as Mariah has said many times and I totally agree with, Tommy Mottola or any other record executive cannot make people buy records, especially not 85 MILLION in 6 years. The one and only reason that Mariah is what she is today is because of her determination and her determination alone.
Don't get me wrong, I believe people are entitled to their opinions (1st amendment: freedom of speech). If some people don't enjoy Mariah's music or singing, fine, I really don't worry about it. She's not perfect, and her singing is not either. (There is no such thing as perfection, just as close to it as possible.) How intelligent Mariah's lyrics are or how she sings is only a matter of opinion, but no one can make judgments like "she slept her way to the top" just because they don't like her music.
Even if Tommy had not signed Mariah, she would have been picked up by some other record company and still be the success that she is today. Mariah has made tons of money for Sony, and I'm sure any other record company would be more than happy to get her.
Here is a hypothetical situation, feel free to correct my logic: let's say promotion does make people buy albums. Why aren't more artists being promoted? Hey, more promotion means more sales right? And more sales mean the record companies get richer right? So record companies can get more than their money back in sales no matter how much they spend on promoting right? Well, WRONG. Promotion does not mean sales, otherwise the record industry would be free-for-all. Lots of artists are heavily promoted each year, yet few ever translate that into #1 songs and best-selling albums. On the other hand, some artists that get very little promotion sell millions.
I buy albums and records because I like the songs. Sure, heavy promotion may get me to notice the artist. But if the songs suck, I won't care a least bit how much they spent promoting them. If more people feel that way, the songs will disappear from radio and all the promotion will amount to nothing.
Mariah sums it up when she says, "The important thing to me is all that happened before Tommy and I were involved other than professionally and he believed in me and obviously he was right. I had a great push from the company, but if I didn't come through myself, I wouldn't be here right now."
Fame has its price, and Mariah has certainly paid her share. Besides the critics, she has also faced other battles - some professional, some very personal.
In 1992, Mariah was sued by her own stepfather, whom Patricia remarried to when Mariah was 17. The claim was that he was responsible for Mariah's success because she had allowed him to make a line of Mariah Carey singing dolls (sorry, but I don't quite follow). The judge didn't really understand the accusations either, so the case was thrown out a year later. According to the stepfather, other reasons he was suing Mariah was 1) she made an oral promise to share her financial success with him in exchange for a car, lessons, rehearsals, and an apartment 2) Mariah caused him mental anguish, which resulted in him unable to have sex with women 3) Mariah encouraged Patricia to have an extramarital affair, causing their divorce (Orlando Sentinel, 1/23/92). (Geez, I didn't know Mariah was THAT influential.)
Of the more professional-related legal battles are over her songs. Mariah has been sued several times by people who allege that she stole lyrics or music from a song they wrote. As far as I know, the songs that were sued over were "Make It Happen," "Can't Let Go," and "Hero." I believe (not sure though) Mariah settled the "Make It Happen" law suit. The "Can't Let Go" law suit was filed in 1992 and a trial was scheduled to begin in April of '96 (Vibe). Two L.A. writers claim that Mariah and Walter Afanasieff (her songwriting partner) lifted 9 out of 11 notes from the chorus of their song "Right Before My Eyes."
According to a Court TV show called Inside America's Courts in June of '96, a guy from Michigan claims that the lyrics to Mariah's song "Hero" is stolen from a song he wrote while working as a bodyguard for Sly Stallone called "A Hero Within You." The show did a comparison of lines from the bodyguard's song to Mariah's song. To me, both songs had a similar theme and there were a few same words, but they were overall not similar enough to prove that Mariah stole them. The show also interviewed some copyright expert and he said that if the guy could prove Mariah had access to his song, then "Ms. Carey would be in trouble." When asked how Mariah could have gotten to his song, the guy said that one of Mariah's backup singer gave it to her. To prove that she did not steal the lyrics, Mariah showed the judge of the case her diary, where she made several drafts of "Hero." Since then, the case has been thrown out of court.
I hope Mariah's reputation is not tarnished just because some people are trying to make money off of her. But I'm glad that Mariah is fighting this instead of settling it. It tells me she's sick of people trying to make money off her. The irony of the "Hero" lawsuit is that Mariah did not make any money from the single. She donated it to victims of the Long Island railroad tragedy. It's also strange how a guy can sue her now, after "Hero" has been released for nearly two years. Was he just waiting for Mariah to get more popular so he can ruin her?
Every family has problems, no matter how small or large. My family has problems, and Mariah's family is not a "Brady Bunch family" either. I wouldn't want my family's problems told to everyone in the world, and Mariah doesn't either. Of course, Mariah is a celebrity and I'm not. So it is much harder (if not impossible) for her to keep her privacy, yet another price for fame.
"People think they have the right to say things and they do because it's free country. But instead of sitting there over dinner and saying 'Oh not again,' with your family, you deal with it in a huge tabloid extravaganza. People with a pen think they're being cute and sarcastic and getting a scoop but they don't realize that it's real people and children's lives that are being affected. But," she adds. "You deal with it and move on." (Smash Hits)
(After that quote, I feel more than a little guilty for telling everything about her, but you're gonna hear it eventually anyway if ya haven't already. So here goes.)
In addition to the legal battle with her stepfather, Mariah has faced major problems with her own sister Alison. You might say that Alison is the exact opposite of Mariah, the evil sister. Alison became a prostitute during her early teens. She got more wrapped into that despicable world by being addicted to drugs - particularly heroin. Still, her family did not give up on her. On Mariah's debut album, she wrote, "dedicated to my sister Alison - keep shining." While Mariah was rising to stardom, Alison was falling more and more into hopelessness. Every time they got Alison clean, she would go back to shooting heroin not soon after. Eventually, Alison contracted HIV - the virus that causes AIDS.
When Mariah learned of the news, she cried and cried, but could not do anything about it. Alison continued to do drugs. Alison had a 7-year-old son named Michael, and Mariah and her mother did not feel that he was growing up in a safe environment with drug dealers around. So one day when Alison's son was visiting Patricia in 1995, they wouldn't return him. Alison then took her own mother and sister to court, claiming that they "kidnapped" her son. Alison and Patricia were given joint custody of the Michael. Today, Michael lives with his grandmother.
Whether out of revenge or hatred or greed or whatever, Alison then wrote a book, helped by a guy named Vincent Presto. According to Vincent, "Her motivation in writing the book in not revenge. But after being branded everything from a scarlet woman to a bad mother, she wants to set the record straight." (yeah right)
Among other things, the book claims that money from Alison's prostitution helped Mariah and Patricia live through tough times, that she helped launch Mariah's career by buying her stage clothes and giving her money for food and rent, that Alison's lifestyle paid for the limo which took Mariah to her first singing audition, that one of Mariah's former boyfriends was a convicted drug dealer who tried to win her back from jail, and that Alison was sexually abused from the age of 5 by neighbors and a doctor (Sunday Mirror, 5/19/96).
Alison further states that her entire family disowned her when they learned of her "job," even though she used the money from it to support them. And now, Alison claims, Mariah has turned her back on her when she needs her the most, like when she was kicked out of her apartment for failing to pay the rent. But many people close to Mariah says that she had done everything she could to rescue her sister, but only ended the relationship when Alison continuously went back to drugs.
So far, the book has not found a publisher (could it be because it is a total lie?...hmmm) and I hope it never does. It is totally appalling how someone could write dirt on her own sister just to make money. It's bad enough that Mariah has been used for profit by other people, but your own sister!! Apparently, Alison still hasn't learned from her life of prostitution and drug-addition. Alison claims that her family has abandoned her, but how can her family help her if she refuses to help herself? I don't believe that a person as kind as Mariah who dedicated her first ever album to Alison would forget about her without good reason. If I had a sister like Alison, I would not have been so patient, but would have abandoned her long ago. In the off chance that the book does find a publisher, I just wish it will not convince anyone that it has any truth to it and that Alison fails miserably in her attempt at making money.
The rest of Mariah's family are not anything like her sister and step-father. Mariah has a good relationship with her brother Morgan, the person that gave her the money to cut her first demo. About her father Alfred, she says, "The thing about my father is that he isn't the type of person to jump on the bandwagon. And he is the one person in my life, unlike some distant relatives who have resurfaced, that never asked me anything. I respect him for that. He hasn't imposed that on me and I have seen him. He was at my wedding and he was at my show at the Garden.....I think he is a good person and I hope he is happy in his life (Jet, 1/94)."
While Mariah isn't close to her father, she is very close to her mother. Mariah thanks her mother a lot for encouraging her to pursue her dream as a singer - a dream that came true. A couple of years ago, Mariah bought her mother a million-dollar house so that they could live closer together. Here is what Mariah did in her own words. (Yeah, I know, it's long, but it's really sweet and you get a sense of the real Mariah.)
".....So, actually, what I did was surprised her. I had talked to her about it. I said, 'I want to get a house for you, but right now there's nothing on the market.' So, I made up the whole big lie. It was almost a year ago. So, I said, 'What we can do is take some of your stuff out of the house and put it in storage, because when you move, it'll probably be January or February and there won't be any time.' I said 'It'll be too much snow on the ground to get the piano and all that kind of stuff.' So she thought there was something going on, but then when I sent the people over there, I had them write out a slip and make it like it was going to storage. She had to sign it. So, when she saw that, she said, 'Oh, I really didn't think anything was happening then.' So, two weeks later, I took basically a week and a half off and I just decorated the entire house from top to bottom. I got all her old pictures of herself when she was little and her family and stuff and I had them blown up. I did a whole wall with her and her family. Then I got her books and stuff and I put all her books there. I got...just things that would make it seem like she'd been living there her whole life.....I got all new furniture, but just picked out everything that I knew she'd like. I even got clothes. Even down to the toothbrush and toothpaste.....I even went so far as to...One of the guys that helped me work on my house, his wife is a really good person. He and his wife are really great. They went there that morning and I said, 'Mom, I'm going to have Ronnie and Carol go with us to look at some houses to see if you like anything.'..... I said, 'Let's go pick them up right now and they'll help me, because I don't know anything about houses.' I said, 'You know mom, I don't do anything right?' So she was like, 'Okay.' So, we got there and I had them making coffee and biscuits and stuff so it would smell like someone's house --really nice when she walks in. So we pull up into the driveway. I knew the kind of house she wanted. She likes to be secluded and she likes very rustic things. So we pull up and she goes, 'Oh, Ronnie, you have such a beautiful home.'.....Carol was standing in the door. She said, 'Come on in, Pat.' And we walked in and she was looking around and saying. 'Wow, this is gorgeous!' So all of a sudden, I point up to the wall and I go, 'Mom, look.' It was her pictures and everything and she just almost fainted.....(laughs) It was the most incredible thing I've ever really been able to do. It just made me feel like everything......It wasn't just like, 'Here's your house.' And there's nothing in it and whatever. It was like, it took her hours to walk around and really notice all the details. I even had on the refrigerator little magnets with cats and stuff on it." (Sister 2 Sister, 2/96)
Speaking of houses, Mariah and Tommy now live in a huge one they built from scratch in Bedford, New York. The mansion/castle is so huge that Mariah herself doesn't even know how many rooms it contains altogether. What it does have are nine bedrooms, seven fireplaces, indoor and outdoor swimming pools, and a recording studio. In addition to size, the estate is very beautiful, with domes, rotundas, campaniles, clock towers, porticoes, colonnades, summerhouses, balconies, gables, and Tudor-type chimneys (not that I have any clue what most of these things are without a dictionary).
It took Mariah and Tommy three years to build their dream house. "I found a picture in a magazine that I liked, and we showed it to the architect, and we just built it from there. It's supposed to look like a 200-year-old, like, manor house. But it's brand new. So it was hard to make everything look old. We got the brick from Florida. Took four months to find it. It's made to look old. You can't use actual antique brick because it's too porous," recalls Mariah (Vogue, 1994)
There were problems during the building, but mostly endless complaining by the neighbors ("the trucks just keep coming up and down"). Even though the project was supposed to be secretive, pictures of the unfinished mansion appeared in papers worldwide, along with more complaining by neighbors. "A lot of architects interfered with the project," adds Mariah. "But finally it became 'our house.'"
Among other things, Mariah really gives back to the community. She works extensively with an organization called The Fresh Air Fund. "About a year ago, I had the idea to start a summer camp to try to make a difference in the lives of city kids." she says in 1995. "Then, when I looked into it, I heard about The Fresh Air Fund. They've been around since 1877, and they were doing exactly what I wanted to do (Parade, 4/30/95)."
The purpose of this independent, non-profit organization is to give underprivileged children a chance to "escape the heat and stress of the city to visit volunteer host families in 13 states from Virginia to Maine and Canada or The Fund's five camps in Fishkill, NY." They provide free summer vacations to 10,000 New York City children each year, amounting to more than 1.6 million since it was founded.
Over the years, Mariah has given very generous to the FAF. In honor of her support, dedication and commitment, the FAF renamed the newest of its five camps in Fishkill, NY in her name in 1994. "Camp Mariah" is a career-awareness camp that helps children from the inner city realize that there are many career opportunities besides what they typically see in the city (i.e. drug dealers) and guides them through the opportunities with education. "It's amazingly flattering to me, of course," Mariah says, "but it dictates to me that I should do even more." Mariah has done more, including a sold-out Christmas benefit concert which raised over $650,000. All the profits from her 1995 Madison Square Garden concert also were donated to the FAF.
Mariah herself has appeared at the camp to talk about prospects in the music business. Just recently, she spent a day with the kids of Camp Mariah at Rye Playland in New York. There, Mariah hung out with them and signed autographs. She comments, "It makes me feel great to be a part of something like this because I think that it's providing hope for kids who don't have a lot of that in their everyday surroundings."
To contribute to the FAF, write:
The Fresh Air Fund
1040 Avenue of the Americas, Third Floor
New York, NY 10018
http://www.freshair.org
Camp Mariah - http://www.freshair.org/docs/campmariah.html
Mariah also donates to other charities. Some of proceeds from her MTV Unplugged EP (sold over 3 million) were given to:
AmFAR (American Foundation for AIDS Research)
supports AIDS research, finding a cure, education for AIDS prevention, and AIDS-related public policy development
733 3rd Avenue, 12th Floor, New York, NY 10017
http://www.amfar.org
United Negro College Fund
Its mission is to "help focus national attention on education, especially on the needs of minority and disadvantaged students." Raises funds and provides support for its member schools - 41 private, historically black colleges and universities. Also provides scholarships, fellowships, recruitements, and research and publications on black higher education.
500 East 62nd Street, New York, NY 10021
http://www.bin.com/assocorg/uncf/uncf.htm
Hale House Center, Inc.
America's first and best known child care agency. Nurtures and cares for babies that are born addicted to drugs, alcohol, and/or the HIV virus.
68 Edgecombe Avenue, New York, NY 10030
TJ Martell Foundation
Supports AIDS, leukemia, and childhood cancer research. It is a favorite charity of the music industry - especially country music - since it was founded by music executive Tony Martell in honor of his son TJ.
6 West 57th Street, 3rd Floor, New York, NY 10019
Mariah's kindness with kids also is true with animals. When she encounters a neglected animal, Mariah would find an owner for it or take care of it until she does. She used to be a vegetarian, but gave it up when she got married to Tommy, who has large shotgun, pistol, and rifle hunting collections.
Mariah owns four dogs and three cats. The dogs are two Dobermans named Princess and Duke, a Jack Russell Terrier named Jack, and a Yorkshire Terrier named Ginger. The cats are two Persian ones named Thomkins and Clarence, and a Himalayan cat named Puffy. Mariah enjoys horseback riding, and I believe she owns some horses as well.
Jack is famous for his diving abilities, and can be found in Mariah's "All I Want For Christmas Is You" video. Ginger has also appeared in a music video, wandering in the background of "One Sweet Day." "She's nice but she's untrainable," says Mariah. "She still doesn't know where to go and where not to go." But Duke is the most troublesome of her pets. "Tommy wants to get rid of him," Mariah explains. "He's huge and hates everyone except me." Thomkins was dropped off years ago by Mariah's brother Morgan, and he never got it back. Mariah has had Clarence since third grade. She calls him her "lifelong friend." Puffy was a present from Tommy, which was very strange to Mariah since he hates cats. Puffy was named by the breeder because he is like a puff ball, not after Puffy Combs, the producer.
Looking back on her own success story, Mariah exclaims that "it really is like Cinderella." She now seems to have everything - the money, the fame, the husband, the success. She no longer has to worry about having the rug pulled from under her. "Every day I count my blessings," Mariah says. "I mean, I'm this poor kid from Long Island and now - this! I couldn't have made it any better if I'd created it myself."
Fame changes a lot of people, but it does not seem to have any negative effect on Mariah. "I can never forget the music - that's what got me here, that's what I love. I've said it before - anyone can be famous, you don't have to be especially talented. Knowing that keeps me grounded, and knowing that right now everything is incredible and I'm really fortunate in having all the success I'm having. This is just a dream right now, I'm living my dream and it's great!"
That can't be said for many of the people around her. Some Mariah thought of as close friends entirely changed when she became famous. She remarks, "A lot of weird jealousy crap also comes into play, from people I thought were true friends, people I brought all over the country with me and did all I could for, who then turned out to be vicious and back-stabbing (Vibe, 4/96)."
But does Mariah fully understand what she has accomplished? Maybe not - "I don't even think about what I've achieved, I haven't focused on it and I wish I had, because I really want to enjoy it, and I don't know if I am enjoying it, because I'm just going through my life like a bulldozer. I still haven't marveled at it."
One thing is for sure is that Mariah still has her entire future ahead of her and a lot of time to marvel at her success. What we have see in the past six year is just a tiny fraction of what she could become in let's say, ten more years (that is, if she continues making music). Even so, what Mariah has done in six years is more than what most artists accomplish in their entire career.
The question Mariah is often asked regarding her future has nothing to do with music or singing. It is when she's planning to have children. Especially lately, lots of rumors have said that Mariah is pregnant. But Mariah has contradicted the rumors with the "not soon, but eventually" answer in every interview. To specify, she says, "I want to do that the right way. I wouldn't want to be one of those people that gives my child to a nanny to raise. I still feel like a kid myself, and I want to be completely ready and conscious of everything that I'm doing. It'll probably be when I'm in my late 20's or during my early 30's."
With that response, you get the feeling that Mariah will be as successful a mother as a singer. When Mariah does decide to have children though, it is most likely that we will no longer see the album-a-year routine, especially since Mariah does almost everything in each of her albums.
As if being a successful singer/songwriter/producer/director isn't enough, Mariah is now aspiring to be a record executive like Tommy. She has a new label under Sony called Crave, which already has signed a group called Blue Denim. One of the lead singers in Blue Denim is the sister of Salt (of Salt-n-Pepa). "Mariah has been writing and singing hooks on certain tracks," says Blue Denim manager Kenny Meiselas.
Some of Mariah's friends call her Emma or Emmy because of the 'M'
Mariah works best late at night and usually goes to sleep in the wee hours of the morning - a habit left over from her "woodshop" studio days.
Mariah definitely does not deprive herself of food - she has pizza for breakfast! She remains fit by jogging.
Mariah keeps her hair shiny with Sebastian leave-in conditioner - the same stuff Princess Di uses.
Mariah is so busy that she once had to schedule a manicure at 2 in the morning. The manicurist got paid double of course.
Mariah keeps her voice in mint condition by drinking lemon tea with honey.
Mariah loves roller coasters (as seen from the Fantasy video) and has recently taken up water-skiing.
Mariah listens to a wide range of music. She likes everything from hip-hop to R&B to gospel to "grunge" rock. Artists she enjoy include Stevie Wonder, Wu-Tang Clan (ODB), D'Angelo, and Hole (Courtney Love's band).
UPDATE:
Since I wrote this a less than a year ago, lots of things have changed for Mariah. For one thing, her Cinderella story is no longer with the separation of Mariah and Tommy. On the music front, her record label, Crave, has released its first album by the female R&B group Allure. Right now, Mariah is hard at work in the studio on her new album -- the 6th full length album of her career -- with a release date in late August. Rumors say that this album will see more influence from hip-hop. In addition, Mariah is said to be aspiring to an actress. I guess only time will time if her incredible success will continue with the next album or her new-found film career.
originally written and copyrighted August 22, 1996 by thewind@oocities.com
last updated June, 1997
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