A quarter century after the release of her 1994 holiday album Merry Christmas, singer Mariah Carey’s classic All I Want for Christmas Is You finally hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 last week, becoming the first carol to top the Hot 100 chart in over six decades. It is Carey’s 19th top hit, drawing her just one spot behind The Beatles’ record of 20 top songs.
When the Christmas Queen originally released the global hit, the Billboard did not allow it to compete on the Hot 100 chart, because it was not commercially available as a single, according to AFP. To celebrate the song’s 25th anniversary, Carey promoted it even harder this year by launching a social media drive supported by her “Lambs” (fans) after Halloween.
Carey boasts 14 No. 1s in the 1990s, four in the 2000s, and now one in the 2010s. The song has earned her and songwriter Walter Afanasieff over US$60 million (NT$1.8 billion) in royalties as of 2017, the Economist reports.
Photo: Eddy Chang, Taipei Times
照片︰台北時報張聖恩
(Eddy Chang, Taipei Times)
流行歌后「花蝴蝶」瑪麗亞凱莉於一九九四年發行耶誕專輯《祝福》，相隔四分之一世紀後，該專輯神曲《你是我最想要的聖誕禮物》，終於在上週登上告示牌百大熱門單曲榜寶座，成為六十多年來首支奪冠的耶誕頌歌。這也是瑪麗亞的第十九首冠軍，使她和「披頭四」二十首的紀錄只差一首。
而根據法新社，告示牌在這位耶誕女王最初發表該首夯曲時，不允許它計入單曲榜，因為該曲在當時並未以單曲型式做商業發行。為了歡慶神曲推出二十五週年，瑪麗亞今年賣力打歌，自萬聖節後即展開社群媒體宣傳活動，更得到她的「小羊」（歌迷）大力支持。
瑪麗亞在一九九○年代有十四首冠軍、二○○○年代有四首、現在二○一○年代又多了一首。《經濟學人》報導，這首歌曲直到二○一七年為止，已讓她和作曲家華特亞方納席耶夫狂撈超過六千萬美元（約台幣十八億）版稅！
（台北時報張聖恩〉
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