Well yes, it's that time of year again: when you ask Alexa or whoever to play a Christmas songhere it goes All I want for Christmas is you Of Mariah Careylike this, by default. Of course, it's not the only one, as various memes and fads testify, from the assorted gag on the thawing of Michael Bublé – who still boasts a very respectable catalog for the holidays, eh – to Whamageddonthe challenge that consists in arriving unscathed on Christmas Eve, that is, without hearing at least once Last Christmas by Wham!.
Yet, the feeling is of being ahead of an absolute winnerat least among the songs: thirty years after its release, Carey's song returned to the top of the most listened to charts in the United States again in 2024where it has risen consecutively since 2019. A tradition, in short, that spans generations. More: on Spotify he has just crossed the psychological threshold of two billion streamsunique, so far, among the pieces of the season. The question is spontaneous: how much does he earn?in all this, Carey? Spoilers: a lot.
How much does Mariah Carey earn per year
According to a study dell’Economistwhich dates back to 2022, we are more or less around two and a half million euros every year, for a total, at the moment, of approximately 75 million in proceeds. A real treasure accumulated in different forms, depending on the era of reference: as long as physical copies were sold (and when it was published for the first time the market was flourishing) All I want for Christmas is you he has put a lot of them into the farm 16 million; today his empire is based on streaming, radio and TV reproduction rights and the infinite series of covers, recorded by almost anyone.
But the sun, however, doesn't seem to want to set: is the best-selling Christmas song by a female artist in the world, as well as the eleventh single overall, counting all musical genres. It was in first place in the hit parade of 32 countries, including Italy, in 2021. At the moment here, according to FIMI data, in the period from 6 to 12 December it is third, behind the very current Iceland of the Nuclear Tactical Penguins and Now that I no longer have you by Cesare Cremonini, constantly rising – last time it was seventh, but it is only in its fourth week of presence in the hit parade. Stainless. Also because the other protagonists of the invasion, including Last Christmasare blocked from the sixth position onwards.
In short, a great classic, a sort of tradition within tradition – and who knows, maybe she might become herself part of tradition, such as the Tree or Santa Claus. And to think that it wasn't conceived with who knows what evergreen ambitions: released on November 1, 1994was intended to broaden Carey's audience, just 25 years old at the time and popular in Canada, his country of birth, and in the United States, in the wake of the album's success Music box (1993). But it was still, Carey, one of manyperformer with a great voice, ok, but enough transparent. Christmas, which especially in America remains a thriving businessgiven that at a certain point many people try to reinvent themselves with the song of the moment, the TV special and the rest (this year, among others, it was the turn of the rising star SaBrina Carpenter), it was the right move.
And indeed All I want for Christmas is you it really helped launch it all over the worldwithout giving, however, who knows what signs of a mito so big. Yes, because it went great there, but by 1995 it would have been lost in the basket of themed pieces, without standing out much. All this until a remake with Justin Bieber from 2011born sensing an already favorable atmosphere, did not start the rebirthmore intense than the original and exploded with the first place of 2019, thanks above all to social media and the tom-tom about the piece that was unleashed.
But beyond the cultural factor – it's a must-have piece for boomers, millennials and evidently generation zetasdespite the different tastes – it is above all the song itself that works. This is because, thanks to the good intuitions of Carey herself and Walter Afanasieff, who wrote and produced it, mixes traditional elements with more modern ones. This is the case, on the one hand, of the inevitable bells, of the Christmas atmosphere in general, sparkling, and of a rhetoric that always takes root during the holidays: the protagonist does not want gifts, but the presence of her distant love, in one of those topos (that is, missing someone at Christmas) evergreen; think, already at the time of World War II there were songs like thisdedicated to the soldiers at the front. We are always there, it touches the same chords.
But on the other hand it contains a series of musical references ranging from dance pop to r&b, which define its style and make it contemporary by identity: it's part of a dynasty, sure, but it's there our part of dynasty. Therefore, given the premises and the numbers, as well as the pervasiveness of its references, it is not absurd to think that it could become, in the long run, the most iconic Christmas song: a piece that future generations will perhaps deal with as we do today with, say, Jingle Bells.
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He was born near Rome in 1995, he is a journalist and mainly deals with Italian stories, pop culture, music and football. He collaborates with Repubblica, ICON and Internazionale, where he has also worked as a documentary maker and where today he writes a song column in the monthly children's magazine, Kids. Before that, he wrote in Rolling Stone, IL and L'Espresso, became an author here and there and got his Professional license.
