Mariah Carey’s ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You’ Makes Merry Move Back to No. 1 on Billboard Hot 100
The carol leads for a 15th total week, and in an unprecedented sixth holiday season.
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Mariah Carey‘s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” dashes through all competition on the Billboard Hot 100 once again, surging nine spots to No. 1 for a 15th total week atop the chart.
The carol reigns in a record-extending sixth holiday season. It was originally released on Carey’s album Merry Christmas in November 1994 and, as streaming has grown and holiday music has become more prominent on streaming services’ playlists, it hit the Hot 100’s top 10 for the first time in December 2017, and the top five for the first time in the 2018 holiday season. It led at last, prior to this week, over the holidays in 2019 (for three weeks), 2020 (two), 2021 (three), 2022 (four) and 2023 (two).
“When I wrote [it], I had absolutely no idea the impact the song would eventually have worldwide,” Carey marveled in 2021. “I’m so full of gratitude that so many people enjoy it with me every year.”
“All I Want for Christmas Is You” became Carey’s 19th Hot 100 No. 1, the most among soloists and one away from The Beatles’ overall record 20. It also made Carey the first artist to have ranked at No. 1 on the chart in four distinct decades (1990s, 2000s, ‘10s and ‘20s).
Holiday cheer infuses half the Hot 100’s top 10, including the entire top three. Below Carey, Brenda Lee bounds 15-2 with “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” which spent three weeks at No. 1 last holiday season, reaching the summit at last 65 years after its release. Plus, Wham!’s “Last Christmas” leaps 18-3, as the 1984 single hits a new Hot 100 high.
Two other classics return to the Hot 100’s top 10: Bobby Helms’ “Jingle Bell Rock” (19-5) and Burl Ives’ “A Holly Jolly Christmas” (33-10).
The Hot 100 blends all-genre U.S. streaming (official audio and official video), radio airplay and sales data, the lattermost metric reflecting purchases of physical singles and digital tracks from full-service digital music retailers; digital singles sales from direct-to-consumer (D2C) sites are excluded from chart calculations. All charts (dated Dec. 14, 2024) will update on Billboard.com tomorrow (Dec. 10). For all chart news, you can follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram.
Luminate, the independent data provider to the Billboard charts, completes a thorough review of all data submissions used in compiling the weekly chart rankings. Luminate reviews and authenticates data. In partnership with Billboard, data deemed suspicious or unverifiable is removed, using established criteria, before final chart calculations are made and published.
