A day after playing a sold out show at Madison Square Garden, Mariah Carey’s holiday hit “All I Want For Christmas” reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time, making that her 19th single to reach the top of the chart. This victory comes the year that Carey is celebrating the 25th anniversary of the song and its parent album “Merry Christmas”, which made its debut in 1994.
We did it ❤️ https://t.co/Cp80uhYdI9
— Mariah Carey (@MariahCarey) December 16, 2019
“All I Want For Christmas Is You” (known as AIWFCIY to megafans) is the first holiday hit to top the chart in 61 years since The Chipmunk Song ruled for 4 weeks in 1958. AIWFCIY originally wasn’t eligible for inclusion on the Billboard charts because it wasn’t available as a commercial single upon its release in 1994. In December 1998, the rules changed to include album tracks which allowed the song to debut on the Billboard charts in January 2000. As Billboard has continued to evolve, in order to reflect how music fans consume music, the single has taken new life. As chart rules have shifted, streaming has grown and radio play has continued to dominate, the Christmas classic has finally ascended to the top.
Mariah opened up about the conception of the song in an Amazon mini documentary, Mariah Carey is Christmas: The Story of ‘All I Want for Christmas is You where the singer revealed she wrote the tune in under an hour in upstate New York.
“I wanted All I Want For Christmas Is You to feel like something I could have grown up listening to.” said the singer. The documentary followed the release of a new version of the 1994 music video and other rare and never before seen performances of the holiday hit. The singer announced last week, the impending release of a new music video directed by Joseph Kahn which will surely give it new momentum for this holiday season.
AIWFCIY extends and creates various new records for Mariah Carey:
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Most #1s on Billboard Hot 100 for a Solo artist – 19
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Most #1’s for a Female Songwriter – 18
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Most Weeks at #1 – 80 weeks
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Longest Span between #1s – 29 years, 4 months and 2 weeks
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First #1 – Vision of Love, 4 August 1990
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Latest – AIWFCIY – 21 December 2019
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First Holiday song by a soloist to reach #1
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2nd behind The Chipmunk Song
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#1s in ‘90’s, ‘00’s and ‘10’s
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Longest Ascend to #1
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35 weeks on the chart
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