London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Friday, Oct 03, 2025

For The First Time Ever, Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas Is You" Is Officially The No. 1 Song In The Country

This is the singer's 19th No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. In terms of chart-toppers, she's second only to the Beatles.

Singer Mariah Carey, aka the Queen of Christmas, has yet another reason to celebrate the holiday season this year.

Billboard announced on Monday that the legendary singer's holiday tune "All I Want for Christmas Is You" has reached No. 1 on the Hot 100. The song's previous record was hitting No. 3 on the chart.

This marks Carey's first time hitting the chart's peak since 2008's "Touch My Body."


This is a huge deal for a few reasons.

First, the song is 25 years old; it was released in 1994 on the star's Merry Christmas album. It's also only the second holiday song in history to reach No. 1, following "The Chipmunk Song" by the Chipmunks and David Seville in 1958–1959.

Second, this is now Carey's 19th No. 1 on the chart, extending her lead as the only solo act with the most No. 1 hits. She also holds the record for the most cumulative weeks spent in the chart's top spot, with 80 weeks overall throughout her career.

Third, Carey is now only one single away from tying with the Beatles, who had 20 No. 1 hits on the chart. The next closest singer is Rihanna with 14.

"All I Want for Christmas" is perhaps the most famous, or at least ubiquitous, Christmas song of the modern era. It's been featured in popular films, such as Love Actually, and is a standard for holiday parties the world over.

Beyond the song's resurgence in the 2000s as a go-to holiday hit, it's been been used as an official marker of the beginning of the Christmas season, all thanks to Carey. On Nov. 1, leaning into the sensation that the song has become, she released a video of herself transitioning from her Halloween costume into Christmas attire, giving fans the go-ahead to play the song to their hearts' content.


In addition to the beloved holiday films the song has been featured in, the number of well-known stars who have covered the tune only add to its cultural impact. Dozens upon dozens of artists added their own twist to it, from CeeLo Green and Ariana Grande to My Chemical Romance and actor-singer Amber Riley when she starred on Glee.

But Carey and her cowriter, Walter Afanasieff, didn't always think the song would become such a sensation.

Carey, who was 24 years old when the song was record, wasn't thrilled about making a Christmas album; she only did so after conceding to her then-husband and manager, record executive Tommy Mottola.

But once Carey and Afanasieff got started on the tune, it was written in about an hour and a half, she said on a recent segment of Billy on the Street.

“It’s definitely not ‘Swan Lake,’” said Afanasieff of the song once before. “But that’s why it’s so popular — because it’s so simple and palatable!”

For a song that seemingly required so little effort in bringing to fruition, it's certainly paid off in a big way for Carey. It sold its millionth copy in 2013 and, to date, the perennial tune has earned the singer more than $60 million in royalties.

Even now, Carey annually performs a concert in honor of the classic song and the album on which it debuted, a tradition she began in 2014. This moment began with intimate shows at New York City's Beacon Theatre.

In 2017, because of the show's growing popularity, Carey took the Christmas show internationally; she performed in some of Europe's biggest arenas, including the O2 in London and the Mercedes-Benz Arena in Berlin. On Sunday night, the singer completed her final Christmas show of the season at New York City's Madison Square Garden.

"I wanted it to feel like a classic, but I didn't know that it was going to actually become a classic," Carey told USA Today in a recent interview.

"I say that humbly because Christmas music is something that's really special to me, so to see the song's popularity grow over the years has been something that's been kind of amazing," she said. "I couldn't have expected it."

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
FBI Removes Agents Who Kneeled at 2020 Protest, Citing Breach of Professional Conduct
Trump Alleges ‘Triple Sabotage’ at United Nations After Escalator and Teleprompter Failures
Shock in France: 5 Years in Prison for Former President Nicolas Sarkozy
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
BNP Paribas Abandons Ban on 'Controversial Weapons' Financing Amid Europe’s Defence Push
Typhoon Ragasa Leaves Trail of Destruction Across East Asia Before Making Landfall in China
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Big Banks Rebuild in Hong Kong as Deal Volume Surges
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Arnault Denounces Proposed Wealth Tax as Threat to French Economy
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Denmark Investigates Drone Incursion, Does Not Rule Out Russian Involvement
Lilly CEO Warns UK Is ‘Worst Country in Europe’ for Drug Prices, Pulls Back Investment
Nigel Farage Emerges as Central Force in British Politics with Reform UK Surge
Disney Reinstates ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ after Six-Day Suspension over Charlie Kirk Comments
U.S. Prosecutors Move to Break Up Google’s Advertising Monopoly
Nvidia Pledges Up to $100 Billion Investment in OpenAI to Power Massive AI Data Center Build-Out
U.S. Signals ‘Large and Forceful’ Support for Argentina Amid Market Turmoil
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
Vietnam Faces Up to $25 Billion Export Loss as U.S. Tariffs Bite
Europe Signals Stronger Support for Taiwan at Major Taipei Defence Show
Indonesia Court Upholds Military Law Amid Concerns Over Expanded Civilian Role
Larry Ellison, Michael Dell and Rupert Murdoch Join Trump-Backed Bid to Take Over TikTok
Trump and Musk Reunite Publicly for First Time Since Fallout at Kirk Memorial
Vietnam Closes 86 Million Untouched Bank Accounts Over Biometric ID Rules
×