Christmas miracle for Mariah Carey: "All I Want for Christmas is You", 25 years after its debut in 1994, has become "number one" for the first time. The song is also the first "number one" of the singer since 2008 in the Billboard 100 and her 19th, just one step from the Beatles who hold the record. Completing a 25-year journey, the co-star song of "LoveActually", the most loved and hated Christmas movie when it was teen teenager Olivia Olson, was originally released on the "Merry Christmas" album.
The miracle is due in part to the increasing use of technology that has changed the habits of listeners including the ubiquity of playlists for the holiday season that have decreed the entry of the song into the Christmas fee alongside iconic tracks like "White Christmas ". Recently, Carey explained her version of the genesis of the song to "USA Today": "I started thinking about what I liked at Christmas? Lights, gifts, fireplaces? I loved Christmas since I was a child, but I've always been without money and so I never could live the party like my peers. Coming from a dysfunctional family I wanted my Christmas to be perfect, so when I wrote it I put every ounce of my wanting to try to rebuild a perfect moment. "
Another version of the story sees pop diva alone in a house in the countryside of New York in front of the TV where another Christmas entertainment icon was aired, "Life is a wonderful thing". Mariah had created a melody and the first chords of the song were then developed in the arrangement of her right hand Walter Afanasieff.
Meanwhile, since 2014, Carey has returned on tour with a series of Christmas shows anchored on the miracle song with stops in Las Vegas, Paris, London and Madrid. Last Sunday in New York he closed the tour at Madison Square Garden with a full house surrounded by eleven Christmas trees, gospel choir, two children, fake snow and Santa Claus. In November, in view of the 25th anniversary, Sony has reissued a luxury edition of the "Merry Christmas" album, with four versions of "All I Want". The result: last week the streaming version was heard by 45 million people, a record for the United States.
