[7][8] She is the youngest of three children born to Patricia (née Hickey), a former opera singer and vocal coach of Irish descent, and Alfred Roy Carey, an aeronautical engineer of both African-American and Afro-Venezuelan lineage.

The New York Times named it one of 1995's best albums and wrote it "brings R&B candy-making to a new peak of textural refinement ... Carey's songwriting has taken a leap forward and become more relaxed, sexier and less reliant on thudding clichés.

[63] "One Sweet Day", a collaboration with R&B group Boyz II Men, served as the second single from Daydream and remained atop the Billboard Hot 100 for a record-breaking 16 consecutive weeks, becoming the longest-running number-one song in the history of the charts at the time.

[71] During the recording of Daydream, Carey also worked on the alternative rock album Someone's Ugly Daughter by the band Chick, contributing writing, production, vocals and art direction.

In their review of the album, Rolling Stone wrote it was "not as if Carey has totally dispensed with her old saccharine, Houston-style balladry ... but the predominant mood of Butterfly is one of coolly erotic reverie.

[83] After concluding her Butterfly World Tour, Carey participated in the VH1 Divas benefit concert on April 14, 1998, where she sang alongside Aretha Franklin, Celine Dion, Shania Twain, Gloria Estefan, and Carole King.

"Heartbreaker" and "Thank God I Found You" both topped the Billboard Hot 100, while her rendition of Phil Collins' "Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)" with Irish boy band Westlife became her second number-one song on the UK charts.

[90] Carey's tense relationship with Columbia grew increasingly fractious; she began posting messages on her website, sharing inside information with fans on the dispute, as well as instructing them to request "Can't Take That Away (Mariah's Theme)" on radio stations.

Caroline Sullivan of The Guardian defined it as "cool, focused and urban [... some of] the first Mariah Carey tunes in years which I wouldn't have to be paid to listen to again,"[121] while USA Today's Elysa Gardner wrote, "The [songs] truly reflect the renewed confidence of a songbird who has taken her shots and kept on flying.

[134] At the end of 2005, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) reported that The Emancipation of Mimi had sold more than 7.7 million copies globally, and was the second-best-selling album of the year after Coldplay's X&Y.

[189][190] For her 14th album, she worked with producers including DJ Clue?, Randy Jackson, Q-Tip, R. Kelly, David Morales, Afanasieff, Dupri, The-Dream, and Da Brat.

Carey told The New York Times, "I thought it would be a good opportunity to kind of, like, show my personality and who I am, even though I feel like my real fans have an idea of who I am... A lot of people have misperceptions about this and that.

[207] On December 5, 2016, Carey participated in the VH1 Divas Holiday: Unsilent Night benefit concert, alongside Vanessa Williams, Chaka Khan, Patti LaBelle, and Teyana Taylor.

[277] Carey has said that from childhood she has been influenced by Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan as well as R&B and soul musicians including Al Green, Stevie Wonder, Gladys Knight, Aretha Franklin, and George Michael.

[278][279] When Carey incorporated hip hop into her sound, speculation arose that she was making an attempt to take advantage of the genre's popularity, but she told Newsweek, "People just don't understand.

Author and writer Lucy O'Brien attributed the comeback of Barbra Streisand's "old-fashioned showgirl" to Carey and Celine Dion, and described them and Houston as "groomed, airbrushed and overblown to perfection".

[285][286] Andrew Chan of the University of Texas Press identifies "the purging of private emotions" as the main theme of Carey's ballads, though he believes several others aim to have an "all-purpose feeling" with mass appeal.

[290] In 2001, The Village Voice wrote that "Carey's Strawberry Shortcake soul still provides the template with which teen-pop cuties draw curlicues around those centerless [Diane] Warren ballads.

[292] Following her divorce with Tommy Mottola, Carey broke free of adult contemporary arrangements in favor of what Alex Macpherson of The Guardian described as "a lovingly crafted, hip-hop-inflected quiet storm".

Carey said that she cannot read sheet music and prefers to collaborate with a pianist when composing her material, but feels that it is easier to experiment with faster and less-conventional melodies and chord progressions using this technique.

[312] Sasha Frere-Jones of The New Yorker adds her timbre on "Vision of Love" possesses various colors, stating, "Carey's sound changes with nearly every line, mutating from a steely tone to a vibrating growl and then to a humid, breathy coo.

"[54] Chan believes that Carey moved through several "vocal personas" throughout her discography, like the "stentorian, full-throated belting of her first few albums; the fluid mix of chest and head voice deployed to masterful effect in the mid-1990s; and the delicate, foggy tones and manic cadences that predominated after the turn of the millennium".

"[320] Alex Macpherson of The Guardian noted that Carey's voice on Butterfly is "an instrument of texture rather than volume, with pillows of lavishly layered vocals and nuanced phrasing magnifying the emotional intensity of the songs.

[326] She also performed "America the Beautiful" at the 1990 NBA Finals in which Rolling Stone writer, Brittany Spanos, stated the players were struck "with awe by the incredible talent of a burgeoning young star".

[362][363] Academic Shara Rambarran believes that Carey has matched the media's intense scrutiny and attention on her personal life through "her diva attitude, performance, identity, and music".

Mariah Carey's debut hit from 1990, 'Vision of Love', [set] the bar insanely high for notes stretched louder, longer and knottier than most pop fans had ever heard".

[386] Declining offers to appear in commercials in the United States during her early career, Carey was not involved in brand marketing initiatives until 2006, when she participated in endorsements for Intel Centrino personal computers and launched a jewelry and accessories line for teenagers, Glamorized, in American Claire's and Icing stores.

She became associated with the Fresh Air Fund in the early 1990s, and co-founded a camp located in Fishkill, New York, that enables inner-city youth to embrace the arts and introduces them to career opportunities.

[415] One of Carey's most high-profile benefit concert appearances was on VH1's 1998 Divas Live special, during which she performed alongside other female singers in support of the Save the Music Foundation.

[425] To make amends, in March 2011, Carey's representative Cindi Berger stated that royalties for the song "Save the Day", written for her fourteenth studio album, would be donated to charities that create awareness for human rights.