Awakenings: Melody of the Heart

Today in Music History: September 2, 2005

There are those songs ever changing, ever reincarnated, that speak what is often so difficult to express through the spoken word. They inspire us to dance or smile or simply go on. Each song reflects a melody of the heart. The words are our words having continuously meandered through the corridors of the mind but never surfaced. The music speaks 'til all the words run out.

Mariah Carey The third best-selling female artist of all time, Mariah Carey stunned her mother by imitating her operatic singing as early as age two and was given singing lessons starting at age four. She is known as one of the top "pop divas" of the '90s and has sold around 160 million albums worldwide according to the Recording Industry Association of America. Her voice spans more than five octaves and she writes most of her own music.

2005 Mariah Carey became only the fifth act ever to hold the top two positions in the US Hot 100 singles chart. The singer's ‘We Belong Together’ notched a 10th consecutive week at number one on the Billboard chart while ‘Shake It Off’ jumped two places to second place. The feat puts Carey in a select group of acts to hold the top two with Nelly, OutKast, The Bee Gees and The Beatles. ‘We Belong Together’ was Carey's 16th number one. With 2008’s Touch My Body (from her eleventh studio album E=MC²), Carey passed Elvis Presley to become second only to the Beatles for the most No. 1 hit singles in the United States.

More from Mariah...

Mariah Carey is the first recording artist in history to have her first 5 singles hit the #1 spot on the Hot 100: "Vision of Love" (1990), "Love Takes Time" (1990), "Someday" (1991), "I Don't Wanna Cry" (1991), "Emotions" (1991).