Mariah Carey’s hit festive track All I Want For Christmas continues to make money – 30 years after it was first released.
The song came out in 1994 and topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 2019.
It became Mariah’s first number-one song since 2008 and the first Christmas song to top the chart in 60 years.
According to Forbes, Mariah received $60 million in royalties from the hit’s initial release.
Since then, its worth has only increased, bringing millions more to the singer’s fortune annually.
Its popularity has influenced mainstream culture through films like Love Actually and led to innumerable renditions by well-known performers like Michael Bublé and Ariana Grande.
“All I Want for Christmas Is You” was the first-holiday song to receive two billion Spotify plays on December 13.
In a statement to PEOPLE, Mariah said of the achievement: “This is beyond incredible, I’m so grateful to all Spotify listeners around the world who’ve made the song part of their holiday tradition year after year.”
According to Forbes, the singer currently receives about $2.5 million in royalties annually, which are based on figures from The Economist.
According to the outlet, The New York Post calculated that the figure was considerably greater, at $3 million.
Part of her fourth album, Merry Christmas, “All I Want for Christmas Is You” shot to the top of the charts in 26 different nations right away.
Even now, thirty years after its first debut, it keeps rising back up the Billboard Hot 100 ladder and Spotify’s streaming rankings as soon as the holidays arrive.
According to Forbes, the song has continuously been one of the most-streamed Christmas songs.
In 2021, it was the first holiday single to get the prestigious RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) Diamond Award.
“All I Want for Christmas Is You” needed to sell 10 million copies and receive 10 million streams in order to win the prize.
The song was added to the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress two years later.
