Mariah Careys All I Want For Christmas Is You May Hit A Major Milestone This Holidays

NEW YORK (AP) If anything about Mariah Careys All I Want for Christmas is You annoys you, best to avoid shopping malls now. Or the radio. Maybe music altogether, for that matter.

Her 1994 carol dominates holiday music like nothing else.

The Christmas colossus has reached No. 1 on Billboards Hot 100 chart the past four years in a row measuring the most popular songs each week by airplay, sales and streaming, not just the holiday-themed and its reasonable to assume 2023 will be no different. One expert predicts it will soon exceed $100 million in earnings. Even its ringtone has sold millions.

That song is just embedded in history now, says David Foster , the 16-time Grammy-winning composer and producer. Its embedded in Christmas. When you think of Christmas right now, you think of that song.

Yet the story behind All I Want for Christmas is You is not all holly and mistletoe.

The songs co-authors, Carey and Walter Afanasieff, are in a mystifying feud. The authors of a different song with the same title have sued seeking $20 million in damages. While Carey calls herself the Queen of Christmas, her bid to trademark that title failed.

Every year on Nov. 1, the songs hibernation ends when Carey posts on social media that its time to play it again. This years message depicted her being freed from a block of ice to make the declaration.

Watch Careys 2023 message here:

Its TIME!!! #MariahSZN pic.twitter.com/dp6xEs7LTT

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Its TIME!!! #MariahSZN pic.twitter.com/dp6xEs7LTT
Mariah Carey (@MariahCarey) November 1, 2023

In both music and lyrics, the song was perfectly engineered for success, says Joe Bennett , musicologist and professor at the Berklee College of Music.

And it came from an artist who was at the top of her game at the time.

All I Want for Christmas is You works as a love and holiday song. Carey sets it up: She doesnt care about all the holiday trappings, she has one thing one person on her mind. She sprinkles in specific holiday references, from Santa Claus to mistletoe.

The instruments and brisk arrangement recall Phil Spectors 1965 album, A Christmas Gift for You, itself a holiday classic. To top it off, part of the melody slyly references White Christmas, Bennett says.

That was my goal, to do something timeless, Carey explained in a recent Good Morning America interview.

Billboard has produced lists of top seasonal hits since 2010, and All I Want for Christmas is You has been No. 1 for 57 of the 62 weeks it has run, said Gary Trust, chart director. Will Page, Spotifys former chief economist and author of the book Pivot, estimates the song will exceed $100 million in earnings this holiday season.

By most objective measures, Bennett says, its the most successful Christmas song of all time.

Watch the music video for All I Want For Christmas Is You here:

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