Known for her impressive vocal range and her signature whistle register, Mariah Carey has been an inspiration to many singers around the world. She is hailed as one of the artists who paved the way for contemporary R&B music and has had a career spanning over 3 decades.
Indeed, she has so much impact on the music industry that many newbie secular singers take note of her vocal technique and discography.
Here are 10 things you probably don’t know about the music legend
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1. She had a difficult upbringing and experienced racial discrimination due to being biracial.
2. She has 18 number one songs on the Billboard Hot 100, second only to The Beatles.
3. She is into several charitable causes and runs Camp Mariah, which has been ongoing for over 20 years. In 2014, she won her award for her.
4. Carey has had had vocal nodules her entire life, a condition most singers dread, but she has learned to sing around them. She credits them for her ability to produce whistle notes: “They’re the reason why I have the high register and the belting register and I can still be husky. A lot of people couldn’t sing through the nodules the way I do; I’ve learned to sing through my vocal cords.”
5.She holds the Guinness world record title of “Songbird Supreme” due to her extensive vocal range of 5 octaves and her effortless way of singing.
6. Her mother, Patricia Carey, was an opera singer and freelance vocal coach. She first observed her daughter’s remarkable talent when she was just two. “From the time Mariah was a tiny girl, she sang on true pitch. She was able to hear a sound and duplicate it exactly. I missed my cue, but Mariah didn’t. She sang it in Italian at exactly the right point. She wasn’t yet 3,” Patricia said.
7. Carey suffered a career meltdown in 2001 and many thought she wouldn’t recover from that. However, in 2005, she had a massive comeback with her highly successful album The Emancipation of Mimi which had number one hit songs like We Belong Together and Don’t Forget About Us.
8. Mariah Carey has enjoyed a highly successful career most would dream of. She is the third best-selling female artist in the United States and the female songwriter with the most number one songs in US chart history.
9. Alongside singers like Whitney Houston, she popularized the Melismatic style of singing which has become prevalent among singers today.
10. Carey writes all her music excluding covers. She wrote 17 out of 18 number one songs on the billboard hot 100.
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