Mariah Carey wowed the crowd at the Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony in Milan, Italy, as she performed in Italian for the first time in her career.
The 56-year-old global music icon performed a dual-song performance of “Nel Blu, dipinto di Blu” known as “Volare,” by Domenico Modugno, and her own song “Nothing is Impossible.”
She stunned the crowd as many viewers did not know that she could speak, or sing for that matter, in Italian.
Her outfit included a floor-length white gown covered in silver jewels. She wore $15 million worth of jewelry, including 300 carats of diamonds courtesy of Levuma, according to Page Six. Her necklace alone was 185 carats.
The theme of the 2026 Winter Olympic Opening Ceremony is “Armonia,” which means “harmony” between countries.
Carey made a dramatic entrance onto the stage, with four people holding her dress.
Her performance was met with audibly loud cheers and applause from the crowd at San Siro Stadium when they realized she was performing in Italian.
After she wrapped up the song, three dancers—dressed as Puccini, Rossini, and Verdi—came back to the stage to dance to a disco beat.
Given her performance in Italian, many online were wondering whether Carey was perhaps Italian herself.
The Huntington, New York native is, in fact, not of Italian descent, but is of mixed origin.
She was born to her mother, Patricia Carey, a former opera singer of Irish descent, and her father, Alfred Roy Carey, an aeronautical engineer of Afro-Venezuelan descent. Her father died in 2002, and her mother died in 2024.
She wrote in her memoir, “I would sing little tunes around the house, to my mother’s delight. And she always encouraged me.”
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