Mariah Carey Almost Passed On Her Legendary Christmas Song

Each vacation season, Mariah Carey‘s “All I Need for Christmas Is You” takes its annual sleigh trip up the Billboard Scorching 100 chart.

In 2019, the music reached No. 1 for the primary time, marking a milestone throughout its twenty fifth anniversary yr. Two years later, it claimed the highest spot on Billboard’s Best of All Time Vacation 100 Songs retrospective. To have a good time the thirtieth anniversary of her “Merry Christmas” album and the enduring observe, Mariah Carey launched into a 20-city “Christmas Time” tour in November 2024, set to conclude in Brooklyn, N.Y., on December 17.

With Mariah Carey’s music reaching a big milestone, followers are reflecting on its origins and the story behind its creation.

Earlier than releasing “All I Need for Christmas Is You,” Mariah Carey had solely two albums beneath her belt and felt it was too early in her profession to enterprise into vacation music. She believed that Christmas songs had been one thing artists usually tackled afterward.

Throughout an interview with Entertainment Weekly, she admitted, “I didn’t really feel, from a strategic perspective, that it was time to do one thing like that. As a lot as I really like Christmas, I assumed that the file firm was off. Clearly, I couldn’t have been extra incorrect.”

However that is not all, as a result of the music’s co-writer Walter Afanasieff admitted that he did not assume the music would develop into the hit it’s at present. In a 2014 interview with Billboard, Walter Afanasieff, the music’s co-writer and producer, echoed this sentiment. When requested if he believed “All I Need for Christmas Is You” would develop into the album’s standout hit, his response was a definitive, “Nooo.”

“Twenty years in the past, Christmas music and Christmas albums by artists weren’t the large deal that they’re at present,” he defined. “Again then, you did not have lots of artists with Christmas albums; It wasn’t a recognized science in any respect again then, and there was no person who did new, huge Christmas songs.”

The vacation queen beforehand revealed that her favourite lyric from “All I Need for Christmas Is You” is, “I will not even want for snow.”

“[It’s my favorite line] as a result of I all the time want for snow,” Carey stated in Amazon Music’s “Mariah Carey Is Christmas,” per PEOPLE Magazine. She added, “I all the time need it to be, like, a particular, festive winter wonderland.”

The discover declared the music could be skipped if requested earlier than December 1 and restricted to only one play per evening after that date. The bar’s cheeky coverage rapidly went viral on Twitter, the social media platform now generally known as X, and the singer herself even responded with a pointy comeback.

“Is that this the battle on Christmas I’ve heard about,” one person reacted in a now-deleted tweet, to which Carey responded with a picture from her “Recreation of Conflict” online game marketing campaign.

First launched in 1994, the iconic holiday anthem initially climbed to quantity six on the Billboard charts and reached quantity two in each the UK and Japan. Over time, nevertheless, the rise of streaming platforms has propelled the music to unprecedented heights, cementing its standing as one of many best-selling digital singles of all time.

“I used to be engaged on it on my own … on this little Casio keyboard and writing down phrases and desirous about, ‘What do I consider at Christmas? What do I really like? What do I would like? What do I dream of?'” Carey stated, per ABC, as she celebrated the music’s thirtieth anniversary. “And that is what began it.”

Promoting a powerful 16 million copies worldwide, the music has topped charts in over 30 international locations in the course of the vacation season, securing its standing as a timeless Christmas traditional. From workplace playlists to mall soundtracks and festive events, it has develop into a world vacation staple, spreading cheer and pleasure yr after yr.

“My aim was to do one thing timeless, so it did not really feel just like the ’90s, which is after I wrote it,” she added.