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Mariah Carey

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Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas Is You" Hits No. 1 25 Years After Its Initial Release

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Take a trip back to 1994 as we dive deeper into the origins of a modern holiday classic
Will Hodge
GRAMMYs
Dec 17, 2019 - 12:19 pm

While the holiday marketing phrase "the gift that keeps on giving" has been around since at least the 1920s, the musical embodiment of this seasonal sentiment can be traced directly back to Oct. 28, 1994, when Mariah Carey released her iconic multi-platinum Merry Christmas album containing her inescapable holiday hit, "All I Want For Christmas Is You." However, instead of being a static nostalgic touchstone that harkens listeners back to a flannel-clad, Clinton-era Christmas of the ‘90s, Carey's ubiquitous yuletide love song has managed to continually build upon its own escalating legacy of pop culture domination season after season, resulting in this year's recently announced crowning achievement – for the first time in its 25-year existence, "All I Want For Christmas Is You" has hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

This newest (and perhaps most impressive) accolade awarded to "All I Want For Christmas Is You" is actually Carey's nineteenth No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, a feat that finds her leaving a second-spot tie with Elvis Presley to stand alone as being only one chart-topping single away from tying the Beatles at 20 No. 1 singles. To be clear, this is not the Billboard Holiday 100 chart (though "All I Want For Christmas Is You" has also sat atop that separate chart for 37 weeks since it was first created in 2011), but rather the actual Billboard Hot 100, where the 25-year-old Christmas classic beat out current non-holiday songs from The Weeknd, Post Malone, Lewis Capaldi, Lizzo and more.    

As monumental as that milestone may be on its own, it turns out it's not even the only honor Carey's smash hit achieved this year. Just last month, Guinness World Records certified "All I Want For Christmas Is You" with three new world records that will appear in the 2020 Guinness Book of World Records: Highest-Charting Holiday (Christmas/New Year) Song On The Hot 100 By A Solo Artist, Most Streamed Track On Spotify In 24 Hours (by a female-identifying artist), and Most Weeks In The UK Singles Top 10 Chart For A Christmas Song.

Joining this year's assortment of accolades is another sonic souvenir to Carey's fans – a double-disc Deluxe Anniversary Edition of Merry Christmas that features the original 1994 album (including the international edition bonus track "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen") and a bonus disc of 18 Christmas-themed songs, remixes, and live tracks culled from various holiday seasons across her career. Additionally, Carey is offering a few different versions of the "All I Want For Christmas Is You" single across multiple mediums – including CD, cassingle, and vinyl (in both 7" and 12" versions).

This new reissue of Merry Christmas is a nice reminder of Carey's superstar talents, relentless creative work ethic, and hard-earned staying power. While she famously didn't want to record a Christmas album at first – thinking it was too early in her career to attempt such a legacy artist move – she completely dove headfirst into the deep end once she decided to commit. She meticulously combed through the Christmas canon to find just the right mix of sacred and secular classics to put her own spin on, outfitted the recording studio with Christmas decorations, co-produced the album, and even co-wrote a trio of new songs – "All I Want For Christmas Is You," "Miss You Most (At Christmas Time)," and "Jesus Born on This Day" – with Walter Afanasieff, her longtime creative partner at the time who ended up co-writing over 20 songs with Carey, including some of her other massive number one hits like "Hero" and "One Sweet Day" with Boyz II Men.

While Carey's Merry Christmas has undoubtedly provided an omnipresent holiday soundtrack for the last two-and-a-half decades, the star of this year's reissue are the six live tracks from her Dec. 8, 1994 benefit concert at New York City's Cathedral of St. John the Divine. Notable at the time for being the first time Carey performed these songs from her recently released Merry Christmas album in front of an audience, now listening to these previously unreleased tracks provides a charming snapshot into Carey's early pre-pop diva career when her R&B and gospel roots oftentimes outshined her meticulously-crafted pop sheen.

While she unquestionably showcased her radio-ready talents right out of the gate, these St. John the Divine live versions of songs like "Silent Night," "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing," and "Joy to The World" find Carey, her background singers, and a spirited choir (on the latter two) literally and figuratively taking the audience to church with their flawless melodic interplay, nuanced improvisations, and stirring vocal runs.        

Even the live version of "All I Want For Christmas Is You" that opens the St. John the Divine performance finds Carey absolutely nailing the polished sections of the (then) new radio single, while still having some fun with the improvised vocal ad-libs that drive the outro vamp. Hearing this version 25 years after it was first performed not only reminds listeners of the proficient-yet-playful vocal theatrics of Carey's early work, but it also proves to be a really nice companion version to the original that offers a fresh take on the beloved classic. No matter if you've heard "All I Want For Christmas Is You" a thousand times or more, there's something energetically crisp about this early live version that makes it feel like you're hearing it for the first time.

It's hard to remember that with only three albums and a stellar live EP under her belt in 1994, many people (including Carey herself) were shocked to hear that she would be releasing a Christmas album. Even with the early successes of her multi-platinum self-titled debut album, her first four singles hitting No. 1, "Hero" becoming her signature song, and her mesmerizing performance on MTV Unplugged silencing her "studio creation" critics, Carey was still very much in the "proving ground" portion of her career at the time that Merry Christmas was released. However, as the last 25 years of merriment and milestones for "All I Want For Christmas Is You" has proven, Carey was right about the fact that recording a Christmas album was something that a more accomplished legacy artist would do – she just wasn't aware that she had already started to establish herself as one of the greats so early in her game-changing (and still ongoing!) career.    

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District Advocate Day 2020

 

Courtesy Photo: GRAMMY Advocacy

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District Advocate Day Unites Music Makers & Lawmakers Toward Pandemic Relief

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Nearly 2,000 Recording Academy members – including GRAMMY winners and nominees – took part in over 250 meetings today in the year's largest grassroots music advocacy movement
Advocacy
Aug 12, 2020 - 9:39 am

Worlds collided today, as across the country the Recording Academy's seventh annual District Advocate day brought together the professionals who make the music we love and the members of Congress who make the laws affecting their livelihoods. Academy members engaged in a series of virtual meetings with their elected officials to discuss pressing issues impacting the music community, such as providing pandemic-related relief and assistance to the creative community, pushing for equitable treatment and social justice reforms, and ensuring that the rights of all creators are always protected.

District Advocate Day participants included GRAMMY winners Yolanda Adams, Brandy Clark, José Feliciano, John Legend and Ziggy Marley and GRAMMY nominees Victoria Monét and Offset, plus nearly 2,000 other music professionals.

The event marked the crescendo of the Academy's "Summer of Advocacy," an ongoing effort to help provide pandemic relief for music creators, to support survival of music businesses and to promote positive social change through legislation.

And it’s working. Earlier this year, Academy members helped secure important provisions in the CARES Act that provided critical support for the music community dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. Today's conversations between Academy members and their Senators and Congressional Representatives took the next big step to ensure the music community is heard at a critical time for legislative support.

"District Advocate Day has always been an important initiative for music advocacy and it's especially true now," said Harvey Mason jr., Chair and Interim President/CEO of the Recording Academy. "Creators are among the hardest hit and first out of work, yet music is what brings the world together in hard times — and for many, it brings hope. Today, we raise our voices to remind legislators of the vital role music plays during this pandemic and, equally as imperative, the creators behind it who are struggling and desperately needing a helping hand from this country's leaders."

With District Advocate day, the Academy continues to amplify the voices of creators and small businesses, while also endorsing and developing additional legislation to deliver aid to creators. For instance, developed and endorsed by the Recording Academy alongside Rep. Linda T. Sánchez (D-Calif.) and Rep. Ron Estes (R-Kansas), the Help Independent Tracks Succeed (HITS) Act would allow individuals to fully expense the cost of new studio recordings on their taxes, up to $150,000, within the same year of production. Academy members encouraged their representatives to co-sponsor the HITS Act during today's meetings.

Members also advocated for passage of the Reviving the Economy Sustainably Towards a Recovery in Twenty-twenty (RESTART) Act, a loan program that would provide funding to cover six months of payroll, benefits, and fixed operating expenses for businesses that have taken a substantial revenue hit during the COVID-19 pandemic. For independent workers with mixed-income types, a category which includes many music creators across the country, the Mixed Earner Pandemic Unemployment Assistance Act proposed a solution to ensure unemployment relief and assist freelance workers unable to receive just unemployment aid. 

Members discussed these key issues and more today in year's largest grassroots music advocacy movement. District Advocate, along with the Recording Academy's annual GRAMMYs on the Hill in April, which is on hiatus this year due to COVID-19, are the Recording Academy's premiere advocacy events, and are credited by bipartisan legislators with helping to pass the Music Modernization Act into law — the largest update to music legislation in the past 40 years. 

For more information about District Advocate Day and Recording Academy advocacy initiatives, visit www.grammy.com/districtadvocate.

Take Action Today: Learn About The Key Issues Facing Creators And How You Can Help

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OP-ED: How To Ensure Music's Survival In The COVID Era

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Music deserves economic, social, political and cultural support to flourish in every community
Shain Shapiro
GRAMMYs
Aug 11, 2020 - 11:14 am

While the music industry continues to face unprecedented challenges from the closure of music venues and the reduction in music usage in shops, restaurants and other businesses, there’s a lot to be hopeful about. Music instrument sales have increased. More music is being streamed than ever before. TikTok and Snapchat have been entered into licensing agreements with publishers; paid for live streaming is increasing. However small, there are reasons to be cautiously optimistic. 

But these improvements are built on a shaky foundation. While the prevalence of music in our lives remains consistent, the revenues directed to those responsible for it—the songwriters, producers and musicians—remains flat. Spotify CEO's bold assertion that it is not their responsibility to increase payouts and artists must initiate individual change is proof that what remains important is access to the music, not supporting the process of how it got there.  This is why a call by artists to triple payouts in March to alleviate live cancellations fell on deaf ears.  

While one cannot predict what the music industry will face in the next three, six and 12 months, the fallout from the pandemic is revealing a few trends that if we focus on now, can lead to and support a more equitable, inclusive music sector and ecosystem in the mid and long term. Here are five such examples, what they mean and what we can learn from them. 

1. Local music is becoming the only live music: However few and far between, concerts are popping up. The vast majority are local acts. This is an opportunity for the sector to rewire its talent development pipeline in its towns and cities. If local venues rely on local artists—and vice versa—we can create and advocate for sustainable local scenes, who can, over time, be intertwined into regional touring circuits. Instead of only lamenting the lack of national and international touring, now is the time to invest in local talent. At the same time, the fallout from the pandemic is creating a renewed interest in creatives settling in small and mid-sized cities, as they are cheaper and less dense. This will support the importance—culturally, socially and economically—of local scenes into the future.   

2. Difficult, needed conversations are becoming increasingly prevalent: In the U.K., Gomez guitarist Tom Gray launched the #BrokenRecord campaign, highlighting the inequities in how streaming pays artists. The crisis has spawned the Black Music Action Coalition in the U.S. and U.K. Women in CTRL in the U.K. published a report outlining the inequities in U.K.'s music trade bodies, where only five out of a possible 185 board seats are held by Black women. Calls for fairness, equity and equality in the sector are more prevalent now than ever. A wider set of voices will create better music, better governance and better advocacy.     

3. Communities are recognizing what they are losing: Across the United States, a host of local, statewide and national trade bodies have been created, to advocate for specific subsections of the sector. The impact of the National Independent Venue Association and National Independent Talent Organisation has spawned new trade bodies in Indiana, New York City, Austin and the State of Washington, among other places. Huntsville, Alabama has a music board. Madison is reigniting its music and equity task force. Oregon has provided relief to its venues. While local change that prioritizes music infrastructure in recovery is its nascent phase, more collective voices are advocating for music now than ever. 

4. Local regulation is being simplified: In New York City, a cumbersome and complicated regulatory environment was quickly liberalized to allow restaurants to set up tables and chairs on sidewalks and streets, to be able to trade outdoors. Before COVID, this would never have happened. But a need to innovate facilitated it. In Indianapolis, regulations still exist banning under 18s from stepping inside music venues, so a future wedding booking can’t be taken because the ring bearer won’t be allowed in. In Philadelphia, multiple permits are required before opening a music venue or bar. In Madison, racist ordinances are still utilized to prohibit hip-hop shows from being staged. But discussions are being conducted to change these and many others. The grassroots work of Reopen Every Venue Safely, particularly in New Orleans, Seattle and Cleveland, is testament to that. As is the Global Nightlife Recovery Plan, a cross-border initiative of nightlife policymakers and practitioners. A rewriting of local regulations to embolden and support music more is underway across America.  

5. Existing Funding is reaching artists and venues: In Indianapolis, the city has allocated $125,000 to support its music venues. CARES funding has reached Soundcorps in Chattanooga. Plans are being devised for a new program to support artists and venues in Tulsa, via an award of CARES support. Tucson arts organisations have received $450,000. This is a small example of a number of organizations who have utilised CARES to support musicians and artists. While this is nowhere near what's needed, these examples demonstrate that in many places, musicians and venues are seen to be as valuable as any other business or entrepreneur.    

These initiatives are far from good enough. The systemic inequities across the music ecosystem remain, including support not always reaching the widest possible amount of community members, or a lack of reform from within the industry to better support songwriters. But these green shoots, however small, are encouraging. A trend is emerging that is increasing the importance of music—in all its forms and functions—in communities around the country. If this continues, so will the passing of better regulation, increased support and a recognition that no matter who we are or where we live, music deserves economic, social, political and cultural support to flourish in every community. 

OP-ED: How Music Can Help Lead Recovery

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Ringo Starr

Photo: Michael Hurcomb/Corbis via Getty Images

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Morrison Hotel Gallery Virtual Charity Festival: Ringo Starr, Linda Perry, Slash & More

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The rock star-studded fest will raise money for MusiCares and NIVA
Jennifer Velez
MusiCares
Aug 11, 2020 - 8:40 am

Morrison Hotel Gallery, a recognized music photography gallery, is teaming up with Rolling Live Studios to present the virtual (De)Tour Music Festival featuring some iconic names in rock and pop music including Ringo Starr, Linda Perry, Slash, Macy Gray, Lzzy Hale, Gavin Rossdale, Darryl McDaniels and many others on Aug. 15.

The livestream charity event will begin at 1 p.m. EST/ 10 a.m. PST and will also feature appearances by music photographers Mick Rock, Bob Gruen, Henry Diltz, Danny Clinch, and Lynn Goldsmith. The fest will raise funds for MusiCares and NIVA. Steve Stevens, Sue Foley, Chris Layton, The Cringe, Uni, Vintage Trouble, AWOLNATION, Mike Garson, and Taylor Momsen are among others who will perform. 

Momson told Rolling Stone he was proud to be a part of the event and spoke of what MusiCares means to him. 

"MusicCares has helped so many of my friends and family in the music community, and now, branching out to COVID relief and all the other angles that help the music world is incredible and such an honor to be a part of. It’s looking like this event is going to have such a fantastic line up of acts that I respect so much and I can’t wait to see where it goes!" he said. 

The music publication adds some of the performances will be held at artists homes and others at venues like West Hollywood, Calif.’s Whisky a Go Go, the Roxy Theatre and the Viper Room.

Morrison Hotel Gallery represents photographers who have shot some of the most iconic photos in music history and has galleries in New York, Los Angeles and Maui, Hawaii. The gallery began with Henry Diltz's archive, including his Doors' Morrison Hotel album cover. 

Watch the free livestream on YouTube. 

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Saweetie at 2020 Pre-GRAMMY Gala

Saweetie at 2020 Pre-GRAMMY Gala

Photo: Gregg DeGuire/Getty Images

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Billie Eilish, Saweetie, Selena Gomez, John Legend & More Will Share "Why I'm Voting"

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The iHeartMedia campaign is focused on sharing the personal stories on why people are voting in the upcoming 2020 Presidential Election, and is also offering listeners the chance to submit their own message
Ana Monroy Yglesias
GRAMMYs
Aug 10, 2020 - 12:40 pm

Saweetie, Billie Eilish and FINNEAS, Selena Gomez, John Legend, Dan Reynolds of Imagine Dragons and others will be encouraging their massive fan bases to vote in iHeartMedia's "Why I'm Voting" campaign, Billboard revealed today.

The 2020 non-partisan voter initiative has kicked off with a new podcast—sharing the same name and also launched today—with the first four episodes featuring 2020 Producer Of The Year FINNEAS, Jewel and comedians Will Ferrell and Baratunde Thurston.

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The campaign is focused on sharing the personal stories on why people are voting in the upcoming 2020 Presidential Election, and is also offering listeners the chance to submit their own 20-second message.

Other artists set to participate include Dan + Shay, Michelle Williams, DJ Khaled and Diplo. Pitbull, Melissa Etheridge and comedian Chelsea Handler will be featured in upcoming podcast episodes.

Another important part of the campaign, iHeartMedia is asking people to text the word "VOTER" to 26797 to learn about election info in their area, voter registration deadlines and more.

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