MANILA, Philippines – Mariah Carey's known as a lot of things – the voice behind what is undoubtedly an iconic Christmas song, an unabashed diva extraordinaire, and most recently, Billboard's number one female artist of all time.
Billboard, know best for its music charts, made the announcement Friday, November 15 (Thursday, November 14 in the US). Mariah trails just behind The Beatles in first place, the Rolling Stones in second place, and Elton John in 3rd.
"Happy Anniversary Billboard! This acknowledgement means so much to me. Thank you for recognizing me (and my little song babies) with this achievement," Mariah wrote in an Instagram post on Friday, November 15.
The "Always Be My Baby" and "Obssessed" singer bested other iconic artists, such as Madonna in the 5th spot, Barbra Streisand in 6th, Michael Jackson in 7th, Taylor Swift in 8th, and Stevie Wonder in 9th.
For their 125th anniversary, Billboard's chart team curated a list of top 125 iconic artists in history whose "achievements prove that the history of Billboard mirrors the history of pop music itself."
The team used a formula of the artists' overall ranks on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart since 1958 and the Billboard 200 albums chart since 1963.
Aside from "All I Want For Christmas Is You," Mariah Carey is best known for other hits such as “Bye Bye,” “Don’t Forget About Us,” “We Belong Together,” “Hero,” “Shake It Off,” "Emotions," among many others.
According to Billboard, Mariah "is the solo artist with the most No. 1 hits on the Hot 100, the only female artist to have three songs debut at No. 1 on that chart and the artist who has spent the most time at No. 1 (79 total weeks)."
Mariah has over 14 studio albums within the span of her music career, which began with Butterfly in 1997. Six of her songs have hit number 1 on the Billboard charts.– Rappler.com