In 2003, singer Mariah Carey became the second artist to win the Chopard Diamond Award – an award of merit given to musicians who sell over 100 million albums.
But Carey seems to attract more than her share of actual diamonds, too. In 2006 she received a modest token of appreciation from Prince Azim of Brunei – a $5.4 million platinum and diamond necklace and ring set, which the prince had delivered by private jet.
In 2009, Mariah Carey was paid $1.5 million for a single private performance in Turkey, but earned more than her paycheck. Fans presented her with a five-carat diamond butterfly ring and sprinkled her with real 24 karat gold dust.
When husband Nick Cannon proposed in 2008, he presented Mariah with a 17-carat ring hidden in a Ring Pop candy wrapper. When the bride-to-be opened her present, she found an enormous emerald cut central diamond flanked by half moon diamonds, all of which were surrounded by 58 pink diamonds. The diamond Ring Pop was created by Jacob Arabo of New York.
Cannon kept up the candy theme when the couple renewed their vows in 2010, giving Carey an eight-carat “ring pop” crafted from pink sapphires and white diamonds in a white gold setting. The bauble carried a price tag of $2.5 million and was created by Jason of Beverly Hills – the same jewelers who made Carey’s pink sapphire and diamond “push present” that featured the names of the couple’s twins, Moroccan and Monroe.
Mariah Carey’s name necklace was only the beginning when it came to bling for the babies. The singer and her husband reportedly spent millions on their nursery, which includes 18 karat gold trim on the walls and diamond-encrusted iPods. It seems that other people are as free with money for the couple as Carey and Cannon are with each other – in 2010 the generous folks at Elizabeth Arden gave Mariah an iPad embellished with diamonds as an anniversary present.
