Mariah Carey is an American singer-songwriter and producer known for her five-octave range, melismatic style and signature whistle register. She rose to fame in 1990 with a self-titled debut in which her first five singles all reached number one in the US, a record no other artist has matched. Her holiday album Merry Christmas (1994) and its single All I Want for Christmas Is You made her the Queen of Christmas, and that single is the second longest-running number-one on the Billboard Hot 100. Her career has produced sales of over 220 million records, and Billboard named her Artist of the Decade for the 1990s.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.