In the 21st century, Christmas is not just synonymous with snow, pine trees, and eggnog. It is synonymous with Mariah Carey’s Christmas songs, especially the iconic hit, All I Want For Christmas Is You. 

Carey released her studio album Merry Christmas on October 28, 1994, when her career was at its peak and it became an instant hit and went on eventually to be a cult Christmas classic. One song in particular in that album, All I Want For Christmas Is You was the most popular and every year, during the time of Christmas, would start rising up the charts. 

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As a result, Carey has been making millions in royalty from her original Christmas album for years now. The five-time Grammy winner made somewhere between $1.965 million and $2.38 million in 2021 from the song alone. 

Last Monday, the 53-year-old R&B diva generated 1.747 million song consumption units in US royalties from her Christmas anthem, according to Billboard. This reportedly earned her $1.55 million. As to what percentage of royalties Carey owns is not exactly known. It could be anywhere between $415K to $830K on top of the $1.55 million.

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Carey has reported a $340 million net worth On December 12, Carey celebrated the song topping the Billboard Hot 100 for the fourth consecutive year. It spent a total of nine weeks at the top spot.

The singer is currently spending the holidays in Aspen. On Thursday, two-time Grammy winner Walter Afanasieff opened up on how he co-wrote All I Want for Christmas Is You 28 years ago, blasting Carey in the process. 

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“She doesn’t play anything, she doesn’t play keyboard or piano,” he told Hot Takes & Deep Dives. “She doesn’t understand music, she doesn’t know chord changes and music theory or anything like that. She doesn’t know a diminished chord from a minor seventh chord to a major seventh chord. “

“So to claim that she wrote a very complicated chord-structured song with her finger on a Casio keyboard when she was a little girl, it’s kind of a tall tale,” he said.