Mariah Carey was born on March 27, 1970, in Long Island, New York. Her name, Mariah, comes from a Native American language and means "the wind." She was named from the song "They Called The Wind Mariah" from the musical "Paint Your Wagon." She was the third and the last child in the family. Mariah's mother was a white Irish opera singer from Indiana and her father, Roy Carey, was a black Venezuelan aeronautical engineer.

At the age of 2 Mariah first time showed her talent. When Patricia was rehearsing Verdi's Rigoletto, she missed a cue, and Mariah sang it perfectly from the right spot. Patricia was aware of Mariah's gift and started giving her singing lessons when she was 4 years old. Mariah was able to duplicate every sound she heard.

Mariah's father and Patricia divorced, when she was 3 years old. Their marriage was facing racial intolerance from people around them. This probably had some influence on their relationship. Also Mariah's older sister Alison and brother Morgan suffered. Alison had darkest skin, so she was always the target of racial prejudice, and Morgan had an epilepsy.

Mariah and Morgan stayed with their mother after the divorce, but Alison lived with her father. Mariah and her mother frequently moved around Long Island and New York. They didn't have a lot of money, so they couldn't afford a house. They sometimes even stayed with their friends. For Mariah this was a scary growing up. She never felt stable. She was always afraid "that somebody would pull the rug out under her." Some neighbors didn't allow their children to play with her because she was a "bad influence." This affected Mariah in a way, so she never felt secure as a child.

The only thing that kept up her hopes was her music. This was the only thing that made her secure. She had always wanted to become a professional singer. Mariah was as a child influenced by many musicians: Sarah Vaugham, Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Gladys Knight. Her favorite song was "Bridge over Troubled Water" by Aretha Franklin. She used to listen to the radio to fall a sleep. When Mariah watched commercials on television, she always sang along.

Mariah wasn't a perfect child. When her mother would ask her to clean up the room, she would say that someday other people will be cleaning her stuff. Even school wasn't too important to her. She was smart but she showed her interest only in things she liked. She was interested in creative writing. When she was in high school she was often late for classes, because she used to hang up in studios late into the night, so the teachers gave her a nickname Mirage. After finishing the high school, college wasn't on her mind. All she ever wanted was to be a singer and her music meant everything to her. She didn't allow anybody or anything to interfere with her plan. She started writing lyrics. At that time she wrote "Someday" and "Love Takes Time."

At the time of the graduation she was introduced to Ben Margulies, who had some kind of recording studio. With his help she wrote many of her early songs. At the time of graduation Mariah went to New York City to start on her own. She worked as a waitress, a coat-checker and she even worked one day in a beauty salon (She quit the job because employees had to wear stupid nicknames). At night she was working in studio with Ben. Mariah recorded her first demo tape, but she didn't have anywhere to go with it. That was a very rough time for her. She even had some contract offers for her lyrics, but she didn't allow that somebody else would be singing her songs.

Later 18 year-old Mariah became a backup singer for Brenda K. Starr. At first she didn't want to go to the audition, but Brenda's drummer, who was also Mariah's friend, convinced her. She went on the audition and Brenda took her as a backup singer. They became real close friends. Mariah worked as a backup singer for almost a year.

In 1988 Brenda K. Starr introduced Mariah to some people of the CBS Records. Mariah was very unsecured but she was persuaded to give a demo tape to Jerry Greenberg, chief of WTG Records. This demo somehow came into the hands of Tommy Mottola, president of Columbia Records. When he heard the demo, he was fascinated by Mariah's voice. The songs on the demo were "All Alone In Love", "Prisoner", "Someday", "All In Your Mind", "Do You Ever Wonder". When he tried to contact Mariah, nobody knew who she was, because she and Brenda already left. Tommy spent few days searching for her. When he finally found her, he asked Mariah to sign the contract with Columbia Records. This was a big start for not even nineteen years old Mariah.

Mariah started to work on her first album, Mariah Carey. All of the singles reached number one on the charts. The album was a big success, and Mariah was already working on her second album, Emotions.

Album Emotions was released in the following year. This album was not selling as well as the first one and everyone was a bit disappointed. But Mariah didn't give up.

On March 16, 1992, Mariah appeared on MTV's "Unplugged," that was her first live performance. Later album MTV Unplugged EP was released, but it is not considered as a real album, because it only contains songs from previous albums.

Mariah had a lot of support during her recording from Tommy Mottola and their friendship grew into something more. Finally 23 year-old Mariah and 42 year-old Tommy Mottola were married on June 5, 1993, Manhattan's St.Thomas Episcopal Church. This was a really big wedding and there were many famous friends: Billy Joel, Gloria Estefan, Robert De Niro, Bruce Springsteen,...

After the wedding Mariah finished recording another album and started to plan her next tour. The next album, Music Box was again very successful. Singles "Hero" and "Dreamlover" reached number one on the charts. She dedicated "Hero" to the victims of the shootings that year. Music Box became her best-selling album.

This encouraged her to start touring. Mariah started a US tour over six cities. On the first show in Miami Mariah was kind of nervous and the next day her performance was highly criticized. The audience was very supportive, but bad reviews really hurt her. The rest of the tour was accepted in a better light. She performed in Rosemont, Illinois, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and New York City.

In November 1994 she released album Merry Christmas. This album was a mixture of traditional Christmas songs and some new ones. It became best-selling Christmas album ever. Two songs "Miss You Most At Christmas Time" and "All I Want For Christmas Is You" were released as singles and they are still very popular at holiday time.

Her sixth album Daydream came out in 1995. Of course she achieved first places on the charts again. It is interesting that some of these songs are collaborations with other artists. She sang a duet with Wu-Tang rapper Old Dirty Bastard in "Fantasy," and she worked together with the Boyz II Men on "One Sweet Day." "One Sweet Day" was number one on charts for sixteen weeks.

After the release of the last album Mariah went on her second tour, world tour. She held three concerts in Japan and in Europe she performed in Germany, Netherlands, France and England.

Just before Mariah's 4th wedding anniversary on May 30, 1997, Mariah and Tommy announced their separation. There were many rumors about their marriage: how Tommy was trying to control her. She really needed the freedom, so she had to divorce him. Some people explained, that Mottola was trying to be in control of everything (choosing Mariah's friends, what she would wear, where she would go...). That just wasn't Mariah's life style, she needed her freedom, so she separated from her husband. Mariah said that they are still friends and she 'considers him a part of her family'.

In July Mariah released her first video Honey for the album Butterfly. She really showed her acting talents and revealing her new 'style' for the first time, playing 'a Bond girl', escaping from a big castle...

Mariah's latest album Butterfly was released on September 16th in 1997. Mariah has changed her style on this album, but she still kept many beautiful ballads. She worked with many artists like: Sean 'Puffy' Combs, Missy Elliot,.. and together they've created some of Mariah's greatest songs. The album has 12 (14) songs, half of them are ballads and the others are in R&B and hip-hop style. The album didn't get the best reviews from some people, who don't like Mariah's new style. Mariah refers to the album as 'her favorite one', because she really had free hands for the first time. She could now express all her real feelings, without anybody controlling her. Butterfly is definitely a very personal album, because it's talking about Mariah's deepest thoughts and feelings,.. She says: 'For the first time since the first album, it feels like I'm letting a piece of myself go'.

The new Mariah is more independent and free... She explains: 'I feel more free to put more of myself into my music. There's a lot of real emotion in Butterfly. I lived with it. I woke up to it.'

After the release of Butterfly, Mariah has started a world tour in 1997/98 to thank her fans for the support. First she performed before her Japanese fans and in Taiwan and later she also visited Australia and Hawaii.

Now that she is free, she is also discovering new things, not just in music. Mariah has started taking acting lessons, which she describes as 'a way of discovering myself and getting in touch with my feelings'. She says it doesn't, matter if she doesn't get to Hollywood, because she is doing this only for herself. Acting was one of her dreams, ever since she can remember. Mariah would definitely be a great actor, because she already confirmed that in her music videos. It would be nice to see her on a big screen someday, but until than she will create the best music in the world...

Mariah has been working really hard after releasing her last album Butterfly. She has released five singles (Honey, Butterfly, Breakdown, The Roof, My All) and also filmed the music videos. She has even started to think about her acting career by announcing her first movie 'All That Glitters' (from Disney). It will talk about a young singer, who's trying to overcome many problems on her way to fame and glory (racial, social)...

Mariah has won the Award for Female Soul/Rhythm & Blues Artist on American Music Awards '98, proving that she's still the best. Mariah has officially divorced from Tommy Mottola in March 1998, when she had a really quick divorce.

Mariah made another great performance in April at VH1's (US tv channel) concert Divas Live. Beside Mariah the guests were also Aretha Franklin, Celine Dion, Gloria Estefan, Shania Twain...

Beside being the best singer on the world Mariah is really "the girl with a golden heart." The fame didn't change her and she is still kind and sincere. Mariah started to collaborate with Fresh Air Fund in 1994. This is a group that helps children of New York, who are not so lucky, to provide free summer vacations. Mariah leased the park Rye Playland in Rye, New York for one day and with her help they raised over 700,000 US$. Over the past years she was very committed to the Fresh Air Fund organization and the FAF renamed one of their five camps into "Camp Mariah."

Mariah also donates some money from her sold albums to other charities:

The Fresh Air Fund Camp Mariah AmFAR (American Foundation for AIDS Research) United Negro College Fund Hale House Center, Inc. TJ Martell Foundation

Mariah's story is like Cinderella. She used to be poor, but she worked very hard and now she has succeeded. The fame has not changed her in a bad way. Mariah explains:

"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!"