Mariah Careyis lightin’ up the holidays in a big way…
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of her Merry Christmas album and its iconic single “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” which reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100this week, the 49-year-old half-Venezuelan American singer dropped by the Empire State Building to flip the switch to the top of the legendary skyscraper’s brand new music-to-light show with Carey’s insta-classic holiday track at the heart of it.
Designed by Marc Brickman, the lights of the NYC landmark will correspond with the notes of her holiday hit — which will play simultaneously on iHeartMedia New York’s Z100, Power 105.1, 103.5 KTUand 106.7 Lite FM starting at 8:00 pm from Thursday through Christmas Day.
“Each year, the Empire State Building partners with iHeartRadio to celebrate the holiday season with a spectacular LED music-to light show,” said Jean-Yves Ghazi, the President of the Empire State Building observatory, said by way of Carey’s introduction. “This year, we’re delighted to be syncing our tower of lights and counting down to Christmas with this holiday classic that’s also celebrating reaching No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 on its 25th anniversary.”
Billboard‘s Hannah Karp and Gary Trust were also on hand to celebrate the occasion and present Carey with an award for her most recent Billboardchart accomplishment.
“Topping the Billboard charts is nothing new for Mariah: until this week, she had had 18 songs reach No. 1 on our Hot 100 chart, which is more than any other female solo artist,” said Karp. “But it’s extremely rare for a Christmas song to top the Hot 100, and it’s equally tough to crack the Christmas market with an original tune that can outsell or outstream traditional carols.”
“All I Want for Christmas Is You” reached No. 1 on the Hot 100 25 years after its initial release; it had previously broken into the top 10 in 2017 and rose as high as No. 3 in 2018, and Carey is elated to add this particular song to her collection of No. 1s.
“We definitely wanted to kick it into high gear this year with the song to celebrate the 25th anniversary, but I definitely didn’t expect it to hit No. 1 two weeks before Christmas!” she told Billboard shortly after hearing the news on Monday. “I just want to thank everybody. I want the world to have the best holiday ever.”
