Three things are certain in life: taxes, death and Mariah Carey’s All I Want for Christmas is You every Christmas.

The now classic song is played everywhere, in every corner of the planet, along with Blue Christmas, Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree and It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.

Although it was just a hit when it was first released in 1994 – 30 years later, All I Want for Christmas is You is one of the top 5 Christmas songs worldwide – in fact in 2023 it was officially crowned by Billboard as the best holiday song of all time.

So what is the secret of his success?

Many young artists like Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber and The Killers (to name a few) have tried to make Christmas hits, but failed.
Why did All I Want for Christmas is You succeed?

“Basically, it’s a really fun song,” says Dr Brittnay L Proctor, professor of media studies and popular culture at The New School in New York.

“As a rule, a lot of Christmas songs aren’t very entertaining. All I Want for Christmas is You very successfully combined the idea of ​​the holidays with elements of gospel, R&B and pop in a joyful way,” explains Dr Brittnay L. Proctor to the BBC

Writer Kate Solomon again said it was a “perfect pop song that just happens to be Christmas”.

“All I Want for Christmas is You successfully dances between musical eras and genres,” says Nate Sloan, musicologist and co-host of the Switched On Pop podcast. In fact, Carey herself had said that her goal with the song was to do something timeless, so it didn’t sound like the 1990s.

As pop culture critic Aisha Harris tells the BBC, the song “sounds modern and nostalgic at the same time” thanks to its “instruments, chimes and harmonies that are clearly an homage to Darlene Love’s Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)”.

All I Want for Christmas is You is now considered a classic as it only comes out once a year – so it always sounds fresh.