The celebrity Mariah Carey is an American singer, record producer, songwriter and actress. The record singer Mariah Carey was signed to Columbia Records in 1988 and rose to prominence after she released her debut album two (2) years later.
Mariah Carey has been in the music and entertainment industry for decades, but she is not showing any sign of slowing as her popularity does not seem to have faded a bit.
Mariah Carey is the first artist to have her first five singles become back to back number one songs on the Billboard Hot 100 list, from her song “Vision of Love” to “Emotions”.
Famous for her melismatic singing style, five-octave vocal range, and distinctive use of the whistle register, Mariah Carey is known by the Guinness World Records as “Songbird Supreme.” Recently, the singer released her memoir named “The Meaning of Mariah Carey”, a story that tells all of the tragedy and moments of happiness in her life.
She has sold over 200 million records in her career, which has automatically made her one of the best-selling music artists of all time. Mariah is one of the most popular and wealthiest female singers in the world after gaining fame in the early 1990s.
Mariah Carey is among the 15 best-selling music artists in history and has sold over 200 million albums across the world to date. Mariah is the second-best artist of all time just behind Madonna.
But in her iconic rank in the world music industry and the recent release of memoirs. Fans must be wondering how much the singer is worth. This article reveals the biography and net worth of Mariah Carey.
Mariah Carey Profile
| Net Worth | $350 Million+ |
|---|---|
| Full Name | Mariah Angela Carey |
| Date of Birth (Age) | 50 (Born 1970) |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Singer, record producer, songwriter, entrepreneur, philanthropist and actress |
| Gender | Female |
| Education | Covenant University |
| Years Active | 1989–present |
Early Life
The African American, Mariah Carey was born on March 27, 1970 in Huntington, New York. Mariah got her musical touch from her mother, as her mother was a one-time vocal coach and Opera singer. Unfortunately, her parents separated when she was just three years old.
Due to her interest in art and music in general, Mariah started writing songs at an early age, while she was at Harborfields High School in Greenlawn, New York. Mariah graduated from Harborfields high school in 1987. After graduating, Mariah, Ben and Gavin worked together to create a demo tape.
After much publication, the demo eventually reached pop singer Brenda Starr. Brenda effortlessly continued to push the demo around town while bringing taking along Mariah to various music industry galas.
At one of the galas, the full-length demo tape was handed off to Tommy Mottola, the head of Columbia Records at the time. After listening to the first two songs on the demo, he was overly convinced that Mariah Carey was a rising star.
Mariah Carey was then signed by Tommy Mottola instantly to a record label and arranged for his team to assemble her commercial debut.
Personal life
Mariah Carey started dating Tommy Mottola while recording Music Box, and eventually got married to him on June 5, 1993. Mariah gained a lot of success after she released “Daydream”, Carey took it upon herself to focus on her personal life, which was a struggle for her at the time.
The relationship between Carey and Mottola began to hit the rocks due to their growing difference in creativity in terms of her albums. This was because she was portrayed Mottola as a controlling freak.
The couple separated on May 30, 1997 with their divorce finalized on December 2, 2000 after Mottola got remarried. Afterwards, Mariah Carey was in another relationship with Luis Miguel that lasted for 3 years, spanning from 1998 to 2001.
Mariah Carey got married to Nick Cannon in the Bahamas in April 2008 after she met the comedian and actor while shooting her music video for her song “Bye Bye” on an island off the Antigua coast.
Mariah got pregnant for Nick and gave birth to their fraternal twins; Monroe and Moroccan on April 30, 2011. Their marriage lasted just a few years before they were separated in 2016.
Shortly after the separation with Nick Cannon Mariah Carey announced that she was dating Australian billionaire James Packer. In the same year, she announced that she and James were engaged.
In October, she ended the engagement with Packer. 2016 was her year of exploring relationships her she also got into another relationship with American choreographer Bryan Tanaka. The relationship only lasted a few months before it collapsed.
Career
Mariah Carey’s debut album was released on June 12, 1990. The record label Colombia reportedly spent $ 1 million in the album promotion. In the United states alone, the album finally received 9X Platinum certification, with global sales of over 15 million copies across different countries.
The album ranked as number one on the Billboard charts and won her the Grammy Award for the Best Female Pop Vocal Performance and Best Rookie Artist.
In 1991, Mariah Carey released yet another album “Emotion”. This album brought her great success and propelled her to the top of the music industry. Her first 2 albums were great, but it was the third album “Music Box” that took her career to the next level.
The album “Music Box” spent about 128 weeks on the US Billboard top chart and sold 28 million copies worldwide. This album is one of the all-time bestselling albums till date.
Her success rate was always propelling steadily. Her follow up album “Merry Christmas” was also a great album that sold over 15 million copies across the world. Her next three albums sold 20 million, 10 million and 8 million copies across the world, respectively.
The single “All I want for Christmas is you” became one of the most profitable and top selling singles of all time with a worldwide sale of 16 million and still counting.
The song is used in numerous Christmas movies and has an enormous hit around Christmas periods on streaming services such as Pandora and Spotify. The song is reported to generate an estimated $600,000 every year in royalties for Carey and song producer Walter Afanasieff. Generally, the song has geared up over $60 million in gross royalties till date.
In April 2001, Mariah Carey terminated her contract with Columbia Records and signed a five-album contract worth a mouthwatering $100 million with Virgin Music. At the time, this was the biggest contract in the history of music.
Mariah’s first album with Virgin records, Glitter, was released on August 18, 2001. The album was actually a soundtrack to a film of the same name that was semi-autobiographical about a fictional version of Mariah.
Both the album and the film, which unfortunately was released on September 21, 2001 – 10 days after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 – were shot by critics and audiences. The film is known to be one of the biggest box office bombs of all time.
After a fall out between Mariah and the Record Label, Virgin Records was so desperate to terminate the contract with Mariah that they to pay her $28 million to end the contract before the stipulated date. When it was all-cleared, Mariah was paid about $50 million to produce the one album for Virgin.
After Mariah was abandoned by her previous employers, Virgin, the music star signed a $24 million, five-album deal with Island Records. Her Island albums sold moderately well, with her biggest hit being 2005’s “The Emancipation of Mimi” which sold 10 million copies across the world.
In 2015, she was signed by Epic record where she remains today. Furthermore, in 2012 Mariah earned $18 million to appear on one season of the American Idol.
Mariah signed a $30 million contract in 2015 to undertake a two-year Las Vegas residency at Caesars Palace. This contract helped her become one of the highest-earning women in music industry for the year with $27 million in total earnings.
Mariah Carey Awards
Mariah Carey has had a glorious and astonishing career with 442 nominations and 249 Awards won. Mariah Carey has received numerous accolades, awards and recognition in her global success in the music industry.
Among the notable awards are 5 Grammy Awards, 28 Billboard Music Awards, 11 American Music Awards and 17 Music Awards.
Below is a list of some notable awards won by Mariah Carey:
- BET Awards
- Billboard Awards
- Black Reel Awards
- Blockbuster Entertainment Awards
- BMI Pop Music Awards
- BRIT Awards
- Congressional Awards
- Do Something Awards
- Echo Awards
- GLAAD Media Awards
- Golden Disc Awards
- Golden Globe Awards
- Golden Raspberry Awards
- Grammy Awards
- Hollywood Walk of Fame
- IFPI Platinum Europe Awards
- Juno Awards
- MTV Awards
- Myx Music Awards
- NAACP Image Awards
- NAACP Image Awards
- Otto Bravo Magazine Awards
- Smash Hits Awards
- Soul Train Music Awards
- VH1 Hip Hop Honors
- World Music Awards
Mariah Carey Net worth
With over 200 million records of her songs sold all over the world Mariah Carey net worth is estimated to be $520 million as at 2020.
