For so many years, Mariah Carey has earned the title of the unofficial Queen of Christmas thanks to her Christmas hit song “All I Want For Christmas Is You.”
The singer first released the hit song in 1994 and its popularity keeps increasing each year. The artist was 24 years old when she made the song after her then-husband and manager Tommy Mottola forced her to make a Christmas album. It took her 15 minutes to write and record the song.
When she was asked what motivated her to release a Christmas song so early in her career, she responded: “I’m a very festive person and I love the holidays. I’ve sung Christmas songs since I was a little girl.”
Since then, the song has recorded over 16 million sales globally, making it one of her biggest international successes and the 12th best-selling single of all time. In addition, it is the best-selling Christmas single by a female artist overall.
The song has been featured in several Christmas movies. Also, it is a massive hit around the holidays on streaming services such as Spotify and Pandora. In 2019, the song hit number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. And recorded more than $1 billion streams on Spotify.
The song climbed back to the top spot again in 2020 and stayed there for weeks and the momentum does not seem to be dying down. The song continues to surge in popularity during Christmas.
The song came back to the number 1 spot again on both the Billboard Global 200 and Billboard Global Excl. U.S. charts, according to Billboard on Monday. The song topped the Global 200 for a second consecutive week with 101.7 million streams (up 38%) and 9,000 sold (up 46%) worldwide Dec. 1-7, the platform added.
Also, the song concurrently topped the Billboard Global Excl. U.S. chart for the second week in a row, with 67.3 million streams (up 53%) and 5,000 sold (up 71%) outside the U.S. Dec. 1-7.
Aside from the song topping global charts, Carey continues to make money from royalties. In 2021, the song’s master recording version raked in nearly $4.5 million in revenue, Billboard said.
It added that the publishing royalties generated an additional $1.6 million, totaling $6.16 million in global revenue and publishing royalties. In terms of royalties from sales, it is estimated that Carey has $1.55 million, with $2.95 million for Sony.
