Us Weekly Magazine - Celebrity News

Mariah Carey

A Long Islander with Irish-American, African-American and Venezuelan roots, Carey started singing at the age of 3. After cutting a demo tape while working as a backup singer to Brenda K. Starr, Carey landed under the wing and romantic spell of Columbia Records producer Tommy Mottola, who launched her career in 1990. Her astronomical success as an R&B pop diva saw a crash after a psychiatric breakdown in 2001, but she staged a comeback with 2005’s The Emancipation of Mimi.

Carey’s Cinderella story of rags-to-riches success came at the hands of record producer Tommy Mottola, who also became her first husband in 1993.The two divorced in 1998, after which Carey was together with New York Yankee Derek Jeter, and then singer Luis Miguel. On April 30, 2008, the diva said "I do" to 27-year-old rapper/actor Nick Cannon during a ceremony at the home Carey recently purchased in the Bahamas. Longtime pals, the couple reconnected when they worked together on the video for her latest single, "Bye Bye," in late March.

After being discovered by Sony producer Tommy Mottola, her self-titled 1990 debut album shot to the top of the charts and earned her multiple Grammys. Her next two albums in 1991 and 1993, Emotions and Music Box, did equally well, putting Carey on the top of an R&B diva mountain already crowded with performers like Whitney Houston. After splitting with controlling husband Mottola in 1996, her work started becoming more sexually aggressive, dropping the babyface routine for tight-shirt acts like 1999’s "Heartbreaker" video. In 2001, her career spun off the road: overworked and strained, she had a breakdown and was admitted to psychiatric care. To make matters worse, her big-screen starring role in Glitter was torn apart in the press, and the accompanying album, released on September 11, 2001, was equally reviled. However, her 2005 album The Emancipation of Mimi marks a return for the notoriously over-emotional diva to good reviews and even better sales. Carey's 11th album, E=MC2 streets April 15 and the accompanying first single, "Touch My Body" hit the airwaves in mid-February. On March 15, 2008, Carey will make an appearance as musical guest on Saturday Night Live for the first time in over 10 years.