Mariah Carey brings in Christmas season with pumpkin-smashing video
Carey's 1994 hit, "All I Want for Christmas is You," is used by the singer and her fans as an annual kickoff to the Christmas season.
Known as the Queen of Christmas, superstar singer Mariah Carey has announced the official kickoff of the holiday season with a cute video of her smashing a pumpkin.
In the clip, three pumpkins carved with the words “It’s Not Time” are shown, and Carey struts out in a gorgeous, glittering red gown, carrying a candy cane-inspired baseball bat.
As a clock winds down, Carey winds up her bat and, at the stroke of midnight, smashes the middle pumpkin carved with the word “Not,” leaving the display to read, “It’s Time,” as her hit 1994 song, “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” begins to play. She’s then magically transported to a holiday scene, where she’s dressed as a sexy Santa.
The video ends with the words, “It’s Time!!! To smash that pumpkin and treat it as pie … cause we still gotta get through Thanksgiving!!!”
Despite being a holiday staple for nearly 30 years, “All I Want for Christmas Is You” just hit the top of the Billboard Hot 100 in 2019. Previously, it had peaked at No. 3 on the chart.
According to a previous report, Carey was only 24 years old when she released the holiday classic in 1994 as part of her Merry Christmas album, and now that she’s 52, the song — which has also been covered by Ariana Grande and Cee-Lo Green — has been around for half of her life. It’s used by Carey as an annual Christmas season kickoff, according to CNN, and has also been adapted into a children’s book and an animated holiday film.
A 2016 estimate by The Economist says Carey has reportedly earned over $60 million in royalties just from this single song, which also holds the distinction of being Spotify’s most-streamed Christmas song of all time. It’s gotten more than 602 million plays on the streaming service alone.
Last year, Carey released Mariah Carey’s Magical Christmas Special, where she is called upon by Santa to help with a “holiday cheer crisis” in the North Pole on Apple TV+. The hit reached number one in more than 100 countries, and featured appearances by Grande, Jennifer Hudson, Billy Eichner, Snoop Dogg, Tiffany Haddish and others.
This article features additional reporting from theGrio’s Blue Telusma and Jared Alexander.
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