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

Carey's parents divorced when she was three, and she spent much of her time at home alone, beginning to sing at age three and often imitating her mother's take on Verdi's opera Rigoletto in Italian.

Carey attended Harborfields High School in Greenlawn, New York, where she excelled in the arts, such as music and literature. She began writing poetry and lyrics and started working as a demo singer, leading to her classmates giving her the nickname Mirage.

Carey graduated from Harborfields High School and moved to New York City to pursue a singing career.