Is Mariah Carey the biggest pop success ever

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A.� In commercial terms, Mariah Carey is about as popular as it's possible to get, and any biography quickly gets lost in a bewildering, but undeniably impressive list of stats which combine to prove that Ms Carey is the most popular female singer of the 1990s. Critically, it's a different story.

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Q.� How different

A.� For some reason, Mariah Carey brings out the worst in music critics who have taken pot shots at her for just about any reason you can think of. She is dismissed for using her sexuality to sell her music, for being vacuous and unemotional as a singer, for being a poor live performer, for using trite themes and obvious tear-jerking sentiments to sell her records, for only being successful because her (ex) husband is the boss of Columbia Records, the list is endless

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Q.� What does Mariah think about all that

A.� She probably doesn't care! The sort of determination that saw a teenager moving to New York to become a singer the day after she graduated from high school probably doesn't get too fazed about the opinions of people who�carry a tune in a bucket. Likewise, Mariah's fans, which outnumber her critics by thousands, if not millions to one, care not at all if Radiohead fans and Tupac disciples don't like her music. Mariah Carey has cornered the market in listeners who simply like nice tunes, well sung, by a pretty singer, nothing more complicated than that. That's not patronising, that's fact�- Mariah Carey is a singer for people who enjoy music as an addition to what they are doing�- for them, it's not something to get into an argument over. The sales stats amply back up the argument that for every committed U2 worshiper and club sound aficionado, there are several hundred thousand Mariah fans who vote with their wallets, and couldn't care less if anyone else approves or not.

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Q.� Has Mariah enjoyed an easy ride to the top of the popularity stakes

A.� You could argue that talent will out, but there is a degree of luck involved in getting the right people to know whom you are. In Mariah's case, a session as a backing singer on a Brenda K Starr recording impressed Starr enough to take a copy of Mariah's demo and pass it on to Tommy Mottola at a party. The story says that Mottola listened to the tape in his limo on the way home from the party, and was so impressed, he had his driver return him to the party so he could find out where Maria could be reached. Tommy Mottola used to manage Daryl Hall and John Oates, so he knows a decent voice when he hears one, and in his capacity as head of Columbia Records, he was in a position to ensure that Mariah was signed forthwith. The rest is the proverbial history.

Q.� So no question of 'paying of dues' by slogging around radio stations and cabaret bars for Mariah

A.� None at all. Her 1990 self-titled debut album yielded four Number One singles, Vision Of Love, Love Takes Time, Someday, and I Don't Wanna Cry, all proved Mariah Carey's effortless ability to tap into the emotions of her audience. The titles say much about the type of material Carey was offering, but her stunning five-octave voice ensured that her fans took her to their hearts from the off, and kept her there, ensuring that their friends, and their friends' friends did the same. The Carey phenomenon was off and running.

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Q.� No doubt some Awards then

A.� Naturally�- in that year's Grammys, Mariah picked up Best New Artist and Best Female Artist which says much about the notoriously conservative taste of the Grammy judges, which went perfectly hand in hand with the huge army of MOR pop fans who were shifting mega-units of each Carey release.

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Q.� Onwards and upwards

A.� As you'd expect. The title track from Carey's second album Emotions went to number one, her fifth consecutive chart topper, and a stats record at that time. In 1993 Mariah released her third album Music Box which yielded Dreamlover and what has come to be her best known song, Hero, both of which shot to the top of the charts, the second being a karaoke favourite to rival standards like I will Survive. The same year, Mariah Carey and Tommy Mottola were married, which sent the critics into spiteful overdrive�- Mottola's position, and the twenty year age gap only fuelled the theory that Carey was where she was because of the input of her husband.

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Q.� Is that true

A.� Hardly�- you cannot sell records to the public unless the public wants to buy them, it's as simple as that. If pop success was a matter of money, then David Beckham could probably be as big a star as his wife, but people buy records because they like them, and a career as sustained as Mariah Carey's, which has only increased in stature since her divorce from Mottola is based on the age-old principles of knowing her market, and giving her fans exactly what they want.

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As if to thumb her pretty nose at her critics, Mariah Carey released an album entitled Number Ones which contained her thirteen (that's thirteen!) number one singles, and a duet with Whitney Houston on Prince Of Egypt, thus pairing the two biggest selling female artists in recent times, and vaporising the myth that Houston regarded Mariah Carey has a pretender to her pop-soul diva crown.

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Q.� Not much sign of Mariah slowing down yet then

A.� It's unlikely. The only artist to top the charts in each year of the decade, a feat not achieved since the 1920's, when sheet music sales were the measure of success, Mariah Carey has sold in excess of 120 million albums. Unlike her co-stars in the heavyweight pop-soul area, Whitney and Celine Dion, Mariah has enjoyed co-production credits on all her records.

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Q.� What about the 'health problems' the press has reported

A.� They are probably just that�- health problems, brought about by the sustained pressure of maintaining such a high profile and prodigious output. The stories of Carey's superstar tantrums are gleefully reported�- she was once quoted as refusing to walk upstairs into a building for an award ceremony, snapping "I don't do stairs!" but such lapses in professionalism are few and far between. As a role model and pop icon, Carey has few peers. Critics will always hate everything she does, her ever growing army of fans will love everything with equal fervour, and in the final analysis, fans buy records, critics simply get them for free�- it's not hard to see where Mariah's priorities are.

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Andy Hughes