Mariah Carey, from beauty school dropout to Queen of Christmas - Hispanic Heritage Month

It’s Hispanic Heritage Month from September 15th - October 15th, and today I’m highlighting Mariah Carey!

It might be Hispanic Heritage Month, but the countdown is on... Mariah Carey has her own season. We’re exactly one month away from Mariah “defrosting” for the holiday season, which she pretty much owns as the “Queen of Christmas”.

The Songbird Supreme, or Mimi, is easily one of the best-selling artists of all time. She’s won five GRAMMYs, 14 Billboard Music Awards, was just honored with MTV’s Michael Jackson Video Vanguard award, and is in the Songwriters Hall of Fame. She’s sold over 220 Million records around the world. She also holds the record for the most Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles by a solo artist.

But before all of that, Mariah was a girl born in Huntington, NY to parents Patricia Hickey and Alfred Roy Carey. Her “Latinidad” comes from her paternal grandfather, Roberto Nuñez, who is from an Afro-Venezuelan background. He changed his last name is Carey after relocating to New York.

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Mariah began singing with her mother as her vocal coach. Patricia was a former classical opera singer. Mariah began working as a demo singer in High School, but got her first big break after moving to New York City. While working jobs here and there and attending beauty school, she got a backup singing gig for Freestyle artist Brenda K. Starr.

At a music exec’s party she attended with Starr, she handed her demo to Sony Music’s Tommy Mottola. What followed was a record-breaking career and the birth of an icon.

She also recently released her 16th studio album, “Here For It All” last Friday.