Tis the season to be jolly, so it's only fair that we stroll down the journey of Mariah Carey, famously referred to as the queen of Christmas, thanks to her ever-green hit All I Want for Christmas is You. Also referred to as the songbird supreme because of her rare five-octave vocal range, Mariah is one of the most celebrated and best-selling artists of all time. Carey's professional feats are countless; not only is she Olympic-level vocal gymnastics, but she is also the only artist to have a No.1 single each for four consecutive decades.
Carey was born on March 27, 1969, in Huntington, New York, to a former Opera singer mother and a vocal coach father. With an innate vocal talent and a gifted flair in songwriting, Mariah's success in the music industry was certain. So it happened when she released her eponymous debut album under Columbia Records in 1990. Since rising to fame in the early 90s, Carey's personal life and romantic ventures have been a staple for gossip tabloids.
Inside Mariah Carey's Relationship History!
The pop goddess is unmarried and a mother of two at 52. Although not out of the dating game, as the singer has been on and off with a dancer named Bryan Tanaka for the last few years, it's safe to say that Carey knows better than to delve into another intense romance and marriage. Mariah's early days in the industry might have appeared fast-rising and extraordinary to the world, but the singer was facing as much trouble and restrictions in her home.
The singer was a rookie when she married Sony music executive Tommy Mottola, 21 years her senior, in 1993. A romance ensued between Carey and Mottola while she was working on her debut album. Despite the scornful stares at their age gap, the couple tied the knot at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York on June 5, 1993. Mariah's marriage to Mottola is best described in her song Honey, which shows a young girl breaking free from a mansion she was held hostage in.
"My first marriage, I was very much, what's the word, locked away. I was given the rules and had to stick with them," the Grammy-winning singer once said. In her memoir, the singer even goes as far as to claim that her first marriage almost "smothered her to death." Mariah and Tommy separated five years after their wedding. After a bit of hanging around, the queen of Christmas kicked off another romance journey with Derek Jetter, a former baseball player.
The singer's ex-husband Tommy went on to marry Mexican musician Thalia. They tied the knot on December 02, 2000, and have two kids, Sabrina and Matthew.
The duo's romance was short-lived but not unworthy of a few dedicated songs. Carey says her songs My All and The Roof were about her fling with Derek. A couple of more low-profile relationships went by, including with Marcus Schenkenberg and Luis Miguel, before the singer started a tumultuous but low-key romance with rapper Eminem; the pair's hush-hush relationship reportedly took place in the early 2000s. "There's truth to that," Eminem said while confirming his rumored romance with Carey.
Despite Eminem's admittance to their alleged romance, Carey continues to deny it ever happened. Carey tells her truth in her hugely successful song Obsessed, where she describes the Mockingbird crooner as some kind of obsessed lover. The pop diva and the rapper have been in an open feud since the aughts because of their alleged romance. Mariah had a brief affair with her co-star Eric Benet and model Christian Monzon in the mid-2000s. The Always Be My Baby had a whirlwind romance with actor Nick Cannon, with whom she walked down the aisle for the second time in 2008.
Carey and Nick's marriage lasted only six years, during which the couple welcomed their twins Moroccan and Monroe. The duo's marriage was dissolved in 2016. The Open-arms hitmaker was briefly engaged to the Australian billionaire James Packer in 2016. Call her unlucky in love, but Carey's search for the one continues.
Who Is Mariah Carey Dating Currently?
The One Sweet Day hitmaker is committed and very much in love. The singer has been with her backup dancer Bryan Tanaka since her split from ex-fiance Packer in 2016. Things were allegedly heating between the singer and dancer duo while Carey was still engaged with the billionaire, who was then said to be concerned about Mariah's growing closeness with Bryan. The pair's romance may appear new, but it's a decade of their professional association that has led to Carey and Tanaka's romance.
Tanaka has been a part of Mariah's tours since 2010. Since their rumored romance in 2016, the couple has taken on the stage several times, including in New York City's Beacon Theatre, where they danced romantically on Carey's number. The pair's romance came to the limelight when the singer-songwriter's reality show Mariah's World gave fans an insight into how their relationship came to be. "I just don't feel comfortable talking about my personal life. I and my boyfriend don't want to do that," Carey said while explaining her low-profile relationship with the backup dancer.
Carey and Tanaka's relationship blossomed following her split from Packer in 2016!
The singer and dancer duo has since shared some PDA moments and spent time with Mariah's ex-husband Nick and their two kids, hinting at a well-blended family. The twosome went through a short split in April 2017 but rekindled their romance quickly and came back even stronger. Tanaka, 39, is also an aspiring choreographer and has worked as a dancer on several artist's tours, including Beyonce.
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