Beautiful Virgin Islands

Friday, Sep 11, 2026

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

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
Merz Rebukes AfD Expansion in Saxony-Anhalt
OpenAI Unveils GPT-6 and Says: "We May Already Have Reached AGI"
Congressman Accused Andrew of Sex Crimes in the United States
Donald Trump: "I'm Glad Harry and Meghan Left the United States"
Spicy Food Is Linked to Lower Death Risk — but It Is Not a Miracle Cure
AfD Enters Saxony-Anhalt Election at 41% in Historic Test for German Politics
Gen Z Turns to Investing as America's First-Home Dream Moves Further Out of Reach
TSA Unveils Major Airport-Security Overhaul as It Drops Gold+ Privatization Plan
CIA Chief Warned Russia Against Attacking NATO in Secret Moscow Mission
Raheem Sterling Charged With Dangerous Driving After Lamborghini Crash
The Secret Dolly Parton Kept Until Her Death: "She Was Much Sicker Than She Let On"
Glacier Collapse, Not Earthquake, Triggered Deadly Nepal-Tibet Flood
Turnbull Warns AUKUS Could Leave Australia Without Promised Nuclear Submarines
California Billionaires Pour More Than $150 Million Into Fight Over Proposed Wealth Tax
German Broadcaster Goes Dark to Warn AfD Could End Its Saxony-Anhalt Service
Badenoch Plans Major Shadow Cabinet Reshuffle as Tories Struggle in Third Place
Prime Minister Andy Burnham to Give Ukraine Classified Storm Shadow Blueprints for Domestic Missile Production
UK Graduate Job Vacancies Plunge 45% to Lowest Levels on Record
Iranian Hackers Shut Down British Power Plant for Four Days in Landmark Cyber Attack
Novak Djokovic Reveals Relentless Self-Doubt and Rejects Retirement in New Documentary
Trump Imposes 50% Tariffs on Canadian Goods After Bilateral Trade Talks Collapse
Australia Combines Indigenous Fire Knowledge With Satellite Tech to Combat Catastrophic Wildfires
Father and Son Jailed in Scotland Over £900,000 Airport Cannabis Smuggling Operation
UK Fraud Reports Surge Sevenfold as Criminals Exploit QR Codes in Parking Meters and Phishing Emails
Brighton Thrash Aston Villa in Four-Goal Opening Half as Manchester City Trail Bournemouth
Erin Patterson Appeals Triple Murder Convictions After Hotel Mixed Sequestered Jury With Prosecution
The rise and fall of Hui Ka Yan, China’s richest man
Woke: Britain Considers Plain Packaging for Cigars as Specialist Shops Warn of Industry Collapse
Britain's Public-Service Productivity Remains Below 2019 as £80 Billion Output Gap Fuels WFH Debate
Mandelson Epstein Case in Jeopardy as U.S. Files Stay Out of Reach
Prince Harry and Six Others Ordered to Pay £9.5 Million After High Court Defeat
Petrol Bombs Set Luxury Cars Alight Outside Birmingham Wedding as Police Hunt Three Men
Bitcoin Surges Toward $80,000 as Short Squeeze and ETF Inflows Ignite Crypto Rally
Twenty-Nine US States Take Meta to Trial Over Alleged Child Addiction on Instagram and Facebook
Former Scottish National Party Executive Peter Murrell Jailed for Five Years Over £400,000 Embezzlement
Moderna and Merck's Personalized Cancer Vaccine Succeeds in Historic Late-Stage Melanoma Trial
Prince Harry and Meghan to Move Back to Britain With Their Children
England and Wales Have Fewer Than 1,800 Prison Places Left for Men
Suspected People Smuggler Arrested After Investigation Identified Him
Children's Doctors Warn That Vaping Can Lead Young People to Smoking
Hundreds of Thousands of Students Receive GCSE and Vocational Results Across England, Wales and Northern Ireland
Here Is What Can Never Happen in Your Country: Taiwan Is Giving Money to All Its People Because It Collected Too Much Tax
UK Inflation Rises to 2.9% as Energy Bills Jump
UK Issues New Conduct Guide for Asylum Seekers on Consent and Respect
A Sleepless Night on Wall Street: Nasdaq to Begin Nearly Round-the-Clock Trading
"The First in the World": 69-Year-Old Protested Artificial Intelligence—and Went to Jail
Ukraine's Ousted Defence Minister Calls for Wartime Presidential Election
China’s Lifelike AI Humans Move From Livestreams Into Real-World Service Roles
Sarah Ferguson Reportedly Retreats to Late Ex-Boyfriend's Swiss Chalet
Cristiano Ronaldo and Georgina Rodríguez Sign Prenup Protecting Their Separate Fortunes
×