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Mariah Carey (album)

1990 debut studio album by Mariah Carey

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 13, 2026
Entity authorityQ732845 ↗
Source-derived summary

Mariah Carey is the debut studio album by American singer Mariah Carey. It was released on June 12, 1990, by Columbia Records. Its music incorporates a range of genres with a mix of slow ballads and up-tempo tracks. Originally, she wrote four songs with Ben Margulies, which solely constituted her demo tape. After Carey was signed to Columbia, all four songs, after being altered and partially re-recorded, made the final cut for the album. Aside from Margulies, Carey worked with a range of professional writers and producers, including Rhett Lawrence, Ric Wake and Narada Michael Walden, all of whom were hired by then-Columbia Chief executive officer (CEO), Tommy Mottola.

Mariah Carey received generally positive reviews, with critics praising Carey's vocal performance and technique, but were ambivalent towards the songwriting. It became a commercial success, topping the US Billboard 200 for eleven consecutive weeks. Mariah Carey was certified nine-times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), denoting shipments of nine million copies in the US. The album experienced similar success in Canada, where it topped the charts and was certified seven-times platinum. Mariah Carey fared well in other worldwide territories, reaching the top ten of charts in Australia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden and the UK. Worldwide, the album has sold more than 15 million copies.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Mariah Carey (album)” is 1990 debut studio album by Mariah Carey. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Mariah, Carey and album, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA useful identification and reception guide that helps separate the work itself from editions, performances, ownership and later interpretation. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1990—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1990-06-12. For this dossier, Mariah, Carey and album is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “1990 debut studio album by Mariah Carey” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q732845. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1990.

Critical limits

Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Mariah Carey (album)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Mariah Carey (album) primary sources, Mariah Carey (album) archive and Mariah research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Mariah Carey (album)”?
  2. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
  3. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Mariah Carey (album)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.