Featured Album
- MAY 30, 2025
- 40 Songs
- The Emancipation of Mimi · 2005
- Daydream · 1995
- Daydream · 1995
- Memoirs of an imperfect Angel (iTunes Version) · 2009
- E=MC2 (Deluxe Version) · 2008
- Butterfly · 1997
- The Emancipation of Mimi · 2005
- Butterfly · 1997
- It Ain't Safe No More... · 2002
- Daydream · 1995
Essential Albums
- Like a fine wine, soul diva Mariah Carey matured into a classic vintage with the release of 2005’s The Emancipation of Mimi. The songs reflect a newfound intimacy and humor, while exploring gospel, hip-hop, and live band influences. The airy, then yearning vocals of “We Belong Together” are offset by the harmony-packed head-nodder “It’s Like That.” Meanwhile, blingtastic club bangers with Snoop Dogg and Pharrell Williams will start a party in your heart.
- Going into Daydream, Mariah Carey was living a sweet, sweet fantasy, baby. Not only had 1993’s Music Box become the dahling diva’s best-selling album to date, it also came hot on the heels of her hit holiday LP, 1994’s Merry Christmas, which would give her the gift that keeps on giving in “All I Want for Christmas Is You.” But while her octave-bounding brand had been built on big ballads like “Vision of Love,” “Love Takes Time,” and “Hero,” she was itching to break free of the adult-contemporary chains to which she had been shackled from the time she was barely 21. After flirting with hip-hop on Music Box’s “Dreamlover,” she embraced the genre born in her native New York even tighter on the diamond-selling Daydream, released in 1995. The album’s first single, “Fantasy,” rode a genius sample of Tom Tom Club’s “Genius of Love” all the way to No. 1—as did the bittersweet smash “Always Be My Baby,” which featured Atlanta street beatmaster Jermaine Dupri behind the boards. Elsewhere on Daydream, Carey dug deeper into the R&B that’s always been close to her heart. There’s “Underneath the Stars,” an ethereal, Minnie Riperton-esque reverie; “Melt Away,” a slow-jam joint with Babyface; and “One Sweet Day,” the epic ballad featuring Boyz II Men that topped the charts for four months. Meanwhile, the deep house of “Daydream Interlude (Fantasy Sweet Dub Mix)” showed just how club-conscious Carey really was. And there are deeply personal moments on Daydream as well, as evidenced by the confessional lyrics of “I Am Free,” a gospel-powered declaration of emancipation, as well as by the reflective lyrics of “Looking In.” Released at the peak of her powers, Daydream finds the twentysomething Carey finally taking charge of her creative direction—and winding up with one of the biggest pop albums of the decade.
- Twinkle lights. Santa hats. Endless trays of cookies. There are plenty of signs that the holidays are upon us, but everyone knows the season isn’t official until you hear one song: Mariah Carey’s impossibly joyous and utterly ubiquitous “All I Want for Christmas Is You.” The jingle-jangling blockbuster is so larger-than-life that in 2019, 25 years after its release, it finally hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, sparking a renewed appreciation of how the song rose above hundreds of other contemporary carols to become the definitive Christmas standard of our time. The full album also contains 10 other holiday songs, including two originals—“Miss You Most (At Christmas Time)” and “Jesus Born on This Day,” both co-written with her longtime collaborator Walter Afanasieff. But with her vocal acrobatics and range, Carey has a way of making even the classics sound shiny and new. Whether it’s the choir-backed elation of “Joy to the World” or the Motown-flavored soul of “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home),” Merry Christmas is the rare holiday record that feels uniquely American and everlasting.
- While Mariah Carey packs some beautifully penned tunes into her 1990 debut, the album's centerpiece is, undeniably, her masterful vocals. She lifts, swoops, and howls across an unbelievable five octaves on these smooth ballads and bouncy R&B tunes, hitting spine-tingling registers on “Someday” and “Prisoner,” while getting tenderly deep (and then equally high-range) on the gorgeous “Vision of Love.” “I Don’t Wanna Cry” and “Love Takes Time” showcase her knack for introspection, but nothing bests that voice. It’s simply stunning—especially for a then-unknown 19-year-old.
- From power ballads to slinky R&B, Mariah has reigned supreme for decades.
- Follow the pop diva's evolution as an artist.
- The merry moods of the holiday season’s biggest fan.
- It’s tiiimmmeee! Here’s every song on Mariah’s “festive, celebratory, joyous” Christmas tour.
- Mimi's less-heard tunes help cement her pop-royalty status.
- Put a little sweetness in that strength.
Compilations
- 2020
- 2003
Appears On
- When Mariah Carey became the comeback queen.
- She even blesses us with a little a cappella.
- “Touch My Body” and her album made Mariah the comeback kid.
- Mariah’s gamble on “All I Want for Christmas Is You” paid off big time.
- Music from two icons, Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston.
- The queen of Christmas shares her favorite holiday songs.
- Shawn Mendes joins Zane to talk about his 'Wonder' track "Teach Me How to Love".
About Mariah Carey
Thirty-plus years in the business, more No. 1 singles than any solo artist in history (and second overall only to The Beatles), more writing and production credits on those singles than any other female composer—Mariah Carey is one of the few artists whose songs legitimately bridge the confessional intimacy of singer-songwriters with the mass appeal of pop. Carey grew up on the classics: Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, Gladys Knight. She moved to New York City after high school, cobbling together jobs while working on demos with then-collaborator Ben Margulies at the back of Margulies’ father’s cabinet factory. Her biggest tracks—from the early, dance- and gospel-influenced “Someday” and “Dreamlover” to the club leanings of “Fantasy” and “Honey” to ballads such as “Forever” and “Always Be My Baby” to the ultimate holiday pop song “All I Want for Christmas Is You"—stand like mile markers in the culture. And her guest turn on 2022’s remix of Latto’s “Big Energy” (which interpolates Mariah's “Fantasy”) is further testament to her continued relevance. She captures a feeling of sweetness and euphoria that straddles pop, hip-hop, and R&B without slotting neatly into any of them. Meanwhile, her melismatic style—a technique that entails singing a single syllable with a long run of notes—redefined our sense of what pop vocals sound like. Mimi, The Elusive Chanteuse, The Imperfect Angel...or maybe just Mariah.
- GENRE
- Pop