Fans hail ‘legendary’ Mariah Carey as she scores ‘mind-blowing’ Billboard record

Singer’s ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You’ has become her third hit to spend at least 14 weeks atop Billboard’s Hot 100

Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” has officially landed its 14th total week atop the Billboard Hot 100, making her the first artist in history to have three number ones do so.

Billboard announced on Tuesday (26 December) that the singer-songwriter’s 1994 Christmas hit earned its second consecutive week this season on top of the music charts, bringing its total to a jaw-dropping 14 weeks since it initially landed at No 1 in December 2019.

Carey first hit the milestone with her 1995 Boys II Men collaboration “One Sweet Day”, which reigned the charts for 16 weeks. Her single “We Belong Together” later topped the charts for 14 weeks following its 2005 release.

Fans have celebrated the news on social media, congratulating the 54-year-old music icon for her “mind-blowing” achievement.

“She really deserves this,” one tweeted.

“Wow just make one Christmas song and wait 25 years it would be paying for generations of your family,” a second commented.

A third branded her: “Mariah Hitmaker Carey!” while another added that she is a “once-in-a-lifetime kind of artist”.

“Girlies be ‘breaking’ records but at the end there’s only one unreachable legend and it’s MARIAH,” another added. “Her name is the ‘becomes the first artist to...’ and other artists will always be ‘joins Mariah Carey as...”

Earlier this month, Carey was briefly dethroned from the Christmas charts by Brenda Lee’s “Rockin Around the Christmas Tree”.

Lee’s 65-year-old hit was first released in 1958. Yet, it still proved its relevance this year with 34.9 million streams and 20.9 million radio airplay impressions.

Not only did it beat “All I Want for Christmas Is You” in a heated chart battle, but it also became the oldest song ever to top the Billboard Hot 100 – a record originally held by Carey’s single, which was 25 when it first did so in December 2019.

In November, Carey released a hilarious video of herself defrosting as she declared the start of the Christmas season.

As the clock struck midnight on 1 November, the Queen of Christmas posted a clip showing an ice-covered bank vault, with the clock signifying that it was 11.59pm on 31 October.

Once the time changed to midnight, the vault door swung open, revealing Carey inside, dressed in red while frozen in a block of ice. Around her, people dressed as Halloween characters, with pumpkins for heads and Ghostface masks, were shown blowing the ice with hairdressers, referencing a meme joking that Carey hibernates for 10 months of the year and only needs “defrosting” for November and December.