Mariah Carey net worth
Split: 22
What is Mariah Carey’s Net Worth?
Mariah Carey is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, entrepreneur and actress. Mariah Carey has a net worth of $320 million. Mariah Carey is one of the 15 best-selling music artists of all time, with over 200 million albums sold worldwide to date. She is the second best-selling female entertainer of all time, after Madonna. She has more songs than any other female writer/producer in US chart history. As of this writing, she has won 5 Grammys, 10 AMAs, and 15 Billboard Music Awards.
early life
Mariah Carey was born on March 27, 1970 in Huntington, New York. She is of African American, Afro-Venezuela and Irish descent. Her father’s father adopted the surname “Carey” when he moved to New York, changing it from Nunez. Her mother was an opera singer and vocal coach. When Maria was three years old, her parents separated.
Maria has always had a special interest in art and music, and began writing poetry and early songs at Haberfield High School in Greenlawn, New York. She graduated from high school in 1987. At Harbourfields, Mariah met Gavin Christopher and Ben Margulies, with whom she soon began writing full songs with lyrics and music. After graduation, while living in New York City, Mariah, Gavin, and Ben went on to collaborate on a full-blown presentation.
The demo was eventually adopted by pop singer Brenda K. Starr. Brenda continues to deliver demos around town while bringing Mariah to various industry events. At one such event, the demo tape was given to Tommy Mottola, the head of Columbia Records. He listened to the tape in the car on the way home. After listening to the first two songs, he was convinced Mariah Carey would be a star.
It took two weeks to find her, but when he did, Tommy immediately signed Maria to a record deal and put together a team to plan her commercial debut. In Tommy’s eyes, Maria would be Columbia’s answer to Arista Records Whitney Houston.
success
Maria’s self-titled debut album was released on June 12, 1990. Columbia reportedly spent $1 million to promote the record. Sales were slow at first, but eventually the album was certified 9X Platinum in the U.S. alone and sold more than 15 million copies worldwide. The album topped the Billboard charts and earned her Grammys for Best New Artist and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.
Mariah’s next album, “Emotions” in 1991 was also a huge success, but her third album, “Music Box” in 1993, took her career to the stratosphere. The music box stayed on the Billboard charts for 128 weeks, eventually selling a staggering 28 million copies worldwide. It’s one of the best-selling albums of all time.
Her success was by no means a flash in the pan. Her next album, Merry Christmas, was also a monster, selling more than 15 million copies worldwide. Her next three albums will sell 20 million, 10 million and 8 million copies worldwide, respectively.
“Everything I Want for Christmas” Royalty
Perhaps the most notable of Mariah’s Christmas albums is the song “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” which eventually became one of the best-selling and most profitable singles of all time, with 16 million worldwide sales, and it’s still going Increasing. The song appeared in dozens of Christmas movies and was a huge hit on streaming services like Spotify and Pandora during the holiday season. The song reportedly took just 15 minutes to write and brings Mariah and producer Walter Afanasieff about $600,000 in royalties annually. To date, the song has generated more than $60 million in total royalties.
Virgin Contract
In April 2001, Maria left Columbia Records to sign a then-record $100 million five-album contract with Virgin Music. This is the same as $150 million adjusted for inflation. It was the largest contract in music history at the time.
Mariah and Virgin’s first album “Glitter” was released on August 18, 2001. The album is actually the soundtrack to the film of the same name, a semi-autobiography about a fictional version of Mariah. Unfortunately, the album and film were released on September 21, 2001, 10 days after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and were slammed by critics and audiences alike. As we all know, this movie was one of the biggest box office bombs of all time.
Even before the movie was released, Maria had to be hospitalized due to extreme exhaustion. She reportedly experienced a physical and emotional breakdown.
Over time, the album sold 3 million copies. This is respectable for any other artist. Unfortunately, it was a disaster for Maria and Virgin’s new $100 million contract.
Desperate to get rid of Maria, Virgin paid her $28 million to terminate her contract early. All told, Maria was paid nearly $50 million to produce an album for Virgin.
(Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images)
back to success
After being dumped by Virgin, Maria signed a five-album deal worth $24 million with Island Records. Her Island albums sold modestly, her most successful being “The Emancipation of Mimi” in 2005, which sold 10 million copies worldwide.
Mariah released an album under the Def Jam banner, then signed to Epic Records in 2015, where she remains to this day.
In 2012, she earned $18 million for a season of “American Idol.”
In 2015, she signed a $30 million contract for a two-year Las Vegas residency at Caesars Palace. That helped her become one of the highest-earning women in music this year, with a total of $27 million.
personal life
In 1993, Maria married Tommy Mortara. They divorced in 1998. She was married to actor Nick Cannon from 2008 to 2016. They have two children, twin boys born in April 2011. She was briefly engaged to Australian billionaire James Parker in 2016 and dated singer Luis Miguel in 1998 and 2001.
Mariah Carey isn’t worth over $5 million
Although many websites report (including at the time of writing, Wikipedia) Mariah Carey is not worth $520 million. In fact, as part of their 2015 divorce proceedings, we know from her own legal filings that Maria had a net worth of $150 million when she married in 2008. In 2008, Nick was worth less than $500,000. In addition, the documents show that Maria’s total income in 2014 was $6.3 million, while Nick’s income was $2.7 million. As part of their final settlement (undisclosed), Nick took ownership of a 2012 Ferrari and was forced to pay $5,000 a month to their twins trust.
If Maria was worth $150 million in 2008, in order for her to be worth $520 million today, her total income over the next ten years would need to exceed $1 billion.
generalize
Mariah Carey has a net worth of $320 million. She is the second best-selling female artist of all time and one of the top 15 best-selling entertainers. Over the course of her career, she has earned hundreds of millions of dollars from record contracts and royalties. She has earned tens of millions in additional income from various media appearances, Las Vegas residences and private shows.
