30 years after « All I Want For Christmas Is You » came out, Mariah Carey reflects on her Christmas success
« It’s time! » Mariah Carey sings as the calendar filps over from October 31 to November 1 — signaling the start of the holiday season, whether you like it or not.
The powerhouse vocalist and songwriter has ruled Christmas with a festive fist for the last 30 years since her song « All I Want For Christmas Is You » made Christmas music popular again with its release in 1994. Ever since, the song has become the longest-charting single in any genre. It spent 65 weeks on Billboard’s Hot 100, arguably making it the most popular original holiday song of the last several decades. Her subsequent album, « Merry Christmas », has sold 18 million copies and is blasted everywhere people go from the time the pumpkins get packed away till the tree comes down.
In an interview with The New York Times, Carey hinted at new music and shared that she’s headed on a 21-date holiday tour that starts in November. Commenting on her Christmas song’s 30th anniversary and its everlasting success, Carey said, “It’s really rewarding, and I’m just grateful and thankful for it and for all the people that come up and say, ‘I love your music,’ or, ‘I listen to your Christmas music in July’ — that started to become a thing,” she said. “I’ve always wanted to do this for my life, and so now we get to do it.”
But how did the pop vocalist transform from writing hits like « Fantasy » to « All I Want For Christmas Is You? » Salon explains it all:
Thirty years ago, the then 25-year-old pop star wasn’t so sure about diving into Christmas music.
