That stunning voice–no one can deny its power. It’s one of the reasons why fans have made Mariah Carey the only artist to have a hit single every year of the ’90s. Born to an opera-singing mother and a Venezuelan father, Carey struggled with identity issues as a young woman. While trying to jumpstart her career in music she did some odd jobs, such as backup singer for Brenda K. Starr. But it was a chance meeting with Tommy Mottola, the president of Columbia Records, that would change her life. Mottola signed Carey to her first record contract with haste and then married her in a fairy tale ending. The fairy tale ended in 1997 with divorce along with dropping the multimillion-dollar deal with Virgin. A weak performance on her latest single and a less-than-stellar role in “Glitter” left Mariah recuperation from exhaustion in the hospital. It took only 20 years for the glitter to fade from one of pop’s most powerful performers.
