Thanks to her holiday hit “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” Mariah Carey has been crowned the Queen of Christmas. Every year, she lets us know when “It’s time” to put the track on repeat play through Dec. 26. As she prepares to embark on her new Merry Christmas One and All Tour, the superstar discussed the holiday classic’s origins and popularity with ABC’s Nightline.
The “Fantasy” singer revealed that she wrote the Christmas favorite in about 15 minutes.
“I was working on it by myself ... on this little Casio keyboard and writing down words and thinking about, ‘What do I think of at Christmas? What do I love? What do I want? What do I dream of?’” Carey said, “And that’s what started it.”
The song was originally released in 1994, but like other holiday classics, it makes a triumphant return every season. It’s so relentlessly catchy, after one listen you cannot stop singing it. When you think about classic carols like “The Christmas Song” and “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home),” they’re an essential part of our holiday traditions, and that’s what “All I Want for Christmas Is You” has become.
“My goal was to do something timeless, so it didn’t feel like the ‘90s, which is when I wrote it,” she said.
The revelation abut how she put the track together is interesting since the Grammy winner is once again facing a copyright lawsuit over the song. Country artist Andy Stone is suing Carey, co-writer Walter Afanasieff, Sony Music and Universal Music Group for $20 million. He claims that Mariah’s hit has the same “compositional structure of an extended comparison between a loved one and trappings of seasonal luxury” as his 1989 ballad of the same name.
As for the “We Belong Together” singer’s post-Christmas plans, she confirmed that she has new music coming. Carey’s last full studio album, Caution, was released in 2018.
“I’ve been working...on just writing new songs,” she said. “Yesterday we were in the studio working on something with a choir, working on a new song. So it’s exciting.”
We’ve gone way too long without new Mariah jams to belt out, so the possibility of fresh music may be the best gift she could’ve given us.