Mariah Carey makes a staggering amount of royalties for All I Want For Christmas Is You at this time of year
Ali Condon
Featured Image Credit: @mariahcarey/Twitter
Mariah Carey never has to worry about paying for her Christmas presents, thanks to a song she released over two decades ago.
If she wanted to, the legendary songstress could likely stop working for the rest of the year, only coming out of the woodwork on December 1, and still make an absolute fortune.
Of course, that's the case for any musician who can perfect the art of producing a hit Christmas song - but no one does it better than Mariah.
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Every year, when the festive pop songs start playing on the radio and in shops, when they start popping up on your Spotify playlists and getting stuck on repeat in your head, it means it's time for artists like The Pogues, Michael Bublé, Wham, and Slade to cash in.
While plenty of songs tend to dart up the charts in December, they're almost always topped by Mariah Carey's hit 1994 track: 'All I Want For Christmas Is You'.
Although neither Mariah nor anyone from her team has ever disclosed exactly how much money she makes each year from the single, extensive research has been done and pretty decent estimates have been made.
A study from The Economist's data team, completed in 2017, found that Mariah earns approximately $2.5 million each year from the song.
When the research was published, it estimated that by 2016, Mariah had earned a total of $60 million for the track since it was released.
Assuming that all of these figures are still the same and haven't inflated over the years, some simple math would suggest that, as of 2022, Mariah would have earned a grand total of at least $87 million for that one song.
Pretty decent income for a song that famously took just 15 minutes to write, eh?
Since it was first released, 'All I Want For Christmas Is You' has sold an estimated 10 million copies, making one of just 92 songs in history that has been Diamond-certified.
Plus, In 2021, Spotify announced that 'All I Want For Christmas Is You' had reached one billion streams on its service.
Despite all her success in the festive season, Mariah's campaign to be named the official Queen of Christmas has unfortunately been unsuccessful.
Mariah's application to the US Patent and Trademark Office was turned down, as were her attempts to trademark the abbreviation 'QOC' and the alternative title 'Princess Christmas'.
She'll always be the Queen of Christmas in our hearts.