Mariah Carey recalls writing All I Want For Christmas Is You

Mariah Carey has recalled writing her festive classic All I Want For Christmas Is You and said the song “makes me happy”.

The 1994 track has become a hallmark of the holidays and earned Carey the “Queen of Christmas” title.

Speaking to Zane Lowe on his Apple Music 1 show, the chart-topping pop star looked back on writing the song “on a junky, little keyboard”.

Carey said: “And I think that, you know what, I’m not saying it’s the world’s greatest thing, but it makes me happy. And it’s made a lot of other people happy.

“And when I see people dancing in the streets to the song and having these big, huge festivals, and they’re playing it, it’s what holidays mean to me. It’s the memories. It’s being around the people. It’s the song that takes you through the memories that you can create your own new memories from.”

Last week, Carey released her star-studded Magical Christmas Special on the Apple TV+ streaming service, featuring collaborations with Ariana Grande and Jennifer Hudson.

They appeared together on a new version of Carey’s 2010 song Oh, Santa. Carey said she wanted to emulate Motown singing group The Supremes with the new version of the track.

She said: “To me, those are the best type of Christmas songs, when you don’t have to think so much about it, even though I have songs like that, it’s when you can be free. I feel like the featured moments here were really fun because you hear J Hud, you know it’s her.

“You hear Ariana, you’re like, ‘Oh wow, that sounds so great,’ a new interpretation of that moment. Then I’m there as the one that wrote the song and put the whole thing together. It’s fun. There’s the chant. There’s a whole thing. I think kids are going to like it, who maybe never got a chance to hear it before. I’m excited.”

Magical Christmas Special is streaming now on Apple TV+.