Mariah Carey (born March 27, 1969 or 1970) is an American singer and songwriter. Referred to as the "Songbird Supreme" by the Guinness World Records, she is noted for her five-octave vocal range, vocal power, melismatic style, and signature use of the whistle register.

After signing to Columbia Records, she released her debut album, Mariah Carey (1990), which spawned four number-one singles on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart: "Vision of Love", "Love Takes Time", "Someday", and "I Don't Wanna Cry". She followed this chart success with the number-one single "Emotions", from her second album of the same name, making her the first and only artist to have their first five singles reach number-one on the Billboard Hot 100.

Following her marriage to Sony Music head Tommy Mottola, Carey became the label's highest-selling act with the follow-up albums Music Box (1993), Merry Christmas (1994), and Daydream (1995). These albums spawned a string of successful singles including the international number-one "Without You", holiday track "All I Want for Christmas Is You", and "One Sweet Day", which became the longest-running U.S. number-one single in history with a total of 16 weeks. After divorcing Mottola, Carey adopted a new image and incorporated more elements of hip hop into her music with the release of Butterfly (1997). Billboard named her the most successful artist of the 1990s in the United States, while World Music Awards honored her as the world's best-selling recording artist of the 1990s.

Carey parted with Columbia in 2000, and signed a record-breaking $100 million recording contract with Virgin Records. In the weeks prior to the release of her film Glitter and its accompanying soundtrack in 2001, she suffered a physical and emotional breakdown and was hospitalized for severe exhaustion. The project was poorly received and led to a general decline in the singer's career.