Mariah Carey has notched up her 18th US number one single, overtaking Elvis Presley’s chart success.
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The singer’s new song Touch My Body – which was released on March 31 – has topped the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, putting her one ahead of the late music legend.
Mariah is now only second to The Beatles, who notched up an impressive 20 number one US singles during their illustrious career.
The diva was quick to put her achievement into perspective, saying: “I really can never put myself in the category of people who have not only revolutionised music but also changed the world. That’s a completely different era and time. I’m just feeling really happy and grateful.”
Mariah – whose father was of Afro-Venezuelan descent, while her mother has Irish roots – explained her success felt even more poignant because of her ethnicity and gender.
She added: “For me, in my mind the accomplishment is just that much sweeter. In terms of my ethnicity, always feeling like an outsider, always feeling different, for me it’s about saying, ‘Thank you Lord, for giving me the faith to believe in myself when other people had written me off.’ ”
Touch My Body – which has also topped Billboard’s digital download chart – is the first single from Mariah’s upcoming album E=MC2, which is released in the UK on April 14 and in the US a day later.
E=MC2 is Mariah’s 11th studio album and is the follow-up to her Grammy Award-winning 2005 LP The Emancipation of Mimi, which sold 10 million copies worldwide.
