Mariah Carey is being criticised for trying to trademark "Queen of Christmas"
"Christmas is for everyone. It’s meant to be shared; it’s not meant to be owned."
Last updated 17th Aug 2022
Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas Is You" has sold over 16 million copies worldwide, but Mariah wants to make her title as the "Queen of Christmas" official - by trademarking it. Well, not if Darlene Love and Elizabeth Chan have anything to say about it!
In March 2021, Mariah filed an application to trademark "Queen of Christmas", plus “QOC”, “Princess of Christmas” and “Christmas Princess”. The trademark would be used for audio and visual recordings and the downloading and streaming of those materials. But also for things like clothing, fragrances, food and drink, Christmas tree decorations and protective face masks.
This information was made public on the 12th July, and now people are able to file an opposition to the application. And singers Darlene Love and Elizabeth Chan have voiced their anger at the trademark, as both Love and Chan have been associated with the title of "Queen of Christmas".
Darlene Love sang on Phil Spector's Christmas Album in 1963, and performed on US talk show "Late Night with David Letterman" every holiday season, where he "declared" her "Queen of Christmas" 29 years ago. Elizabeth Chan is the only singer-songwriter who releases Christmas music exclusively, and has even released an album called “Queen of Christmas.”
Posting on social media, Darlene wrote "at 81 years of age I’m NOT changing anything. I’ve been in the business for 52 years, have earned it and can still hit those notes! If Mariah has a problem call David or my lawyer!!”
The first time the media used "Queen of Christmas" to refer to Elizabeth Chan it for her was when “All Access” use it in 2014, a couple of years into her 11-year recording career. But it when the New Yorker profiled her in 2018 with the simple headline: “The Queen of Christmas.”, it seemed the moniker was solidified. The article described Chan as many others before and since have, as “America’s most successful, and perhaps only, full-time Christmas-song singer-slash-composer.”
“Christmas has come way before any of us on earth, and hopefully will be around way after any of us on earth," Elizabeth Chan said. “And I feel very strongly that no one person should hold onto anything around Christmas or monopolise it in the way that Mariah seeks to in perpetuity. That’s just not the right thing to do. Christmas is for everyone. It’s meant to be shared; it’s not meant to be owned."