Mariah Carey (born 27 March 1970) is a Grammy Award-winning American pop and R&B singer, songwriter, record producer, music video director, and actress.

She debuted in 1990 under the guidance of Columbia Records executive Tommy Mottola and became the first recording act to have its first five singles top the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart. Following her marriage to Mottola in 1993, a series of hit records established her position as Columbia’s highest-selling act. According to Billboard magazine, she was the most successful artist of the 1990s in the United States.

Carey took much more control over her image and music following her separation from Mottola in 1997, and she introduced elements of hip hop into her album material. Her popularity was in decline when she left Columbia in 2001, and she was dropped by Virgin Records the following year after a highly publicized physical and emotional breakdown and the poor reception of Glitter, her film and soundtrack project. In 2002 Carey signed with Island/Def Jam, and after an unsuccessful period, she returned to the forefront of pop music in 2005.

In 2000 the World Music Awards named Carey the best-selling female artist of all time, and she has recorded the most U.S. number-one singles for a female solo artist (seventeen). In addition to her commercial accomplishments, she is well-known for her melismatic singing voice, soulful coloratura soprano voice, vocal range, power, and use of whistle register. She is often considered to be one of the greatest vocalists of all time. Some critics have said that Carey’s efforts to showcase her vocal talents have been at the expense of communicating true emotion through song.