Mariah Carey Ringtones

Mariah Carey was born in Huntington, Long Island, New York. Mariah Carey is the third and youngest child of Patricia Hickey, a former opera singer and voice coach of Irish American extraction, and Alfred Roy Carey (formerly Nuñez), an aeronautical engineer of Afro-Venezuelan heritage. As a multiethnic family, the Careys endured racial slurs, hostility, and sometimes violence, causing the family to frequently relocate throughout the New York and Rhode Island areas. The strain on the family led to the divorce of Mariah Carey's parents when Mariah Carey was three years old.

Mariah Carey had little contact with her father, and her mother worked several jobs to support the family. Spending much of her time at home alone, Mariah Carey turned to music as an outlet. Mariah Carey began singing at around the age of three, performing for the first time in public during elementary school, and was writing her own songs by junior high. Mariah Carey graduated from Harborfields High School in Greenlawn, New York although Mariah Carey was frequently absent due to her popularity as a demo singer for local recording studios. Her renown within the Long Island music scene gave her opportunities to work with musicians such as Gavin Christopher and Ben Margulies, with whom she co-wrote material for her demo tape. After moving to New York City, Mariah Carey worked numerous part-time jobs to pay the rent and completed five hundred hours of beauty school. Eventually, Mariah Carey became a backup singer for Puerto Rican freestyle singer Brenda K. Starr.

In 1988 Mariah Carey met Columbia Records executive Tommy Mottola at a party, where Starr gave him Mariah Carey's demo tape. Mottola played the tape while leaving the party and was very impressed with what he heard. He returned to find Mariah Carey, but Mariah Carey had left. Nevertheless, Mottola tracked her down and signed her to a recording contract. This Cinderella-like story became part of the standard publicity surrounding Mariah Carey's entrance into the industry.

Mariah Carey co-wrote the tracks on her 1990 debut album Mariah Carey, and Mariah Carey continued to co-write nearly all her material for the rest of her career. Mariah Carey expressed dissatisfaction with the contributions of producers such as Ric Wake and Rhett Lawrence, whom executives at Columbia had enlisted to help make the album commercially viable. It produced four number-one singles and made Mariah Carey a star in the United States, but its success elsewhere was limited. Critics rated the album highly, and Mariah Carey won Grammy Awards for "Best New Artist" and "Best Female Pop Vocal Performance" (for her debut single "Vision of Love").

Mariah Carey's 1992 MTV Unplugged concert showed her ability to reproduce her vocal style outside a studio setting. Mariah Carey conceived Emotions, her second album, as an homage to Motown soul music, and Mariah Carey worked with Walter Afanasieff and the dance group C&C Music Factory on the record. The title track "Emotions" made Mariah Carey the only recording act to have their first five singles reach number-one on the U.S. Hot 100 chart, though the album's follow-up singles failed to match this feat. Mariah Carey had been lobbying to produce her own songs, and beginning with Emotions, Mariah Carey would co-produce most of her material. "I didn't want [Emotions] to be somebody else's vision of me," Mariah Carey said. "There's more of me on this album." Mariah Carey began writing and producing for other artists, such as Penny Ford and Daryl Hall, within the coming year.

Although Mariah Carey had occasionally performed live, stage fright had prevented Mariah Carey from embarking on any major tours. Her first widely seen concert appearance was on the television show MTV Unplugged in 1992, and Mariah Carey said she felt that her performance proved her vocal abilities were not, as some had previously speculated, simulated using studio techniques. In addition to acoustic versions of some of her earlier songs, Mariah Carey premiered a cover of The Jackson 5's "I'll Be There" with back-up singer Trey Lorenz.

Mariah Carey and Tommy Mottola had become romantically involved during the making of her debut album, and in June 1993 they were married.

Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds consulted on the album Music Box, which was released later that year and became Mariah Carey's most successful worldwide. It yielded her first UK number-one, a cover of Badfinger's "Without You", as well as the U.S. number-ones "Dreamlover" and "Hero". Billboard magazine proclaimed it as "heart-piercing ... easily the most elemental of Carey's releases, her vocal eurythmics in natural sync with the songs", but TIME magazine lamented Carey's attempt at a mellower work: "[Music Box] seems perfunctory and almost passionless ... Carey could be a pop-soul great; instead she has once again settled for Salieri-like mediocrity".

Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men recording "One Sweet Day" (1995), one of both acts' biggest singles. The holiday album Merry Christmas contained cover material and original compositions such as "All I Want for Christmas Is You", which became Carey's biggest single in Japan and in subsequent years emerged as one of her most perennially popular songs on North American radio. Critical reception of Merry Christmas was mixed, with All Music Guide calling it an "otherwise vanilla set ... pretensions to high opera on 'O Holy Night' and a horrid danceclub [sic] take on 'Joy to the World'".

In 1995 Columbia released Mariah Carey's next album Daydream, which combined the pop sensibilities of Music Box with downbeat R&B and hip hop influences. Carey said that Columbia reacted negatively to her intentions for the album: "Everybody was like 'What, are you crazy?'. They're very nervous about breaking the formula." It became her biggest-selling LP in the U.S. and its singles achieved similar success: "Fantasy" became the second single to debut at number-one in the U.S. and topped the Canadian Singles Chart for twelve weeks, "One Sweet Day" (with Boyz II Men) spent a still-record sixteen weeks at number one in the US.

Mariah Carey and Mottola separated in 1996. Although the public image of the marriage was a happy one, Mariah Carey said that in reality she had felt trapped by her relationship with Mottola, whom Mariah Carey often described as controlling. They officially announced their separation in 1997, and their divorce became final the following year. Mariah Carey hired a new attorney and manager soon after the separation, as well as an independent publicist.

Mariah Carey's next album Butterfly (1997) yielded the number-one single "Honey", the lyrics and music video for which presented a more overtly sexual image of her than had been previously seen. Mariah Carey stated that Butterfly marked the point that she attained full creative control over her music, which continued to move in an R&B/hip hop direction with material co-written and co-produced by rappers such as Sean "Puffy" Combs and Missy Elliott, but added: "I don't think it's that much of a departure from what I've done in the past ... It's not like I went psycho and thought I was going to be a rapper. Personally, this album is about doing whatever the hell I wanted to do." Reviews were generally positive: LAUNCHcast said Butterfly "pushes the envelope", a move its critic thought "may prove disconcerting to more conservative fans" but praised as "a welcome change". The Los Angeles Times wrote: "[Butterfly] is easily the most personal, confessional-sounding record she's ever done ... Carey-bashing just might become a thing of the past." The album was a commercial success, and "My All" (her thirteenth Hot 100 number-one) gave her the record for the most U.S. number-ones by a female artist. Towards the turn of the millennium, Mariah Carey developed the film project Glitter, and Mariah Carey wrote songs for the films Men in Black and How the Grinch Stole Christmas!.

During the production of Butterfly, Mariah Carey became romantically involved with New York Yankees baseball player Derek Jeter. Their relationship ended in 1998. That year saw the release of #1's, a collection of her U.S. number-one singles up to that point.

After receiving Billboard's "Artist of the Decade" Award (see Billboard Music Awards) and the World Music Award for "Best-Selling Female Artist of the Millennium", Mariah Carey parted from Columbia and signed a contract with EMI's Virgin Records worth a reported US$80 million. Mariah Carey often stated that Columbia had regarded her as a commodity, with her separation from Mottola exacerbating her relations with label executives. Just a few months later, in July 2001, it was widely reported that Mariah Carey had suffered a physical and emotional breakdown. Mariah Carey had left messages on her website complaining of being overworked, and her relationship with Luis Miguel was ending. By the month's end, Mariah Carey had checked into a hospital, and her publicist announced that Mariah Carey would be taking a break from public appearances.

Critics panned Glitter, Mariah Carey's much delayed semi-autobiographical film, and it was a box office failure. The album Glitter, inspired by the music of the 1980s, generated her worst showing on the U.S. chart. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch dismissed it as "an absolute mess that'll go down as an annoying blemish on a career that, while not always critically heralded, was at least nearly consistently successful", while Blender magazine opined, "After years of trading her signature flourishes for a radio-ready purr, [Mariah Carey]'s left with almost no presence at all." "Loverboy" reached number two on the Hot 100 thanks to a price cut, but the album's follow-up singles failed to chart.

Columbia released the low-charting album Greatest Hits shortly after the failure of Glitter, and in early 2002 Virgin bought out Mariah Carey's contract for $28 million, creating further negative publicity. Mariah Carey said her time at Virgin had been "a complete and total stress-fest ... I made a total snap decision which was based on money, and I never make decisions based on money. I learned a big lesson from that." Later that year, Mariah Carey signed a $20 million contract with Island Records' Def Jam and launched the record label MonarC.

Mariah Carey's ninth studio album The Emancipation of Mimi was released in 2005 and contained contributions from producers such as The Neptunes, Kanye West and Mariah Carey's longtime collaborator Jermaine Dupri. Mariah Carey said it was "very much like a party record ... the process of putting on makeup and getting ready to go out ... I wanted to make a record that was reflective of that." Mimi became the year's best-selling album in the U.S., won three Grammy Awards (including "Best Contemporary R&B Album") and received some of Mariah Carey's most favorable reviews in some time; The Guardian defined it as "cool, focused and urban ... [some of] the first Mariah Carey tunes in years I wouldn't have to be paid to listen to again". The second single "We Belong Together" held the Hot 100's number-one position for fourteen weeks (her longest run at the top as a solo artist) and was the biggest hit of 2005 in the U.S., while "Shake It Off" made Mariah Carey the only female artist to occupy the Hot 100's top two positions simultaneously. "Don't Forget About Us" became her seventeenth number-one in the U.S., tying her with Elvis Presley for the most number-ones by a solo act according to Billboard magazine's revised methodology (their statistician Joel Whitburn still credits Presley with an eighteenth). By this count Mariah Carey is behind only The Beatles, who have twenty number-ones.

Mariah Carey began a concert tour, The Adventures of Mimi, in mid-2006. According to a backstage interview with Entertainment Tonight, Mariah Carey has already begun work on her next studio album, which is expected for release sometime during spring 2007. Also in 2007, Mariah Carey will receive a "recording star" on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and be inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame.

Mariah Carey began to take professional acting lessons in 1997, and within the coming year, Mariah Carey was auditioning for film roles. Mariah Carey made her debut as an opera singer in the romantic comedy The Bachelor (1999) starring Chris O'Donnell and Renée Zellweger, and CNN derisively referred to her casting as a talentless diva as "letter-perfect ... the "can't act" part informs Mariah Carey's entire performance".

Mariah Carey's first starring role was in Glitter, in which Mariah Carey played a struggling musician in the 1980s who breaks into the music industry after meeting a disc jockey. While Roger Ebert said "[Mariah Carey]'s acting ranges from dutiful flirtatiousness to intense sincerity", most critics panned it: Halliwell's Film Guide called it a "vapid star vehicle for a pop singer with no visible acting ability", and The Village Voice observed: "When [Mariah Carey] tries for an emotion-any emotion-she looks as if she's lost her car keys." Glitter was a box office failure, and Mariah Carey earned a Razzie Award for her role.

Mariah Carey, Mira Sorvino and Melora Walters co-starred as waitresses at a mobster-operated restaurant in the independent film WiseGirls (2002), which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival but went straight to cable in the U.S. Critics commended Mariah Carey for her efforts: The Hollywood Reporter predicted, "Those scathing notices for Glitter will be a forgotten memory for the singer once people warm up to Raychel", and Roger Friedman, referring to her as "a Thelma Ritter for the new millennium", said, "Her line delivery is sharp and she manages to get the right laughs".

Mariah Carey was one of several musicians who appeared in the independently produced Damon Dash films Death of a Dynasty (2003) and State Property 2 (2005), while her television work has been limited to a January 2002 episode of Ally McBeal. In 2006 Mariah Carey joined the cast of the indie film Tennessee.

Mariah Carey is a philanthropist who has donated time and money to organizations such as the Fresh Air Fund. Mariah Carey became associated with the Fund in the early 1990s, and Mariah Carey is the co-founder of a camp located in Fishkill, New York that enables inner-city youth to embrace the arts and introduces them to career opportunities. Mariah Carey is well-known nationally for her work with the Make-A-Wish Foundation in granting the wishes of children with life-threatening illnesses, has volunteered for the New York City Police Athletic League and contributed to the obstetrics department of New York Presbyterian Hospital Cornell Medical Center.

One of Mariah Carey's most high-profile benefit concert appearances was on VH1's 1998 Divas Live special, where Mariah Carey performed alongside other female singers in support of the Save the Music Foundation. The concert was a ratings success, and Mariah Carey participated in the 2000 special. Mariah Carey appeared at the America: A Tribute to Heroes nationally televised fundraiser in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks, and in December 2001 she performed before peacekeeping troops in Kosovo. Carey hosted the CBS television special At Home for the Holidays, which documented real-life stories of adopted children and foster families, and Mariah Carey has worked with the New York City Administration for Children's Services. In 2005 Mariah Carey performed for Live 8 in London and at the Hurricane Katrina relief telethon Shelter from the Storm.

Mariah Carey has participated in endorsements for Berlitz Language Schools and the Aeon English College in Japan, Nescafé coffee, and Intel Centrino personal computers. In early 2006 Mariah Carey launched a jewelry and accessories line for teenagers, "Glamorized", in U.S. Claire's and Icing stores. Later that year it was announced Mariah Carey had signed a licensing deal with the cosmetics company Elizabeth Arden to release a fragrance in 2007. During this period, as part of a partnership with Pepsi and Motorola, Mariah Carey recorded and promoted series of exclusive ringtones.

Daydream (1995)
Fantasy
Underneath The Stars
One Sweet Day
Open Arms
Always Be My Baby
I Am Free
When I Saw You
Long Ago
Melt Away
Forever
Daydream Interlude (Fantasy Sweet Dub Mix)
Looking In

Butterfly (1997)
Honey
Butterfly
My All
The Roof
Fourth Of July
Breakdown
Babydoll
Close My Eyes
Whenever You Call
Fly Away (Butterfly Reprise)
The Beautiful Ones
Outside

Rainbow (1999)
Heartbreaker
Can't Take That Away (Mariah's Theme)
Bliss
How Much
After Tonight
X-Girlfriend
Heartbreaker (remix)
Vulnerability (Interlude)
Against All Odds (Look At Me Now)
Crybaby
Did I Do That?
Petals
Rainbow (Interlude)
Thank God I Found You

#1's (2000)
Sweetheart
When You Believe
Whenever You Call
My All
Honey
Always Be My Baby
One Sweet Day
Fantasy
Hero
Dreamlover
I'll Be There
Emotions
Someday
Love Takes Time
Vision Of Love
I Still Believe
Without You
Do You Know Where You're Going To

Glitter (2001)
Lover Boy (Remix)
Lead The Way
If We
Didn't Mean To Turn You On
Don't Stop (Funkin' For Jamaica)
All My Life
Reflections (Care Enough)
Last Night A Dj Saved My Life
Want You
Never Too Far
Twister
Lover Boy

Charmbracelet (2002)
Through The Rain
Boy (I Need You)
The One
Yours
You Got Me
I Only Wanted
Clown
My Saving Grace
You Had Your Chance
Lullaby
Irresistible (Westside Connection)
Subtle Invitation
Bringin' On The Heartache
Sunflowers For Alfred Roy
Through The Rain (Remix)
There Goes My Heart
I Know What You Want
Got a Thing 4 You
The One (So So Def Remix)

The Remixes (2003)
My All (Morales My Club Mix)
Heartbreaker/If You Should Ever Be Lonely (Junior'
Fly Away (Butterfly Reprise) (Club Mix)
Anytime You Need a Friend (C&C Club Version)
Fantasy (Def Club Mix)
Honey (Classic Mix)
Dreamlover (Def Club Mix)
Emotions (12 Club Mix)
Through the Rain (HQ2 Radio Edit)
Fantasy (ft. O.D.B)
Always Be My Baby (Mr. Dupri Mix)
My All/Stay Awhile (So So Def Remix)
Thank God I Found You (Make It Last Remix)
Breakdown
Honey (So So Def Mix)
Loverboy (remix)
Heartbreaker (remix)
Sweetheart
Crybaby
Miss You

The Emancipation of Mimi (2005)
It's Like That
We Belong Together