Mariah Carey Shares The Story Behind “All I Want for Christmas is You”

Mariah Carey is arguably known as Mrs. Christmas because of her hit song “All I Want For Christmas Is You” and she just released another new Christmas project. She virtually stopped by The Bobby Bones Show this morning to talk about the new project, the story behind her famous Christmas song, as well as what her future plans are for her book.

When Carey released “All I Want For Christmas Is You” she had only done 2 albums at that point. She felt like releasing Christmas music was too soon into her career, it was something she saw people do later on in their careers. But, she always loved Christmas time so she gave it a shot anyways. When she sat down to write it, she tapped into some of her old memories. She admitted that Christmas time for her as a child was never really great, so she wrote about what it would be like to have the perfect Christmas. She wanted it to feel like a “timeless classic.” Admittedly, Carey never thought the song would do what it did on the charts. Though she’s happy to see her song be part of other peoples’ Christmas celebrations.

Carey’s new song “Fall in Love at Christmas” is a collaboration with Khalid and Kirk Franklin that they just dropped. She shared that she wanted to write a Christmas song that was different from “All I Want For Christmas Is You” because she could never compete with that. The song was inspired by “Greensleeves” where it goes from a very simplistic tune to a major moment where it “takes you to church” at the end of the song. Carey has loved Khalid since his first album, so she knew she wanted to work on something with him. Franklin has been wanting to collab with Carey on something, so this song worked out perfectly.

As her fans know, Carey isn’t just working on music. During the pandemic, she started her Butterfly Lounge. Her book was recently released, which she worked on for 3 years writing about her childhood. Now, Carey is working on plans for the adaption of the book to a possible movie or TV show. And this fall, Carey released a line of Irish cream liqueurs called Black Irish. The line honors the pop star’s Black and Irish lineage, she was born to a Black-Venezuelan father and an Irish mother. The liqueur comes in three flavors: Original Irish Cream, Salted Caramel, and White Chocolate. Carey admitted her favorite flavor is the Salted Caramel.