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A day after graduating from high school, Mariah moves to New York City to pursue a singing career.
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Mariah Carey is born in Long Island, NY.
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In Huntington, Long Island, New York, and began taking voice lessons the age of four. At 18 she signed with Columbia records, and her first album had four No. 1 singles, including "Vision of Love" and "I Don't Wanna Cry."
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Meets Tommy Mottola at a party and they begin a relationship.
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Releases her debut album, Mariah Carey. The singles “Vision of Love,” “Love Takes Time,” “Someday,” and “I Don’t Wanna Cry” all go to #1 on the charts.
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Mariah Carey reaches #1 on the charts.
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Releases her second album, Emotions. The single “Emotions” shoots to #1. “Can’t Let Go” and “Make It Happen” both rise to Top 5 positions.
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Releases her second album, Emotions. The single “Emotions” shoots to #1. “Can’t Let Go” and “Make It Happen” both rise to Top 5 positions.
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Releases an MTV Unplugged EP which includes a cover of the Jackson 5 song, “I’ll Be There.”
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Releases her third full-length album, Music Box. The singles “Dreamlover” and “Hero” both soar to #1 on the charts.
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Releases a holiday album, Merry Christmas. She has a hit with the single, “All I Want for Christmas Is You
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Releases the album, Daydream. The first single, “Fantasy,” debuts at #1. She is the first female performer to have a single debut at #1 and only the second performer, male or female, to do so. The album’s second single, “One Sweet Day,” also debuts at #1.
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Releases the album, Butterfly.
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Releases #1s, a compilation of her 13 singles. The album also includes a diet with Whitney Houston called “The Prince of Egypt (When You Believe).”
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Divorces Tommy Mottola.
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Releases the album, Rainbow. This record breaks the Beatles’ record of the artist with the most cumulative weeks on top of the Hot 100 singles chart.
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Buys Marilyn Monroe’s piano at auction for $600,000.
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The movie Glitter is released and is so bad that it becomes a joke
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She begins behaving strangely in public and there are rumors that she is having a breakdown. She posts suicidal messages on her website, appears on TRL wearing only a t-shirt, and rambles on and on during conversations.
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Virgin breaks its contract with Carey and pays her 28 million dollars.
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Signs with Island/Def Jam and sets up her own label, MonarC Music.
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Releases her ninth album, Charmbracelet. It is a commercial failure.
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Releases her tenth album, The Emancipation of Mimi. It is a huge success and goes multiplatinum. She achieves her sixteenth #1 single with “We Belong Together,” making her the most popular female singer of all time on the American charts.
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Mariah’s sister, Alison Carey, is arrested for prostitution after offering sex to an undercover officer. Alison Carey, who is HIV-positive, has fought alcohol and drug addiction for years and has had a stormy relationship with younger sister Mariah and the rest of her family.
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A small fire breaks out in the home she is renting in Los Angeles. A spokesperson says: “There was a small fire … in the Los Angeles home that Mariah Carey is currently renting. Mariah was never in harm’s way.”
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Mariah appears at the MTV Video Music Awards in Miami
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Releases her eleventh album, E=MC². It debuts at #1 on the Billboard 200 and sells 463,000 copies in its first week. This is the biggest opening week of her career.
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She and Nick Cannon marry in the Bahamas.
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She appears on America’s Got Talent to promote her upcoming album, Memoirs of An Imperfect Angel.
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She releases her twelfth album, Memoirs of An Imperfect Angel. It debuts at #3 on the Billboard 200 and sells 168,000 copies in its first week.
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She debuts her jewelry and shoe line on HSN (Home Shopping Network). Her husband Nick calls into the show.
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She releases her thirteenth album, Merry Christmas II You. It is her second Christmas album. It debuts at #4 on the Billboard 200 and sells 56,000 copies in its first week.
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She releases her thirteenth album, Merry Christmas II You. It is her second Christmas album. It debuts at #4 on the Billboard 200 and sells 56,000 copies in its first week.
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She appears on The Ellen Degeneres show and talks about her jewelry line, her husband, her new album, and her pregnancy.
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She tells Barbara Walters that she had a live version of her song “Fantasy” played while she was giving birth so the twins could hear applause as they entered the world.
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She gives birth to fraternal twins Monroe and Moroccan.
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She appears in the film The Butler as Cecil’s mother. The film also stars Forest Whitaker and Oprah Winfrey.
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While on Big Boy’s radio show, Nick says that Mariah made him wait until they got married to have sex. He also talks about his exes Kim Kardashian, Selita Ebanks, Christina Milian and Nicole Scherzinger. He later says that these comments got him in “hot water” with Mariah.
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He tells Howard Stern that his comments on the Big Boy radio show got him in trouble at home. “When we bring up — I’m not gonna do it — other people’s names, she’s like, ‘Why would you even do that?’ So I got in a lot of trouble, and I gotta stop talking about my past.”
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She releases her fourteenth album, Me. I Am Mariah … The Elusive Chanteuse. It debuts at #3 on the Billboard 200 and sells 58,000 copies in the first week. It is the lowest opening for a non-holiday Mariah Carey album of her career.
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After months of speculation that the couple has split up, Nick Cannon confirms that he and Mariah have separated.
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While singing “Don’t Explain” by Billie Holiday at the Makuhari Messe Arena in Tokyo, Mariah ad libs, “I know you cheated, motherfucker.”
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Nick Cannon files for divorce.
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During her first in a series of holiday concerts at NYC’s Beacon Theater called “All I Want for Christmas Is You: A Night of Joy and Festivity,” Mariah loses a shoe but keeps performing with the shoe in her hand. Later, while she is singing “Hero,” she is visibly crying.
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Mariah Carey announces on The Ellen Degeneres Show that she will be taking up residency at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, performing several shows throughout the year starting in May 2015. She says in a press statement: “I have so many ideas for the show that I’m currently working on and am excited to perform all of my No. 1 singles together for the first time and others that are very close to my heart. My songs are the soundtrack of my life, and I can’t wait to share them with my fans on stage.”
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She appears in the film Precious as Mrs. Weiss, Precious’s social worker. The film also stars Gabourey Sidibe, Mo’Nique, Paula Patton, Sherri Shepherd, and Lenny Kravitz.
