Given her Italian-English medley at the Opening Ceremony, many are wondering whether Mariah Carey has Italian roots.
WASHINGTON — Grammy-winning singer Mariah Carey took the stage at the 2026 Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony, performing a medley of the Italian song “Nel blu, dipinto di blu” and her hit “Nothing is Impossible.”
Carey wore a sequined dress with feather boa details by celebrated Italian designer Fausto Puglisi as she belted out the Italian classic center stage, facing the national delegations. The singer took the stage in Cortina, with hundreds of fans joining in to sing with Carey in Italian.
There was an audible roar when they realized she was performing the iconic 1958 Italian song “Nel blu, dipinto di blu,’’ which most non-Italian speakers will recognize for its popular chorus: “Volare.” She segued into the powerful 2025 ballad “Nothing is impossible” for the second part of an Italo-American medley. The song is an apt choice for the Olympic Games with its message of overcoming obstacles.
Given her Italian-English medley, many are wondering whether Carey has Italian roots.
Is Mariah Carey Italian?
The “All I Want for Christmas” singer was born to Patricia Carey, a former opera singer of Irish descent. Her mother died in 2024, on the same day that the singer’s sister Alison died.
Her father, Alfred Roy Carey, was an aeronautical engineer and was of Afro-Venezuelan descent. He died in 2002 at age 72.
Carey detailed her complicated relationship with her mother and her sister in her 2020 memoir, “The Meaning of Mariah Carey.” In a 2020 interview with Gayle King in a 2020, the singer credited her mother with exposing her to music.
“I would sing little tunes around the house, to my mother’s delight. And she always encouraged me,” she wrote in her memoir.
