Mariah Carey

Looking for Mariah Carey chords? We’ve got them all! The American singer and songwriter Mariah "The Voice" Carey was born in Huntington, New York, in 1970. The youngest of three children, her mother was a former opera singer and was stunned when she heard two-year-old Mariah imitating her operatic singing. Clearly having inherited her mother’s vocal abilities, she started taking singing lessons at age 4. Fully developed, her voice was able to span a whopping range of five octaves. On the back of her amazing talent, she would become the most successful female artist of all time. She sold over 200 million records, gathered an impressive 19 No. 1 hit singles, and received a host of decorations, including five Grammy Awards. She was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2020.

Breakthrough

The 17-year-old Mariah Carey left for New York City the day after she finished high school, with the hope of landing herself a music career. She got her first gig performing as a backup vocalist for the dance-pop singer Brenda K. Starr, who took Carey with her to a record executives’ gala. At the party, the aspiring singer managed to hand a demo tape to Tommy Mottola, the head of Columbia Records. Blown away by her voice, she was consequently signed to his label. Set up to compete with other popular female artists like Whitney Houston and Madonna, her 1990 self-titled debut album was marketed extensively. The record was a huge success, becoming the best-selling album in the U.S. in 1991 and promptly won Carey a Grammy for Best New Artist. Also, her debut furnished as many as four chart-topping singles, including “Vision of Love” and “I Don’t Wanna Cry.”

Biggest artist of the 1990s

After releasing the album Emotions in 1991, her third studio album, Music Box, arrived in 1993. It was to be the highest-selling album of her career and produced two more number one hits, including “Hero,” which would later be seen as her signature song. Interested to learn which chords Mariah Carey used on this famous track? You will find them below! In 1994, she released a Christmas album; the lead single “All I Want for Christmas Is You” became a holiday standard. Carey would issue three more original albums during the 1990s: Daydream, Butterfly and Rainbow. Breaking with the pop sound of her previous work, these records leaned more towards hip-hop and rhythm and blues, a musical change-up which garnered critical approval as well as more commercial success.

Breakdown and return to stardom

The advent of the new millennium saw a little bit of a fall from grace for Carey. Although signing a record $100 million deal with Virgin Records, her first movie project, “Glitter,” together with its associated soundtrack, was obliterated by critics. Carey suffered an emotional and physical breakdown, was hospitalized, and remained absent from the public for a while. After being bought out by Virgin and signing with Island Records, she returned with the album Charmbracelet and most notably its follow-up, The Emancipation of Mimi, released in 2005. Containing upbeat party songs like “It’s Like That” as well as beautiful ballads like “Fly Like A Bird,” a song characterized by its gospel-inspired chords, Mariah Carey received three Grammy Awards for her effort and rehabilitated her status as a superstar. In 2009, exacting revenge on her earlier endeavor, she performed a well-acclaimed role in the movie “Precious.” She would add multiple successful albums to her tally and is rightfully regarded to be a cultural icon.