Christmas Is Over, But Mariah Carey Is Still Making History
Since 2019, Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas Is You" has returned to the peak position on the Hot 100 every year.
The holidays may be over for another year, but that doesn’t mean that one of the biggest Christmas hits of all time is done with its annual rule.
Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” is steady at No. 1 on the newly-refreshed Hot 100 yet again this week. The tune kicks off 2023 as the debut ruler on the weekly ranking of the most-consumed songs in the U.S. By holding onto the highest spot on the Hot 100 this week, Carey’s smash manages to make history yet again, as it so often does.
According to Billboard, “All I Want for Christmas Is You” is now the first song in history to hold court at No. 1 in charts dated in five different years. It is relatively uncommon for any track to sit atop the tally in two distinct years, and those that do so typically only manage the feat because they rule both at the end and the beginning of calendar years.
While that may be the case at this moment for Carey, she is truly in a league of her own when it comes to this spot in the history books.
“All I Want for Christmas Is You” first reached No. 1 on the Hot 100 back in 2019, and it rocked the music world by doing so. The decades-old tune continues to grow in popularity with each passing holiday season, and due to a number of changes in how Billboard compiles its weekly charts, Carey finally grabbed her nineteenth leader after waiting years to do so.
Since 2019, “All I Want for Christmas Is You” has returned to the peak position on the Hot 100 every year. It is now expected that the cut will find its way to the throne every December, and sometimes it continues to reign into January, based on how data is collected and when Billboard publishes its rankings.
Impressively, “All I Want for Christmas Is You” has also broken into the top 10 on the Hot 100 in an additional two years. Before the smash hit No. 1 in 2019, it first entered the highest tier on the tally in 2017. The following year, it rose even higher, though it didn’t quite make it all the way to the peak.
“All I Want for Christmas Is You” has experienced an incredibly odd and unprecedented journey to No. 1 on the Hot 100. Initially released in 1994, Billboard rules kept it from placing on the main chart until the year 2000, as it was not officially released as a single at the time (at least not in the way the company classified a single).
Sadly, it would be a dozen more years before Carey’s biggest holiday win reappeared on the Hot 100, which it was able to do when Billboard eased a number of restrictions that kept it from the tally.
The inescapable hit has now claimed a dozen weeks at No. 1 on the Hot 100, including this latest stay in the penthouse. That sum is sure to rise again next December when millions return to streaming, purchasing, and listening to it on the radio. Based on its performance this year, if “All I Want for Christmas Is You” racks up another two or three weeks atop the Hot 100 in 2023, it will officially enter rarefied territory and become one of the longest-running No. 1 smashes in American history.
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