Mariah Carey is, of course, best known for her musical career. While she started out as a background singer, it wouldn’t be until 1990 that she would break out on her own with her self-titled debut album featuring timeless hits like the Grammy winning track “Vision of Love” and “Someday”. She was discovered by the former head of Columbia Records, Tommy Mottola — whom she later married and divorced.
In December 2021, the RIAA reported that her infamous — and ubiquitous — holiday song “All I Want for Christmas” made history when it became the first holiday song to take home the industry’s Diamond Award, which is given in recognition of 10 million or more streaming units and sales in the United States.
Even though the famous Christmas tune was released in 1994, it wouldn’t be until 25 years later in 2019 that it became her 19th song to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. “Having No. 1 in 2019 with ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You’ was a moment where I just sat there by myself at 3 in the morning looking at the Christmas tree lights and just really taking it in on a human level, because you work your whole life for something,” Carey shared with Billboard in 2020 after this accomplishment.
From just “All I Want for Christmas Is You”, Carey has netted $60 million between 1994 and 2016, which averages roughly $2.6 million per year — with most of that accumulated during the winter holiday season. And that’s before including her licensing deals for holiday themed merchandise. But in years where Mariah hosts live performances of her iconic track, that figure skyrockets. To further solidify her place as the ‘Queen of Christmas’ Mariah Carey put out another Christmas concert tour in 2023.
And as Billboard reported, that’s far from the only accomplishment the diva has achieved. She’s the first artist to have a Hot 100 # 1 in four separate decades: the 1990s, the 2000s, the 2010s, and the 2020s. She has sold more than 200 million albums worldwide, is the second-best-selling female artist of all time (behind Madonna, per the Guinness Book of World Records), and has the most number-one singles of all time (also per the Guinness Book of World Records).
Roughly 20% of Mariah Carey’s income is attributed to royalties along with lucrative advances on upcoming albums. This is because along with having an incredible voice and range, she’s also a songwriter — which allows her to retain significant earnings from her album sales and streams. Likewise, touring also pads the bottom line, and is why earnings can fluctuate from year to year.
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