Now that the Christmas season is over, there’s a 100% chance you’ve heard Mariah Carey‘s pipes belting out All I Want For Christmas Is You about one thousand times. You will no doubt hear it about one thousand times more as the world anticipates Christmas 2018. And so on, into eternity.
But how much has Mariah actually made from what is probably the most iconic modern Christmas song? A few reports have been bouncing around overt he past few days trying to unpack that particular riddle. According to The Economist, the four-minute melody – the bulk of which was apparently written in 15 minutes – has earned more than $60 million in royalty money since its release.
Not all of that goes to Carey, of course. Some of it goes to her co-writer, composer Walter Afanasieff. In an interview, he said he didn’t even particularly like the song to begin with:
At the time, I thought it was overly simple, and I really didn’t like it. The oversimplified melody, I guess, that made it so easily palatable for the whole world to go ‘Oh, I can’t get that out of my head.’
It’s still easily the most popular Christmas song on Spotify, clocking up a massive 210 million streams. It’s also the 11th best-selling single of all time. It’s literally back in the Australian charts again, sitting comfortably at number 11. That’s the kind of staying power it has. This may go some way to explaining why you hear it approximately one thousand times a year.
Folks. It’s lots of money. If you’re Australian, you’ll be waiting a little longer to hear it live. Mariah’s concert tour has been postponed ’til October 2018. Hey: at least it’ll be slightly closer to Christmas at that point, so you can feel fine about feeding the beast that is this song.
