Mariah Carey's milestones

Mariah Carey is one of the world's greatest and most famous pop culture and sex symbols, but also an iconic, legendary, influential and controversial figure in music.

Known as the "Songbird Supreme," Mariah Carey impresses many people across the world, especially America, with her melismatic singing style and her use of the whistle register.

Lambs are Mariah Carey's dedicated fanbase.

One of the enduring idols for Mariah Carey is Marilyn Monroe.

Both Marilyn Monroe and Mariah Carey share the letters M, A, R and I as the first letters of their given names, plus R as the third-last letter of their surnames.

Furthermore, both Marilyn Monroe and Mariah Carey have moles/beauty marks on their faces.

Huntington, based in New York's Long Island portion, is where Mariah Carey was born.

Still on Long Island, Tobay Beach and Amagansett are some of the places for the notable photoshoots being conducted by Mariah Carey's idol Marilyn Monroe.

Mariah Carey's daughter is also named after her idol Marilyn Monroe.

Both Marilyn Monroe and Mariah Carey are blonde girls whose natural hair colour is brown, but also endure different careers, the earlier mainly being an actress, the latter mainly being a singer.

Pop, rhythm & blues and soul are genres belonging to Mariah Carey, music indirectly being rooted in African-American genres, like jazz, which influences Marilyn Monroe.

Incidentally, while Marilyn Monroe has a soft, whispery and breathy voice, Mariah Carey has a wider vocal range from soft and breathy to powerful, soaring and emotive.

Vision of Love is Mariah Carey's debut single, but also popularized riffs, runs, melisma and the whistle register in mainstream pop music.

Mariah Carey's Vision of Love tune is also the blueprint for future female singers using her techniques.

During the climax of her own Vision of Love song, Mariah Carey uses her whistle register, which she popularized; the inspiration for Mariah Carey's whistle register is Minnie Riperton.

Someday is Mariah Carey's first upbeat tune.

Emotions is Mariah Carey's second studio album, which, besides its title track, features others, such as Can't Let Go, Make It Happen, etc.

For the title track of her second album, Emotions features Mariah Carey's upper range and her whistle register.

Unconfined to Mariah Carey's whistle register, Emotions also has disco, rhythm & blues and gospel.

What's the 411? is Mary J. Blige's first album, innovative in that it fuses rhythm & blues and hip-hop to create hip-hop soul.

The remix of What's the 411? is also innovative, as it is the first album to feature a rapper in each tune.

Incidentally, the remix of What's the 411? popularized rap as a featured act in mainstream music.

Music Box features such songs as Dreamlover, Hero, Without You and Anytime You Need a Friend.

Dreamlover is Mariah Carey's first attempt to incorporate hip-hop into her songs, influenced by Dave Hall's work with fellow New Yorker Mary J. Blige.

Blind Alley by The Emotions samples Mariah Carey's Dreamlover tune.

Hero is deemed by many to be Mariah Carey's signature song, known for its message of finding inner strength and self-empowerment.

Without You is Mariah Carey's soulful cover version of the 1972 tune of the same name.

The music video for Anytime You Need a Friend marks Mariah Carey's first image change.

All I Want for Christmas is You is a modern Christmas anthem for Mariah Carey, which blends various music genres, like pop, rhythm & blues, soul and gospel.

Furthermore, Mariah Carey's All I Want for Christmas is You also mixes 1960's rock and Phil Spector's Wall of Sound, especially in its structure and instrumentation.

With Dreamlover being Mariah Carey's first attempt to have the hip-hop genre, Fantasy solidified this direction; its remix, featuring ODB, is produced by Puff Diddy, who worked with Mary J. Blige.

Puff Diddy's remix of Mariah Carey's Fantasy popularizes the trend of rap verses in pop tunes.

Genius of Love by Tom Tom Club samples Mariah Carey's Fantasy.

In 1997, Mariah Carey released Butterfly

From 1993 to 1997, Mariah Carey had a marriage with her manager Tommy Mottola, during which the latter controlled her image, making her feel like a prisoner or child bride.

Honey's music video marks a step up for Mariah Carey to embrace a more liberated and overtly sexual image, in contrast to the traditional and demure persona she has cultivated.

The main reason Mariah Carey started to utilize a more sexual image for her Honey music video is the break-up of her husband Tommy Mottola.

Butterfly's title track features Mariah Carey, for the first time, delivering a whispery tone that is high in pitch, yet soft in sound.

Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston have their pop rendition of the Stephen Schwartz song When You Believe from The Prince of Egypt.

Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds made When You Believe a success for both Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston.

What fits When You Believe as a collaboration between both Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey is a smooth blend of their soulful voices and their backgrounds in faith and gospel music.

Plus, for both Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey, When You Believe dispelled rivalry rumours.

The cover version of the late-1980's Brenda K. Starr tune I Still Believe, for whose original version she does backup, is a moderate worldwide success for Mariah Carey.

Incidentally, singing backup for Brenda K. Starr is Mariah Carey's first major professional gig.

For Mariah Carey, she delivers her version of the Brenda K. Starr song I Still Believe as a tribute and a way to say thanks to her former collaborator.

Heartbreaker is Mariah Carey's 14th Billboard Hot 100 chart-topper.

We Belong Together is Mariah Carey's historic commercial comeback, coming after her debacle being caused by her own widely-publicized breakdown and 9/11.

During her long career, Mariah Carey has endured connecttions to Old Hollywood, especially Marilyn Monroe, with whom she has been obsessed since childhood.

The music video for Mariah Carey's own cover version of I Still Believe is based upon the 1954 visit to South Korea for a USO tour by her idol Marilyn Monroe.

Plus, the music video for Mariah Carey's Butterfly takes inspiration from the 1950's film Baby Doll, in which Marilyn Monroe's friends Elia Kazan and Carroll Baker were involved.

At the curtain call of the musical version of the 1950's comedy film Some Like It Hot, starring her idol Marilyn Monroe, Mariah Carey has a surprise appearance and narrates the instructions.

What motivated Mariah Carey to be a co-producer for this musical iteration of Some Like It Hot is her passion for the leading star of the original film version named Marilyn Monroe.

Plus, Mariah Carey, a lifelong fan of Marilyn Monroe, has the latter's white baby grand piano.

Gladys Pearl Baker, who was Marilyn Monroe's mother, first used the baby grand piano.

Having been institutionalized, Gladys Pearl Baker's baby grand piano was deemed lost until her young daughter Marilyn Monroe tracked it down and coloured it white to match her decor.

Lee Strasberg (who was Marilyn Monroe's acting coach in New York) inherited the white baby grand piano after her 1962 death; 20 years later, it was passed over to his second wife Anna. 

In the late-1990's, Mariah Carey, who was a lifelong fan of Marilyn Monroe, acquired the white baby grand piano, which she has kept since in a museum.

Cinderella is a Disney film about the title character, released in 1950 as Marilyn Monroe was about to enter her breakthrough year in Hollywood.

Just like Mariah Carey, both Cinderella (Disney) and Marilyn Monroe follow the rags-to-riches story.

For Cinderella (Disney), she is a girl whose father's death made her a servant.

Similarly, Marilyn Monroe is a girl whose mother worked in the film industry, but whose mental health issues that her mother caused led to her living in foster homes.

As for Mariah Carey, she is a girl whose upbringing was lower-income.

In addition, like Mariah Carey, both Cinderella (Disney) and Marilyn Monroe embark on a makeover central to their legacies.

Having been a maid since her father's death, Cinderella (Disney) embarks on a makeover that the Fairy Godmother facilitated; her transformation is magical.

Marilyn Monroe's transformation is a carefully crafted studio revolution, with her hair dyed blonde and her name change to become a global pop culture/sex/beauty icon.

For Mariah Carey, the shift of her hair colour to blonde with honey and caramel hues, together with her hairstyle shift to straight, comes in the Honey era after her 1997 break-up with Tommy Mottola.

Besides, like Mariah Carey, both Cinderella (Disney) and Marilyn Monroe also have a dramatic rise in social status.

Cinderella (Disney) ascends from a servant into a princess, Marilyn Monroe ascends from an unstable childhood into a global icon, and Mariah Carey also does the same as Marilyn Monroe.

To differences, Cinderella (Disney) is fictional, whereas Marilyn Monroe, just like Mariah Carey, has a real-life ascent from a young obscure girl into a world-famous sex symbol.