Mariah Carey was born in Huntington, New York, to Patricia (née Hickey), a former opera singer and vocal coach, and Alfred Roy Carey, an aeronautical engineer of African-American and Afro-Venezuelan lineage.

Carey spent much of her time at home alone and began singing at age three, often imitating her mother's take on Verdi's opera Rigoletto in Italian. She excelled in the arts, such as music and literature, during her years in elementary school and began writing poetry and lyrics while attending Harborfields High School in Greenlawn, New York, where she graduated in 1987.