Tag Archives: Walter Afanasieff

Mariah Carey to Be Honored as Part of Genius’ Next “Genius Level”

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Mariah Carey is a genius…

The 48-year-old half-Venezuelan American singer will be honored in Genius‘ next installment of Genius Level, its conversation-based series that highlights artists, songwriters, and executives who’ve shaped today’s music industry.

Mariah Carey

The event will feature Carey discussing her extensive career with Rob Markman, veteran music journalist and Genius’s Head of Artist Relations.

“People know Mariah Carey is a voice for the ages, but not as many people realize she’s also one of our greatest songwriters. Her work behind the scenes and on stage set a new bar for solo artists, and her collaborations with everyone from Walter Afanasieff to Jermaine Dupri broke new ground in music,” said Elizabeth Milch, Genius’s director of content of the recent Songwriters Hall of Fame nominee. “Mariah is responsible for lyrics, melodies, and arrangements that we love to sing… albeit not always in five octaves. She’s the pinnacle of a genius-level artist and we couldn’t be more excited to celebrate her artistic impact.”

Genius Level, inspired by the song encyclopedia’s collection of in-depth discussions with today’s top artists, has hosted a number of icons including Grammy award-winning artist and songwriter The-Dream, producer DJ Premier, and Nicki Minaj.

The event will take place in Brooklyn, New York, on Nov. 14 in front of a live studio audience of Carey’s biggest fans. A social media contest to win tickets to the show will take place at noon EST on Nov 12. If you can’t see the conversation in person, it premieres on Genius on November 16, the same day as release of the singer’s 15th studio album, Caution.

Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” Returns to No. 1 on Billboard’s Holiday 100

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Mariah Carey is the Queen of Christmas…

The 44-year-old half-Venezuelan actress has dashed her way back to the No. 1 spot on Billboard‘s Holiday 100 songs chart with her modern classic “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” which moves up from 2-1.

Mariah Carey

Since the Holiday 100 launched in December 2011, “Christmas” is the only song that has reigned in each season.

It tallies its 14th week at the summit, of 18 total weeks that the chart has been tabulated.

“Christmas” reclaims the Holiday 100 summit despite not leading any of the chart’s main component rankings. It places at No. 2 on Holiday Digital Songs, with 37,000 downloads sold (down 3 percent), according to Nielsen Music; No. 3 on Holiday Airplay (25.3 million in radio audience, up 18 percent); and No. 4 on Holiday Streaming Songs (2.1 million U.S. streams, up 19 percent).

Still, its balanced points spread is enough to dethrone Pentatonix‘s “Mary, Did You Know?” after two weeks atop the Holiday 100. (The only songs to lead the list other than “Christmas” and “Mary”: Pentatonix’s “Little Drummer Boy,” on December 21, 2013, and Justin Bieber‘s “Mistletoe,” on January 7, 2012.)

“To me, it’s kind of a cosmic occurrence that happens once every five billion years,” Walter Afanasieff, who co-wrote “Christmas” with Carey in 1994, told Billboard in October of the song’s perennial success. “We feel lucky, because it was the last major song to enter that Christmas canon. Then the door slammed shut. [Although] I’m sure there’s going to be another one; there has to be.”

“Christmas,” says Afanasieff, “just keeps growing and growing. I believe [it] will be the most successful, popular Christmas song of all time.”