From having the most number one songs of any solo artist on Billboard's Hot 100 to being an inductee of the Songwriters Hall of Fame, Mariah Carey is a living legend. For over three decades, her music has been the soundtrack to many people's lives. Her ability to cross multiple genres and collaborate with a number of different artists is unparalleled. She also has a distinct vocal talent whose range is impressive to say the least.
Throughout her career, Carey has experienced ups and downs. Her songwriting has often been a vehicle to express these rollercoaster rides of emotions. There are many albums in Carey's catalog which represent key periods in her life.
Here are eight Mariah Carey albums and the personal stories behind them.
8 Mariah Carey
According to her memoir, Carey began writing songs for her debut album when she was still in high school. One of those songs was "Alone In Love." She was also working on her demo tape while still in high school and continued after she graduated. Carey worked with writing partner Ben Margulies on many of the songs. A good amount of those songs ended up on her debut album. In her memoir, Carey also writes about how Margulies got her to sign a deal which she wasn't very happy with. The two never worked together again.
7 Merry Christmas
At the end of 1993, Carey had just finished promoting her third album "Music Box." The album contained her signature song "Hero" and went on to become her bestseller. Carey's career was at its commercial peak and it seemed like she was on top of the world. This same year, Carey also married Tommy Mottola, the head of her record label. He suggested she do a Christmas album next, but Carey wasn't sure. It wasn't something young artists did, surely not ones who were still at the start of their career. But Carey agreed to the idea and ended up making one of the most classic Christmas albums of all time.
6 Daydream
Carey has often talked about how her marriage to Mottola was a creatively stifling experience. She has spoken at length about her desire to steer her music in a more R&B/hip-hop direction, while Mottola wanted her to stay in the pop direction. In her memoir, Carey goes a step further and writes that Mottola had a grip on her personal life as well. In an interview with Charlie Rose, Carey revealed that the song "Looking In," which closes this album, was about her unhappiness at that time in her life. She even said that people she knew began to worry about her after hearing the song.
5 Butterfly
By the time Carey started working on her next album, she was beginning to take steps to leave her marriage. Carey writes at length about this process in her memoir. She talks about meeting Derek Jeter, who is also biracial like Carey. She writes that he was someone she felt she could identify with and a romance between the two blossomed. This romance was the inspiration of many songs on this album, including "Honey," "My All," and "The Roof." Carey co-wrote the album's title track, which was a reflection of her hopes to be set free from a very confining situation. Carey wrote about her childhood and identity in songs like "Close My Eyes" and "Outside."
4 Rainbow
When Carey's marriage to Mottola ended, she says, her time at the record label which he still ran was horrible. When speaking to Charlie Rose, Carey talked about how she escaped to Capri, Italy to work on this album. It would end up being her last album for Columbia Records, released in 1999. The album included collaborations with the likes of Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, Diane Warren, David Foster, and Jermaine Dupri. It featured a song titled "Petals," which Carey said was about various people she had to cut out of her life. The song "Can't Take That Away (Mariah's Theme)" was a song that Carey said she wrote to help herself deal with her current personal and professional situation.
3 Charmbracelet
After the critical and commercial failure of Carey's film Glitter, she signed a new record deal with Island Def Jam. The sessions for her next album were put on hold when she discovered her father was ill with cancer. Carey was by his side during his final days and the two reconnected. Carey spoke about how she didn't believe he took her musical aspirations seriously. She later discovered that he kept a bunch of material from her career. It was the first time Carey realized her father was proud of her. After he passed away, Carey wrote the song "Sunflowers for Alfred Roy" for her father. The sunflower was the only flower Carey could bring for him when she visited that wouldn't give him an allergic reaction.
2 The Emancipation of Mimi
While touring in support of "Charmbracelet," Carey began writing for her next album. The album would see Carey at her most carefree, having finally moved past the personal and professional struggles of her past. Instead of dwelling on those chains, Carey celebrated having finally broken free of them. The album's third single "Shake It Off," spoke about this very idea. She co-wrote the inspirational "Fly Like a Bird," which spoke about persevering through hardships with a connection to spirituality. The album's title comes from Carey's nickname which, up until that point, only her closest friends and family called her by.
1 Me. I Am Mariah... The Elusive Chanteuse
When Carey gave birth to her twins in 2011, she found herself at the center of another monumental chapter in her life, motherhood. Her love for her children inspired a song on this album titled "Supernatural," which features vocals from Carey's twins. The album also featured a gospel track titled "Heavenly," which contains inspirational messages. Carey also covered George Michael's "One More Try." On the back cover of the album, Carey included her first self-portrait, which she drew when she was a child. This is also where the album gets its title, as "Me. I Am Mariah" is written at the very top of the drawing.
