Mariah Carey

Mariah Carey's remarkable vocal range helped her gospel-influenced dance tunes reach the top of the pop charts in the early 1990s, and she's since become one of the top-selling pop artists of the last half-century. Her early hit albums included Mariah Carey (1990), Music Box (1993) and Butterfly (1997). Critics winked at Carey's 1993 marriage to Tommy Mottola, the head of Sony Music and Columbia Records (Carey's label), but her vocal abilities and babe-appeal kept her in good standing with fans and made her a favorite on MTV. (Carey and Mottola were divorced in 1998; she married actor Nick Cannon in 2008.) Carey left Columbia in 2001 to sign with EMI's Virgin Records for a reported $100 million, but her first Virgin album, the soundtrack to a semi-autobiographical 2001 movie called Glitter, was widely considered a disappointment. Some rough years followed, both personally and professionally, but by the end of 2005 she was at the top of the charts again: Her album, The Emancipation of Mimi, earned 8 Grammy nominations and won three, including one for Best Contemporary R&B Album. After a tour she recorded the hit album E+MC2 (2008), which included the number one song "Touch My Body." With its success she joined The Beatles and Elvis Presley as the top selling artists of the last half century.

Extra credit: Carey's exact vocal range is a matter of some debate; some claim it was an astonishing seven octaves at the start of her career, while others suggest four or five octaves is more accurate... In 1998 Carey co-starred in a much-discussed VH1 special, Divas Live, along with Celine Dion, Aretha Franklin, Gloria Estefan and Shania Twain... Carey's ex-husband Tommy Mottola married Mexican pop star Thalia in December of 2000... Her video for "Touch My Body" has an appearance by 30 Rock's Jack McBrayer.