‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ Busted Spotify And MiMi Can’t Believe It

First, there was Jesus of Nazareth, a fella you may have heard of once or twice in your time. His birth in a barn to a couple of weary travellers preempted the Christian faith, and marked the first Christmas – the celebration of a man billions of people worldwide see as the saviour of the human race.

A millennia or so later, that faith travelled far enough to mingle with pagan festivities, tying the idea of a kid born in the Middle East to Germanic winter traditions. Then the 20th century rolled around, which topped up that grab-bag of religious symbolism with chintzy consumerism.

All of this is to say our understanding of Christmas is malleable and prone to further alterations with each successive generation. It’s natural, and there’s little point in trying to stem the tide of cultural influence on one of the planet’s most widely-recognised holidays.

More to the point: we’re now claiming Mariah Carey as a central component of the Christmas myth.

[jwplayer Vijj4Our]

Spotify has revealed that Carey’s 1994 hit All I Want For Christmas Is You notched over 10.8 million streams worldwide on Christmas Eve, officially becoming the most-streamed song in a single day on the platform.

Numerous outlets have pointed out that figure eclipses the single-day streaming figures recorded by rapper XXXTentacion, whose fans streamed SAD! 10.4 million times in the 24 hours after his death earlier this year.

Carey herself has taken the news with apparent surprise, despite the song becoming a key component of the secular Christmas tune canon over the past 24 years.

For what it’s worth, All I Want For Christmas Is You really has been a perennial hit since its release, and seems to have only grown in popularity. A quick glance at the Google trends associated with the track reveal annual spikes, representing hordes of punters looking to mimic MiMi’s high notes:

via Google

There seems to be little reason for that trend to dissipate, so we feel confident inaugurating Carey as a formal cornerstone of the Christmas myth. Besides, Spotify hasn’t even counted all of the song’s Christmas Day streams yet, so…

More Stuff From PEDESTRIAN.TV