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.

After moving to New York City, Carey worked part-time jobs to pay the rent and completed 500 hours of beauty school. She landed a gig singing backup for freestyle singer Brenda K. Starr and began working on her demo tape with musicians such as Gavin Christopher and Ben Margulies.

Carey accompanied Starr to a music executive's party and handed her demo tape to the head of Columbia Records, Tommy Mottola. After listening to the tape, Mottola immediately signed Carey to Columbia, leading to a bidding war with another record label.

Carey made her first public appearance at the 1990 NBA Finals, singing 'America the Beautiful'. The highlight was the piercing whistle note toward the song's conclusion, sparking CBS Sports anchor Pat O'Brien to declare, 'The palace now has a queen.'

Carey's self-titled debut album was released and topped the US Billboard 200 for eleven consecutive weeks. The album's singles 'Vision of Love', 'Love Takes Time', 'Someday', and 'I Don't Wanna Cry' all topped the US Billboard Hot 100.

Carey won the Grammy Awards for Best New Artist and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for her single 'Vision of Love'.

Carey appeared on MTV Unplugged, a popular series in which music artists play acoustic versions of their songs. The resulting album became Mariah's third consecutive Top 10 record in the US, eventually certified four times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

Carey achieved international success with the best-selling albums Music Box (1993) and Daydream (1995), before adopting a new image with hip hop-inflected sounds, following the release of Butterfly (1997).

Carey returned to the top of the charts with The Emancipation of Mimi, one of the best-selling albums of the 21st century, which proved to be a creative game-changer and was considered her 'comeback album'.

Carey was ranked as the fifth greatest singer of all time by Rolling Stone, solidifying her legacy as one of the most influential figures in music.