This week's Leading Woman is said to be the best-selling female artist of all time, but she's not stopping there.
Mariah Carey is getting ready to release yet another album later this month.
Our Nischelle Turner sat down with the Grammy award-winning pop star to find out how she's managed to stay on top for nearly three decades.
The life, the career, the voice of Mariah Carey.
Since her career started in the late 1980s, she sold more than 200 million albums, singles and videos worldwide,
making Carey the best-selling female artist of all time, according to Billboard.
The thing is, it's not just singing; I'm writing; I'm producing; I'm putting these songs together.
Her extraordinary five-octave vocal range and the ability to write hit after hit has solidified Carey as a musical force for nearly 25 years.
And with a new album underway, she has no plans to stop.
I think during the process of making this album, I remember you saying that you refused to jump on the bandwagon.
Yeah.
You see music trending toward maybe more electronic dance, things like that.
So why is it so important for you to stay true to yourself?
If I'm not staying true to myself, why am I doing... like what am I doing and why? The answer is because I love making music.
But Carey knows it takes more than a love for music to establish a successful career; it also takes business savvy.
Thank you so much.
How did you kind of start navigating from just the artist into the business woman?
You know, it's so interesting because really I always was, even as a kid, even like my first record deal.
I was fortunate enough to have seen enough documentaries, clearly I was always interested in the music business.
As a songwriter, even at that age, I was able to say I will not be forced to do other people's songs.
It's no secret that much of the music industry is still considered a man's world.
But for an artist like Mariah Carey, changing that means taking control of her music and her legacy.
It's so easy for the world to give credit to the men in power, especially those who we really revere, and we respect them for who they are in all of their accomplishments.
But I think when someone is also known as a -- the most overused word in the history of the world -- "diva,"
we tend to look at that and that overrides everything.
I'm a songwriter first. It's much easier for the public to accept... look who is here, the next... the big manager came along and saved the day,
because nobody can imagine that I actually participate as much as I do in the making of the music.