There’s longevity, then there’s Mariah Carey.
Suggested Reading
Carey’s singular seasonal bop, “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” has been playing on loudspeakers in grocery stores, company holiday parties, recreation centers, karaoke bars and mall kiosks around the world for 25 years—but just this past week, the song hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time in its history.
As the New York Times reports, it’s both the single that took longest to climb to the top of the charts and the first Christmas song in 60 years to do so (the last one was the “The Chipmunk Song”—because there’s just no accounting for white people’s taste).
Carey marked the occasion on her social media accounts. “We did it,” she captioned in a tweet quoting the Billboard news. The enigmatic pop singer followed the text with a crying face emoji, a heart, a sheep, a Christmas tree, and a blue butterfly...for reasons.
An instant classic from the moment it was released in 1994, the song’s re-emergence as a Christmas colossus is spurred by its popularity on streaming services like Spotify. And Carey is not done building out more content around the ubiquitous holiday hit: As the Times writes, the singer has constructed “a cottage industry unto itself” around “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” including Christmas tours, a children’s book, a mini-documentary, and a 2017 animated film. On Tuesday, Carey announced that she’ll be launching a brand new music video for the song, set to premiere on December 20th (with a live Q&A prior).
All that streaming has translated to some serious cash in Carey’s stocking. According to a 2017 Economist report, the song has netted Carey at least $60 million. And the U.K.-based U.K.-based analytics site Broadband Deals (h/t AOL) estimates at least $2 million in royalties has come from Spotify alone.
Speaking to the Times, Carey said she didn’t need “something else to validate the existence of this song.”
“I used to pick it apart whenever I listened to it, but at this point, I feel like I’m finally able to enjoy it,” she said.
“I just truly love the holidays,” Carey added. “I know it’s corny, and I don’t care.”
Straight From 
Sign up for our free daily newsletter.