Carey’s 25-Year Journey To the Top of the Charts
For Mariah Carey, this year’s Christmas season started promptly on Halloween night, just as the clock struck 12 a.m. and the calendar rolled over into November.
In a skit posted to her social media channels, Ms. Carey falls asleep at 11:59 p.m. in her costume (a hair-metal rock star) before being awakened at midnight (now wearing wintry pajamas) by a call from Santa.
“It’s tiiiiiiiime!” Ms. Carey declares with a scream.
So began the most spirited edition yet of the singer’s annual campaign to push “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” her 25-year-old seasonal hit, to the next level. On December 16, that mission was accomplished as the song reached an unprecedented industry pinnacle, hitting Number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time, becoming both the song that took the longest to do so and the first Christmas track to take the top spot since “The Chipmunk Song” 60 years ago.
“All I Want for Christmas” became Ms. Carey’s first Number 1 since 2008 and her 19th over all.
The song has become a cottage industry unto itself for the singer.
Since 2014, Ms. Carey has performed a slate of Christmas shows anchored by the megahit, with stops in New York, Las Vegas, Paris, London and Madrid. Then there are the tie-ins: a children’s book (from 2015) and an animated film (2017), along with endless online content, from a GQ video in which Ms. Carey expounds on her love for Christmas to an Amazon Music mini-documentary on the song’s endurance.
While the YouTube version of the song’s music video has been viewed 600 million times since 2009, a new cut featuring archival footage was added this year, following a blackand-white cut from 2016 — all of which count toward the song’s Billboard chart placement.
“All I Want for Christmas” was the most-streamed song in the United States in the second week of December, with over 45 million plays, up from 35 million the week prior. iHeart- Radio, the radio broadcaster, said that since its release, the song had reached an audience of 1.8 billion on its stations.
Ms. Carey said “All I Want for Christmas” first came to her alone at a house in upstate New York as she sat at a keyboard with “It’s a Wonderful
Life” blasting in the background. She sang a melody and played a chord progression into a mini-tape recorder, she said.
Ms. Carey and Walter Afanasieff, a collaborator, recorded the song over the summer, decking the studio halls to get in the holiday spirit.
She admitted to a certain nostalgia that came from growing up with the track, but she declined to dissect its magic. “I used to pick it apart whenever I listened to it, but at this point, I feel like I’m finally able to enjoy it,” Ms. Carey said.
“I just truly love the holidays,” she added. “I know it’s corny, and I don’t care.”