Mariah Carey opens up about writing her Christmas hit 'All I Want For Christmas Is You'

It wouldn't be Christmas without this song! 🎄

Mariah Carey

Author: Anna Sky MagliolaPublished 15th Nov 2023

The countdown to Christmas officially started on 1st November, when Mariah Carey broke out of an ice block, screaming, "It's time!" Now, the singer, whose 1994 hit 'All I Want For Christmas' has become a Christmas classic, spoke to This Morning about how she had no idea the song was going to be the iconic hit it's turned out to be.

Speaking to Sam Rubin on This Morning, Mariah said: "No, I didn’t (know it would be a hit). Normally when people ask me the ‘did you know’ type thing, I pretty much say ‘yeah I had an idea or I knew’ but with this, I didn’t know.

"It was the first Christmas song I’d ever written and I just wanted it to be real to me. To my little girls’ self… like, what are the things I think about Christmas, what did I want, what did I wish for?”

The singer than explained her vision for the song, saying: "When I first wrote it, I wanted it to be timeless. I didn't want it to be something that felt like a specific year - I wanted it to be something that I could have heard as a little kid growing up.

"I don’t know what version of Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer I heard as a kid, or Walking in a Winter Wonderland, but I just know that I loved those songs. So I wasn’t thinking ‘oh my song is going to be as big as those songs’ but I was like, ‘let me do something that makes me feel like I’m getting the experience of listening to a classic’."

'All I Want For Christmas Is You' was first released in 1994, with the now memorable music video which sees Mariah playing in deep snow with some friends. Despite the song never getting to Number 1 in the UK, it has been hugely successful and has been certified 7× Platinum in the UK, and 12× Platinum in the US.

You can hear songs by Mariah Carey on Forth 1.

QUIZ: Guess the Christmas song from the iconic lyrics

Lyrics...

Guess the song from these lyrics, and then scroll down for the answers:

1) "This year, to save me from tears I'll give it to someone special."

2) "Let the Christmas spirit ring, later we'll have some pumpkin pie."

3) "Santa Claus won't make me happy with a toy on Christmas Day."

4) "You know that sweet Santa Clause is on the way."

5) "Feed the world."

6) "I've got 5 more nights until you're next to me, 4 more days of being lonely."

7) "So this is Xmas and what have you done."

8) "Look to the future now, It's only just begun."

9) "You were handsome, you were pretty, Queen of New York City."

10) "Eat, drink and be merry, come along with me."

11) "Baby if you've got to go away, don't think I could take the pain."

12) "Soon the bells will start and the thing that'll make 'em ring is the carol that you sing."

13) "I sing this song to pass the time away, driving in my car."

14) "Snow is falling all around me."