Mariah Carey: The First Time She Performed Her Christmas Hit: ‘It Was Boring’
Two years ago, Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You” finally hit No.1 on the Billboard 100, 25 years after its release. The singer sat with Billboard to discuss the continuous popularity of the hit.
Mariah recalled the first time she performed the song live. “That was a really defining moment of my career. It was a charity event, and we raised over half a million dollars for the Fresh Air Fund [a nonprofit that provides summer programs for children from low-income communities]. That’s the reason the whole thing is so important. I’m just like, ‘Yeah, yeah, whatever. I remember it. It was boring. It was all rich people. They barely clapped. Nobody knew ‘All I Want for Christmas’ yet.’ But then the kids in the front were all Fresh Air Fund kids, and they were all clapping in Fresh Air Fund T-shirts. They fueled me. Those kids gave me so much life.”
To celebrate “All I Want For Christmas Is You,” Mariah re-released a new version of the video. Watch it below.
