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To have earned the title of “biggest selling female recording artists of the 1990s" is no small feat. Given the talent and the record-selling abilities of Madonna, Whitney Houston, Celine Dion and Shania Twain, the feat seems near impossible. Mariah Carey’s unprecedented 120 million albums and singles sold says a lot for her own talent and her own popularity.
Blessed with a seven-octave voice helped her breakthrough into the music scene, Carey is as much a product of hybrid roots as she is of a scene that was ripe for sexy, soulful divas. Born to parents that defy traditional comparisons, one can only say that Mariah Carey’s story is “original". Her father is a black Venezuelan aeronautics engineer and her mother is an Irish-American opera singer.
It is perhaps the multi-cultural origins of Mariah Carey that allowed her to create music that defied traditional labels and gain acceptance from multi-cultural audiences. Her audience isn’t stereotypically “black" nor is it “white". Her audience can best be described as anyone and almost everyone, as her record sales indicate.
Carey, who is single now after her failed marriage to Columbia Records mogul Tommy Mottola, has had 14 #1 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart,
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placing her on the company of the Beatles (20) and Elvis (18). She has spent a total of 60 weeks at the top of the same chart, also setting a record. Still, records take second place to her talent, a talent that is bewildering in its immensity.
In addition to completely mastering her powerful vocal chords, Carey has also proved herself as a songwriting powerhouse. She has written every single #1 hit she has had with the exception of her cover of the Jackson 5’s “I’ll Be There." Perhaps the biggest sign of her success is her continued popularity. While other stars of the early 90’s slowly faded away, Carey only seemed to get stronger. Her latest album, 1999’s Rainbow featured a debut single “Heartbreaker" that, you guessed it, went to #1 on the charts….
Erin Boyle CanEHdian.com, 2000
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