Mariah Carey Acting career
 Carey and Tommy Mottola had become involved romantically during the making of her debut album, and in June 1993, they were married.
Kenneth Babyface Edmonds consulted on the album Music Box, which was released later that year and became Carey's most successful worldwide. It yielded her first UK Singles Chart number-one, a cover of Badfinger's Without You, and the U.S. number-ones Dreamlover and Hero. Billboard magazine proclaimed it heart-piercing ... easily the most elemental of Carey's releases, her vocal eurythmics in natural sync with the songs, but TIME magazine lamented Carey's attempt at a mellower work: [Music Box] seems perfunctory and almost passionless ... Carey could be a pop-soul great; instead she has once again settled for Salieri-like mediocrity. In response to such comments, Carey said, As soon as you have a big success, a lot of people don't like that. There's nothing I can do about it. All I can do is make music I believe in. Most critics slighted the opening of her subsequent U.S. Music Box Tour.
One Sweet Day (1995)
Carey's collaboration with Boyz II Men is one of her biggest singles in the U.S.
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In late 1994, after her duet with Luther Vandross on a cover of Lionel Richie and Diana Ross's Endless Love became a hit, Carey released the holiday album Merry Christmas. It contained cover material and original compositions such as All I Want for Christmas Is You, which became Carey's biggest single in Japan and, in subsequent years, emerged as one of her most perennially popular songs on U.S. radio. Critical reception of Merry Christmas was mixed, with All Music Guide calling it an otherwise vanilla set ... pretensions to high opera on 'O Holy Night' and a horrid danceclub take on 'Joy to the World'. It became the most successful Christmas album of all time.
In 1995, Columbia released Carey's fifth album, Daydream, which combined the pop sensibilities of Music Box with downbeat R&B and hip hop influences. A remix of Fantasy, its first single, featured rapper Ol' Dirty Bastard. Carey said that Columbia reacted negatively to her intentions for the album: Everybody was like 'What, are you crazy?'. They're very nervous about breaking the formula. It became her biggest-selling album in the U.S., and its singles achieved similar success Fantasy became the second single to debut at number one in the U.S. and topped the Canadian Singles Chart for twelve weeks, One Sweet Day (a duet with Boyz II Men) spent a record-holding sixteen weeks at number one in the U.S. She became well-known in latin and central america, and Always Be My Baby (co-produced by Jermaine Dupri) was the most successful on U.S. radio in 1996, according to Billboard magazine. Daydream generated career-best reviews for Carey, and publications such as The New York Times named it one of 1995's best albums; the Times wrote that its best cuts bring pop candy-making to a new peak of textural refinement ... Carey's songwriting has taken a leap forward, becoming more relaxed, sexier and less reliant on thudding clich?s. The short but profitable Daydream World Tour augmented sales of the album, which received six Grammy Award nominations.
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