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1. Carey was born on March 27, 1970 (we think) to Alfred Roy Carey and Patricia Hickey, who'd been disowned by her family for marrying a man of African-American and Afro-Venezuelan descent. They divorced when Carey was three.
2. Her name comes from the song "They Call the Wind Maria" from the 1951 Broadway musical Paint Your Wagon. Though it isn't spelled the same, it is pronounced the same.
3. When she was young, her family, which includes two older siblings, was subjected to racist attacks because of her parents' interracial marriage. Their dogs were poisoned and a car was blown up. "That was the beginning of a nightmare," Patricia told Oprah Winfrey during a 1999 interview with her daughter. "When we were eating one night, someone fired a shot through the window. Luckily, none of the children were in the room."
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