CULTURE CLUB

Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without All I Want For Christmas is You

Mariah Carey’s All I Want...

If you can nail that one iconic Christmas song, you’re pretty much made for life. Think White Christmas, I Wish It Could be Christmas Every Day, Santa Baby.

But no song has defi ned the modern Christmas tune quite like Mariah Carey’s All I Want

For Christmas Is You, which – unbelievably – turns 25 this year.

There’s nothing obviously queer about the song, although, let’s be honest, the phrase “camp as Christmas” must have come from somewhere. Perhaps Christmas is inherently camp: deliberately exaggerated and theatrical in style. Sounds about right. Christmas albums are camp. Kylie and Ari have perved over their “seeking arrangement” sugar daddies on covers of Santa Baby. Girls Aloud went one better and released an entire ( and well worth tracking down) mini- album to coincide with the release of Chemistry.

Mariah’s festive off ering is no diff erent. Written by her and Walter

( My Heart Will Go On) Afanasieff , the uptempo track tips its ( Christmas bobble) hat to Motown pastiche with Ronettesstyle, wall- of- sound backing vocals over a relentless sleigh- bell jingle.

Scoring zero feminism points, but eschewing capitalism, Mariah rejects material goods in favour of blind devotion to a man. In one version of the video ( the most commonly seen), her manager/ ex- husband Tommy Mottola plays the Santa in question.

These days, Mariah plays a version of Mariah: a Dynasty- level diva, almost a parody.

Her albums haven’t troubled the UK Top Ten since 2008’ s E= MC2, ( not counting compilations) even if her most recent long- player, Caution, was critically lauded.

But in 1994, Mariah was a vocal powerhouse, possibly the most famous singer in the world, rivalled only by Whitney Houston. Many pretenders have tried — and failed – to hit that note.

AIWFCIY was a massive, massive hit, shifting more than a million copies in the UK alone. It’s been off icially re- recorded twice: once in 2010 and then again with Justin Bieber in 2011, but since streaming was introduced, the song has returned to the UK charts pretty much every year.

Strangely, the song never hit the top spot in the UK, although it has been a runner- up three times: to East 17, Ed Sheeran and “LadBaby”. Despite her 18 US No. 1 hits, famed vocals and stellar sales fi gures, it might just be Mariah’s most enduring legacy. The song assuredly deserves its place as an iconic Christmas classic and anyone doubting it’s camp credentials should visit Vauxhall mainstay Push The Button. Each month – regardless of the season – the DJs play AIWFCIY without fail. Also without fail, everyone loses their shit.

“It’s a combination of imagined nostalgia and the slow- burn success it enjoyed,” says Push the Button’s Rob. “Like Halloween and Eurovision, a magical ingredient of Christmas is it’s both annual and time- limited.

“We all know pop has a shelf life but it’s more acute for Christmas hits. Given that the track is resurrected every year by radio play, it’s established itself in the collective consciousness as if it had always been there, as though it has existed as part of Christmas for ever.”

Rob also believes that it’s Mariah’s best song, Christmas or not.

All I know is that when the opening bells play out, I feel a certain rush then a glowing swell in my chest. It’s Christmas… maybe it’s magical.

“never number one, it has been runner- up three times”