Mariah Carey

My favorite singer is Mariah Carey. Born in New York in 1970, she always knew that she would be a singing star.

Mariah' 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.

Upon the release of her first couple of albums, Mariah faced charges that she was just 'another white girl' capitalizing on black music.

As a teenager, she was already devoting 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.

The next 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.

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 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.

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' career was confirmed.

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.

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.

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. 

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 collaboration with the "Boyz II Men" "One Sweet Day" soon followed.

Anca Titu
"D. Zamfirescu" School, Focsani, Romania
Teacher: Petru Dumitru <petrudumitru@netscape.net>