Mariah Carey facts: Age, net worth, husband, kids, parents, siblings & family details
Who is Mariah Carey?
Mariah Carey is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress. Referred to as the “Songbird Supreme” by Guinness World Records, she is noted for her songwriting, five-octave vocal range, melismatic singing style and signature use of the whistle register.
Mariah Carey is regarded as one of the most prominent singers and songwriters of the 21st century. During a career spanning across 20 years, she has established her name as a vocal virtuoso, who has taken music to greater heights.
This songbird possesses a five-octave vocal range and she has the ability to hit notes even beyond the 7th octave, which can even shatter glass. Her use of melisma and the whistle range have continued to awe and inspire artists since the last two decades.
Her body of work includes song writing, singing, and production, not to mention the introduction of new sounds with each album. Her music styles range from Motown soul to R&B to Hip Hop and Pop and she can easily glide from a soulful ballad to hip-hop songs with élan.
Although, this star had a troubled childhood, suffered emotional breakdowns but, she stood the test of time and emerged successful. Worldwide sales of her dozen studio albums have managed to surpass the 200 million mark, making her one of the most successful recording artists of all time.
The passion for music in this immensely talented star is so visible in each of her performances that audiences from across the world respond with unbridled enthusiasm to her singing. To learn more about this true diva, scroll further.
Mariah Carey Age
Mariah is 54 years old as of 2023. She was born on March 27, 1969, in Huntington, New York. Her name is derived from the song “They Call the Wind Maria”, originally from the 1951 Broadway musical Paint Your Wagon.
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 African-American and Afro-Venezuelan lineage. The last name Carey was adopted by her Venezuelan grandfather, Francisco Núñez, after he emigrated to New York.
Patricia’s family disowned her for marrying a black man. Racial tensions prevented the Carey family from integrating into their community. While they lived in Huntington, their neighbors poisoned the family dog and set fire to their car.
After her parents’ divorce, Carey had little contact with her father, and her mother worked several jobs to support the family. 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. Her older sister Alison moved in with their father while Mariah and her elder brother Morgan lived with their mother.
During her years in elementary school, she excelled in the arts, such as music and literature. Carey began writing poetry and lyrics while attending Harborfields High School in Greenlawn, New York, where she graduated in 1987. Carey began vocal training under the tutelage of her mother.
Though she was a classically trained opera singer, Patricia Carey never pressured her daughter to pursue a career in classical opera. Mariah Carey recalled that she had “never been a pushy mom. She never said, ‘Give it more of an operatic feel.’ I respect opera like crazy, but it didn’t influence me.”
In high school, Mariah Carey was often absent because of her work as a demo singer. This led to her classmates giving her the nickname Mirage. Working in 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, she worked part-time jobs to pay the rent and completed 500 hours of beauty school. Carey moved into a one-bedroom apartment in Manhattan with four female students as roommates. She landed a gig singing backup for freestyle singer Brenda K. Starr.
Mariah Carey Net Worth
Singer Mariah Carey has a net worth of $350 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth. Carey makes an estimated average of $2.5 million in royalties every year for her famous 1994 Christmas song, according to a 2016 study by The Economist.
In 2022, the song brought in about $8.5 million in global revenue and publishing royalties, according to Billboard.
Carey also has made millions from lucrative endorsements with major brands. In November 2019, the superstar singer reportedly got paid $11 million by PepsiCo for starring in a Christmas. In 2022, Carey launched two fine jewelry collections in collaboration with jewelry company Chopard.
Mariah Carey husband
Mariah Carey has been married twice and engaged one other time . Her first marriage was to Tommy Mottola, a music executive .
Mariah started dating her Sony label boss Tommy Mottola, and married him in 1993 when she was aged 24 and he was 44. They separated in 1997 and divorced in 2000.
Her second marriage was to Nick Cannon, an American comedian, rapper, and television host .
After a three-year relationship with singer Luis Miguel, Mariah met actor and comedian Nick Cannon while they shot her music video for her song ‘Bye Bye’. In 2008, they married in The Bahamas. In 2014, they announced their divorce.
Two years later, Mariah and Australian billionaire James Packer announced that they were engaged. However, a few months later they had ended their relationship.
She has been in a long-term relationship with Bryan Tanaka, a dancer, since 2016 . It is unclear whether they are still together as they have not been seen together in public recently.
Mariah Carey kids
Mariah Carey has two children. At age 41, legendary singer Mariah Carey gave birth to Monroe and Moroccan Scott, twins that she affectionately called “Dem Babies.”
The twins were born on April 30, 2011, the third anniversary of her marriage to Nick Cannon, the babies’ father.
“My wife just gave me the most incredible anniversary gift ever in life!,” Cannon tweeted, “I won’t ever be able to top this!” Carey and Cannon were married from 2008 to 2016, per People.
“Roc” and “Roe,” as their parents nicknamed them, have been in and out of the spotlight their whole lives.
When they were 3, Cannon released a children’s picture book called “Roc and Roe’s Twelve Days of Christmas.” The following year, they joined mom on stage at the Hollywood Bowl to sing “Always Be My Baby.”
Mariah Carey Parents
Mariah was born in 1970 in Huntington, New York to Alfred Roy Carey and Patricia Hickey and was the youngest of three children.
Mariah Carey’s Father Alfred Roy Carey
Alfred Roy Carey was Mariah’s father and was an aeronautical engineer of African-American and Afro-Venezuelan descent. His father, Mariah’s paternal grandfather, actually changed his surname from Nuñez to Carey to sound more American/Eurocentric — something many immigrants did at the time to cope with racism.
Racism was definitely a prominent theme in Mariah’s life, and something her father and mother, Patricia, who is of Irish descent, dealt with during their union. The couple met in 1960 and fell in love, eventually getting married despite Patricia’s mother forbidding it.
Mariah’s father and mother ended up getting divorced when the “Through the Rain” singer was three, and she lived with her mother while her siblings, stayed with their dad. Mariah had little contact with her father after the split, and he sadly passed away in 2002.
Mariah’s Mother Patricia Hickey
Mariah Carey’s mother played a significant role in her musical journey. Patricia, who attended The Julliard School, was an opera singer and vocal coach. Mariah’s passion for music emerged through her mother’s introduction to music.
At the tender age of three, the iconic singer started singing and even imitated her mother’s rendition of Verdi’s opera Rigoletto in Italian. Patricia Carey’s influence and background as an opera singer helped shape her daughter’s love for music early.
The music legend’s relationship with her mother has undergone various transformations. In her memoir, The Meaning of Mariah Carey, the singer said:
“Ours is a story of betrayal and beauty. Of love and abandonment. Of sacrifice and survival. I’ve emancipated myself from bondage several times, but there is a cloud of sadness that I suspect will always hang over me, not simply because of my mother but because of our complicated journey together”.
She also noted that their relationship blends pride, pain, shame, gratitude, jealousy, admiration, and disappointment. The multiple-award-winning singer expressed feeling neglected by her mother in her formative years. She also mentioned that although her mother introduced her to music, her mother displayed jealousy regarding her career at some point. The music legend recalled her mother saying, “I only hoped that you would be half the singer that I was.
The singer and record producer maintains space for her mother in her life and endeavours to establish boundaries, acknowledging the difficulty of this ongoing process.
Mariah Carey Siblings
Regarding Mariah Carey’s siblings, she has an older brother named Morgan and an older sister named Allison. Morgan Carey was born in Long Island New York on August 6th, 1960. Morgan had his issues growing up.
Morgan Carey briefly had a career as a music producer and introduced Mariah to several people who played a role in her career taking off . He is also a former model who appeared in the pages of Men’s Fitness and has worked as a fitness trainer for years. He even has worked with several celebrities in the past .
In 2016, Morgan spoke very badly of Mariah describing her as ‘heartless’ because Mariah refused to pay for Allison’s hospital treatment when Allison was seriously sick.
According to The Sun, Morgan also said that he had been trying to get in touch with his sister Mariah, but Mariah didn’t bother to care about the whereabouts of her estranged siblings. It looks like the Grammy winner’s relationship with her brother is still on rocky grounds.
Mariah revealed a lot in her memoir ‘The Meaning Of Mariah.’ In this book, Mariah explains in detail the reason why she does not get along with her sister, Alison.
While speaking to Oprah Winfrey during an interview that was recorded in 2020, Mariah said that she decided to pour out everything she went through and felt in her book because of how Allison and her other family members have been treating her, and she just wanted the world to know that she’s not the villain in the story. Mariah wrote concerning her sister, “When I was 12 years old, my sister drugged me with valium, offered me a pinky nail full of cocaine, inflicted me with third-degree burns, and tried to sell me out to a pimp.”
According to Showbiz Cheatsheet, Mariah has not been in contact with her siblings for many years now. Also in her book, Mariah said that therapy helped her get through her past trauma.
She wrote, “For my sanity and peace of mind, my therapist encouraged me to literally rename and reframe my family. My mother became Pat to me, Morgan my ex-brother, and Alison my ex-sister … I had to stop expecting them to one day miraculously become the mommy, big brother, and big sister I fantasized about.”
Mariah Carey Family
Spouse/Ex-: Nick Cannon, Tommy Mottola
Father: Alfred Roy Carey
Mother: Patricia Hickey
Siblings: Alison, Morgan
Children: Monroe Cannon, Moroccan Scott Cannon
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