Policewoman rakes in over £1,500 an hour as a Mariah Carey lookalike

Policewoman rakes in over £1,500 an hour as a Mariah Carey lookalike

An ex-military policewoman is fulfilling her ‘Fantasy’ and raking in over£1,500 an hour for impersonating her idol Mariah Carey – after more than 4,000fans subscribed to her YouTube channel to see her lip-sync to the diva’s hits.Now Jessie Castro, 39, of Orlando, Florida, USA – who has appeared in adocumentary and on US talk shows after her lookalike videos went viral – ispreparing for a full-on festive season, when she will come into her own lip-syncing to the singer’s Yuletide classic, All I Want For Christmas Is You.

Andwith multi-Grammy award winning Mariah turning 50 this year, launching a newbook this month and releasing an album in October, mum-of-one Jessie isanticipating a lucrative few months ahead – even though her performing work isjust a ‘side hustle’ to her current job as a college administrator at FullSail University in Winter Park, Florida.

She said: ““I can’t say there’s anaverage amount I make each year because I can go for months without doinggigs, but it must be in excess of $20,000 (£15,640) annually, if I do a gigevery three months and two a week at Christmas.” It was after a video callwith the world number one Madonna impersonator, Chris America, following alookalike convention in 2015 that Jessie, who has a son, Arian, 12 – havingnoticed a surge in people saying she looked like Mariah after her album,Butterfly, went multi-platinum in 1997 – started to develop her career.

Shesaid: “I had met Chris America over video call and she became kind of a mentorto me.

She was amazing.

She is a star among lookalikes.”