As a music enthusiast who has been captivated by the magic of Christmas tunes for as long as I can remember, I must say that Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” is truly an extraordinary phenomenon. Having grown up in the 80s and 90s, I can attest to the fact that finding a new Christmas song that resonates with people worldwide and becomes a timeless classic is like stumbling upon a cosmic occurrence that happens once every 5 billion years!
Mariah Carey can check this off her wish list.
Following her proclamation that it was time to begin the holiday season, the artist famous for “All I Want for Christmas Is You” elevated the celebrations even further by striking a pose with a freshly crafted wax figure resembling herself at Madame Tussauds Wax Museum in New York City.
The figure was based on Mariah’s 2020 photo session for her Apple TV+ Christmas special, “Mariah Carey’s Magical Christmas,” adorned in a sparkling red sequined dress and flawlessly styled honey-blonde curls. However, always aiming to stand out, the singer known for “Always Be My Baby” dazzled in a long black and silver outfit of her design as she struck a pose alongside her doppelganger.
As reported by the wax museum, it required approximately nine months of work from more than twenty artists to create the statue, and the finished product undeniably evoked a sensation of being a top-chart emotion.
Wow, this is incredible,” Mimi exclaimed. “I wouldn’t have thought my wax model could look so realistic!
Every year, the five-time Grammy winner finds the holiday season particularly meaningful. She’s gearing up to perform in 20 cities throughout the United States this fall as part of her Christmas Time tour. Interestingly, this year coincides with the 30th anniversary of her iconic 1994 album “Merry Christmas” – a fact she doesn’t feel the need to keep track of.
She informed Drew Barrymore on The Drew Barrymore Show on Oct. 31 that she’s not familiar with numbers. In other words, she doesn’t recognize or pay attention to them.
As a devoted admirer, I’m proud to share that the “Touch My Body” songstress has acknowledged another significant event happening this fall. She’s collaborating with the remarkable Kerry Washington to motivate Americans to exercise their civic duty by voting in the 2024 U.S. presidential election on November 5th. On October 30th, Mariah posted a video on Instagram where she started singing “All I Want for Christmas Is You”, and the talented star of “Scandal” joined in.
“It’s not your season yet, Mariah,” Kerry protested. “It’s voting season!”
Indeed, Mariah had everything in order when she confidently stated, “Absolutely, I’m signed up. Absolutely, I devised a strategy, and I put it into action.
For more on Mariah’s transcendent Christmas tune, keep reading.
Mariah Carey’s 1994 album, titled Merry Christmas, primarily consists of cover versions such as “Silent Night” and “Joy to the World”, but it also features three original songs: “All I Want for Christmas Is You”, “Miss You Most (At Christmas Time)”, and “Jesus Born on This Day.
And while we may take that first one for granted now, Carey’s cowriter on those three songs, Walter Afanasieff, pointed out that it takes big boughs of holly to take a stab at making new Christmas music.
In a 2014 interview with the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, he noted that composing an original Christmas song requires a high level of intelligence to avoid common pitfalls. Writing a song that blindly follows typical Christmas themes like jingle bells, mistletoe, frost, Rudolph, and Santa can result in a confusing or chaotic piece.
In his words, Carey’s brilliance lay in creating a fast-paced, uplifting love song that could be personalized for anyone.
In the end, the third attempt proved fruitful as “All I Want for Christmas Is You” became the final gem among the fresh compositions for the album we began crafting back in 1993.
As a dedicated collaborator who worked alongside Mimi on her initial six studio albums, I’d like to share my process. Typically, I initiate the session by playing some music. Then, she begins to shape a melody and a melodic journey, as we put it. From there, we engage in a friendly musical exchange, bouncing ideas off each other, much like a game of ping-pong.
Whenever Carey introduced a new musical twist to her singing, she found herself responding, and as she put it, “we’d just bounce ideas off each other”. “The intricate work behind ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You’ was quite significant,” he added, noting that the arrangement was surprisingly simple.
In fact, he added, “At the time I thought it was overly simple and I didn’t really like it.”
Besides Carey’s flawless lyrics, Afanasieff explained to Billboard in 2014 that he aimed to give the song a distinctive touch by incorporating unusual chords. He believes this element contributed to the song’s unique charm, which has been enduring over the years. The part where these special chords were added probably took about an hour, and then he returned home.
Initially, the gentle sound of a xylophone rings out, followed by Carey’s melodious slow tempo. Subsequently, drums and piano join in, leading us into a winter scene filled with the tinkling of sleigh bells. Therefore, one can imagine the studio was bustling with energy as they recorded the track in the summer of 1994, correct?
Afanasieff explained to ASCAP that the entire song was essentially him working on a computer, and apart from the vocals, nothing else in it was genuine.
Upon the release of her album, Carey – who proudly identifies as an ardent Christmas enthusiast supreme – declared that her intention was not to rival the renowned Christmas music legends of yesteryears.
In her interview with CBS News in 1994, she expressed that creating Christmas songs was like offering a small gift to the world, and she hoped her fans would appreciate them, providing her with songs to perform during the holiday season.
Carey herself has a unique account of the origin of “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” an account that typically excludes anyone else being present during its creation.
In 2019, I found myself settling down, adding some personal touches to a miniature tree, and cueing up the classic film, “It’s a Wonderful Life.” I aimed to capture that special feeling. Nestled in a cozy nook with my trusty keyboard, I began experimenting with gentle melodies and small musical ideas.
That same year, Mariah Carey also remembered taking the song “All I Want for Christmas Is You” to Walter A. for co-production in the Amazon Music documentary titled Mariah Carey’s Christmas Story.
Speaking to Nightline in 2023, Carey clarified a popular tale that suggested swift creation, stating instead that the songwriting process was relatively quick. She explained, “I was working solo on it,” implying that she hummed the initial melody and wrote the lyrics using a small Casio keyboard.
Although Afanasieff has relished the benefits that accompanied being recognized as a co-writer and producer, with ownership of half the song as he stated to Variety in 2019, there are times when he feels like the queen of Christmas gave him nothing but a chunk of coal.
“She’s the one that made the song a hit and she’s awesome,” he said. “But she definitely does not share credit where credit is due.”
Contrary to popular belief that it had already gained widespread fame long ago, the song “All I Want for Christmas Is You” didn’t climb to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart until as late as 2019.
But, it has reached the mountaintop every year since.
Carey expressed to the Los Angeles Times before her November 6th Christmas tour that she wasn’t comfortable saying “This
2024 remains uncertain, but it’s clear that Carey has become accustomed to setting new benchmarks for herself on Christmas Eves.
The Mariah Carey hit “All I Want for Christmas Is You” broke records on Spotify every year from 2017 to 2019, with 10.8 million plays in 2017, 10.82 million in 2018, and over 12 million in 2019. Each year, it streamed more than the previous one.
On Dec. 24, 2022, it bested Adele‘s “Go Easy on Me” for most streams on any day, with 21,273,357.
Approximately a year ago, “All I Want for Christmas Is You” broke the record for the highest number of daily streams, reaching over 23.7 million, and it also holds the title for the most-streamed Christmas song of all time with more than 1.5 billion plays to date.
If at your initial glance, you assumed that the song sung by the character Thomas Brodie-Sangster’s love interest at the end of the 2002 film “Love Actually” was a new composition created specifically for the movie, then you are pardoned for thinking so.
Due to the fact that Olivia Olson’s rendition of “All I Want for Christmas Is You” significantly impacted history or destiny, with many cinema-goers finding themselves eagerly seeking out the original version.
In 2014, I shared with Billboard a notable observation: Mariah Carey scarcely grants permission for anyone to cover her songs in movies, TV shows, or any other form of media.
And while she turned down countless requests for others to record her signature Christmas song over the years, she made an exception for Love Actually.
According to Afanasieff, it seemed as though she held a special affection for that specific film. He noted that she appreciated the storyline and the cast. I suspect she must have felt, “This is a film about a young girl, and this is the perfect moment for me.
In the world inspired by “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” there exists a children’s book and an animated movie bearing the same title. As reported by ABC News, Mariah Carey’s earnings from this iconic song have been estimated to be around $72 million as of December 2023.
Before Carey’s tune registered, it had been a minute since a Christmas song was also a massive hit.
1984 marked the debut of Wham!’s melancholic hit “Last Christmas,” a holiday classic for many listeners. If you prefer your yuletide tunes with a bit more zest, Jose Feliciano’s cheerful “Feliz Navidad” was released all the way back in 1970.
John Lennon and Yoko Ono left a significant cultural imprint with their song “Happy Xmas (The War Is Over)” from 1971, but initially, it didn’t gain massive popularity in the U.S. This tune, as described by Carey herself, has a melancholic feel rather than a cheerful one, being quite sad in its essence.
Since Brenda Lee’s 1958 hit “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” (composed by Johnny Marks), no other upbeat holiday song has emerged with similar success and impact, and to this day, the enchantment of Mariah Carey’s renditions remains unmatched.
In simpler terms, Atanasieff said to Billboard that “their song is like a rare astronomical event happening every 5 billion years. In the last 20 years, countless original Christmas songs have been written, but for some reason, ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ has become the one everyone knows and loves.
Furthermore, he mentioned that it was the final significant carol to be included in that cherished Christmas collection, and since then, no more entries have been made. The process seemed to come to a halt.
In her own words, she expressed that the reason she believes the song has lasted for three decades is simply: “I genuinely adore Christmas, it’s not a mere pretense.” She shared this during an interview with Nightline in 2023.
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2024-11-04 22:49