Mariah Carey’s ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ paycheque will blow your mind

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She may not legally be allowed to call herself the Queen of Christmas, but Mariah Carey’s hit holiday song All I Want For Christmas Is You is a gift that keeps on giving year after year.

The singer’s holiday anthem, first released in 1994, didn’t hit No. 1 on the Billboard charts until 2019. But it has been a staple come Christmastime since it first appeared on Carey’s Merry Christmas album.

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“When it first came out, it was more of a gradual thing,” Carey told Entertainment Weekly reflecting on the track’s success. “It was popular, but it didn’t have what it has now. I feel like people have grown up with the song and it’s become a part of people’s lives in terms of the way they celebrate the holidays. That makes me feel really proud as someone that loves Christmas so much.”

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Last December, the five-time Grammy winner got a very special present when she earned the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) Diamond Award for the tune (a distinction given to songs that have sold more than 10 million units).

“The continued love for my song never ceases to amaze me and fill my heart with a multitude of emotions,” Carey, 52, said in a press release. “It blows my mind that All I Want for Christmas Is You has endured different eras of the music industry. The RIAA DIAMOND award?! Wowww! I’m so fortunate to have the greatest fans on Earth, my Lambily, who continue to support my legacy. I love you.”

But in addition to being an enduring holiday hit you can’t escape between Nov. 1 and Dec. 31, All I Want For Christmas Is You is also a big money maker for the songstress.

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According to data obtained by Billboard via Luminate, in 2021, plays and downloads of the song in the U.S. generated $1.36 million for Carey and her label, Sony Music.

Carey pocketed another $378,000 last year from physical sales of albums on which the song appears.

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Billboard estimates Carey hauled in millions more outside of the U.S. pushing the track’s earning power to over $6 million.

Of course, Carey doesn’t get all of the dough. The revenues from the song are split between her, the track’s co-writer Walter Afanasieff and Sony.

But in 2017, The Economist crunched the numbers and figured that Carey takes home $2.5 million per year thanks to the holiday hit.

Last year, Forbes went one step further and estimated that since its release the track has earned $72 million.

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Carey’s holiday haul this year also includes revenue from concert appearances in Toronto and New York City this month, and a special airing on Paramount+.

Last month, Carey told W Magazine that she was initially cool to the idea of recording a Christmas album back in 1994, saying that she didn’t think it was the right fit for her at the time.

“It was very early in my career, and I thought it was a little early for me to be doing that, but I was like, ‘Well, I love Christmas.’ I had some very sad Christmases as a child, but I always try to find the bright light there.”

The album’s most famous song was hatched, Carey continued, when she started plucking away at a keyboard at home.

“I didn’t want it to feel specific to any era, so we didn’t use sounds that were happening at that time. That way, it would feel classic and timeless.”

But Carey conceded that she never expected All I Want For Christmas Is You to become the chart-topping juggernaut that it did.

“I could never have imagined that it would become such a major part of my life,” she said.

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