For over 20 years, Mariah Carey reigned (alongside collaborators Boyz II Men) as the artist behind the longest-reigning No. 1 hit in Billboard Hot 100 history, with “One Sweet Day” spending 16 weeks atop the chart from 1995-96. Since 2017, that mark has been equalled twice (by Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee’s Justin Bieber-featuring “Despacito” and Morgan Wallen’s “Last Night”) and passed twice (by Lil Nas X’s Billy Ray Cyrus-featuring “Old Town Road” and Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” both 19-week No. 1s). But now, the record is Carey’s once again, and this time it’s hers alone.
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This week, on the Hot 100 dated Dec. 20, Carey’s holiday classic “All I Want for Christmas Is You” is No. 1 for a 20th total week — a run that she started in late 2019, and which she’s added to each of the last six holiday seasons. That officially moves the seasonal staple out of its three-way tie with “Road” and “Bar” and gives Mariah sole possession of the longest-reigning No. 1 in Hot 100 history.
How do we feel about “Christmas” now being the song to hold this esteemed place in the Billboard record books? And do we think it’ll now hold the mark indefinitely? Billboard staffers answer these questions and more below.
1. “All I Want for Christmas Is You” now stands alone as the longest-reigning Hot 100 No. 1 of all time with its 20th week on top. In a long and storied career of tremendous chart and commercial achievements, is this now the biggest one for Mariah Carey?
Christopher Claxton: I would say so. To be known as the face of Christmas right next to old Saint Nick is kind of crazy if you ask me. “All I Want for Christmas Is You” has allowed Mariah to be seen as the queen of Christmas to the point where it’s not holiday season until Mimi says so. Mariah has so many achievements, but none comes close to being an icon of a national holiday and winter season.
Kyle Denis: I think it just might be. Some may be hesitant to make that call because of the holiday-ness of it all, but I think that element underscores what an impressive feat Carey has managed with “Christmas.” It’s one thing to write and record a hit; the Songbird Supreme has done it countless times. But to pen an original song that not only comes to define one of the world’s oldest, most-celebrated holidays for multiple generations, but also cemented itself as a classic that can trump contemporary hits December after December — that’s literally unheard of.
Paul Grein: It’s certainly the one she’ll be best-known for, though I’m more impressed by the huge comeback she made with The Emancipation of Mimi in 2005 after many in the industry had written her off after a few misfires.
Jason Lipshutz: Yes. Not only is Mariah Carey now responsible for the song with the most weeks at No. 1 in Hot 100 history, but she earned the achievement over multiple years, with a song that now defines an entire season and will likely continue to do so for many years to come. Maybe pop purists require an asterisk for a recurring holiday hit, but the fact that “All I Want for Christmas Is You” continues to dominate year after year makes it even more special than your standard monster hit — which Carey herself has plenty of in her career, too. Many years from now, this song will be viewed as the crowning achievement of her career — and still be a staple on every holiday playlist.
Andrew Unterberger: Yes, the further and further away we get from her commercial peak(s), the clearer it is that “Christmas” will be the most enduring part of her musical legacy — and this record is in many ways the summation of that. And those who’ve long been appreciators of Mariah’s multi-faceted commercial success and artistic excellence may be a bit bummed to see one song rule over the rest of it, but given the song and the special place it holds in global pop culture, it’s hard to get too mad about it.
2. Obviously “Christmas” came to its 20 weeks in a much different fashion than the previous record-holders — which at one point even included Mariah herself, along with Boyz II Men on “One Sweet Day,” which held the status as the longest-reigning No. 1 for over two decades. Do you think it’s fair to measure its reign of endurance the same way, or do you see it as more of a different category of Hot 100 hits altogether?
Christopher Claxton: Numerically, it absolutely counts. The Hot 100 measures consumption in a given week and if Mariah’s song is the most consumed record in the country during those respective weeks, then it deserves the No. 1 spot. Culturally and structurally, it lives in a different lane than previous tracks that held this record. “One Sweet Day” earned its 16-week run in one uninterrupted stretch, it was competing year-round against new releases with no seasonal advantage. “All I Want for Christmas Is You” on the other hand, benefits from a built-in annual resurgence, every holiday season it re-enters the charts boosted by holiday playlists and cultural tradition. Its dominance is a recurring inevitability because the track is just that good.
It’s fair to say it holds the record by the numbers, but it also makes sense to view it as its own category of Hot 100 achievement. I suggest two categories, longest continuous reign, and most cumulative weeks at No. 1, which “Christmas” now owns.
Kyle Denis: As impressive as it is, I do think “Christmas” belongs to a different category of Hot 100 hits. Previous record holders like “A Bar Song,” or even her own “One Sweet Day” don’t get the luxury of being forever linked to a season and holiday that will theoretically outlast us all. At the same time, we see those consumption numbers for ““Christmas” every year. Even as other holiday songs reach new Hot 100 peaks, people keep returning to Mariah — and that should be honored.
Paul Grein: It’s comparing apples and oranges, or, to offer a more seasonal analogy, cranberries and pears. There should be two categories – songs that amassed their weeks at No. 1 in one chart cycle vs. those that did it in two or more chart cycles. So far, the latter category includes just “All I Want for Christmas Is You” (20 total weeks at No. 1) and Chubby Checker’s “The Twist” (three total weeks on top), but there will likely be more.
Jason Lipshutz: If anything, “All I Want for Christmas Is You” became the all-time Hot 100 champ with a much degree of difficulty: how many hit singles return to No. 1 after dipping out of the top spot, let alone do so year after year? Sure, the song is boosted by its association with the holiday season, but Carey has also had plenty of competition for that No. 1 spot around Christmastime, from time-honored classics to new yuletide offerings. And yet it reigns supreme, to the point where only Brenda Lee has been able to squeak into the top spot for a few weeks in 2023. “All I Want for Christmas Is You” does not have a similar trajectory as previous Hot 100 all-time leaders “Old Town Road” and “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” but that just makes it all the more more special as an accomplishment.
Andrew Unterberger: I can understand the temptation to group it separately, but I’m not really interested in entertaining any notions of asterisks here. I don’t think there’s anything inherently fairer or more authentic or honorable about racking up your Hot 100 reign all at once rather than doing it piecemeal like Carey has done. And frankly, given trends in music consumption, songs coming back for multiple runs at the top may become more and more common on the chart moving forward anyway.
3. Does it feel right to you that “Christmas” should be the song that now holds this distinction? As a song, does it feel like a worthy longest-running No. 1 hit of all time?
Christopher Claxton: It feels right that “All I Want for Christmas Is You” holds this record. What contributes to this tracks rein is that it has longevity built on quality — yes, the song is seasonal, but people wouldn’t play it every year if it was a terrible track. Seasonality alone doesn’t guarantee dominance: There are plenty of holiday songs out there, but only one comes back every year and immediately takes over the culture.
Kyle Denis: Absolutely. Christmas aside, it’s one of the best written, arranged and performed pop songs of the last 40 years.
Paul Grein: It’s a great song and a great record, one you never tire of hearing. (Hat-tip to Walter Afanasieff, who co-wrote and co-produced the smash with Carey.) So yes, it is deserving of the title. They did a wonderful job of capturing the many moods of Christmas, both wistful and exuberant. Many of the favorite Christmas songs of a previous generation were torchy ballads. Bing Crosby recorded “White Christmas” and “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” during World War II, when the national mood was anything but exuberant. “All I Want for Christmas Is You” is more balanced emotionally: It starts out as a wistful ballad but when the bell chimes appear at the 50-second mark, it becomes a party.
Jason Lipshutz: Yes, because, as popular culture continues to become more fractured and ubiquitous hits are harder to come by, “All I Want for Christmas Is You” remains a song that everybody knows, and can recognize as an all-time pop artifact, in a way that’s far more all-encompassing and generations-spanning than a modern smash like “A Bar Song (Tipsy).” Personally, I think it’s great that the all-time Hot 100 leader carries significant cultural weight, rather than a big hit that happened to notch enough weeks at No. 1 but had a relatively muted impact outside of its core listenership. It has earned this distinction, and is very worth of it.
Andrew Unterberger: At the end of the day, “Christmas” became the longest-running No. 1 of all time by virtue of being one of the most popular and beloved pop songs of all time. That’s all I really ask for from a song with this hallowed distinction.
4. Now that it has the record — with more weeks very likely still to be added to its total over the remainder of this holiday season, not to mention every additional holiday season to come — do you think it’ll essentially be the record-holder in perpetuity? Can you see there being a song that might one day challenge it?
Christopher Claxton: This track feels very close to a forever record, but nothing is impossible. To dethrone Mariah a song would need to be so good that it gets played uninterrupted over 20 weeks. The issue for any competitor is “All I Want for Christmas Is You” has two massive advantages, it’s a yearly recurring No. 1 and it’s cross-generational. A realistic challenger would probably need to be another holiday hit since we now see that seasonality is the clearest path to cumulative weeks. Outside of holiday music, it’s even harder to imagine.
Kyle Denis: There will always be a song that can challenge “All I Want,” but if Carey’s classic remains eligible for future holiday season-set Hot 100 updates, it will more than likely be the record-holder in perpetuity.
Paul Grein: Since no song has ever had 20 weeks at No. 1 in one chart cycle, I’d say that Carey will likely hold this record in perpetuity. But I will point out that the record-setting run for most weeks at No. 1 in one chart cycle has expanded over time. It was nine weeks for many years but then jumped, in turn, to 10, 13, 14, 16 and 19 weeks. So it’s not unthinkable that it could jump again. That said, the likeliest way Carey’s record could be beat would be if another holiday song becomes established as the seasonal favorite and builds up 20 or more weeks at No. 1 over time, similar to the way Carey did it. But the turnover in terms of America’s favorite holiday song is extraordinarily slow. A little more than 52 years passed between the release of Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas,” the perennial favorite of the pre-rock era, and Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You.”
Jason Lipshutz: It’s going to be interesting to see how many weeks at No. 1 “All I Want for Christmas Is You” rolls up in the next decade, considering that we still don’t have a clear challenger to its holiday-season crown and may not for many years. If Carey just keeps collecting No. 1 frames year after year, we may indeed be in a situation where nothing in our lifetimes challenges “All I Want for Christmas is You” as the Hot 100 record-holder.
Andrew Unterberger: You never say never on the charts, but it’s certainly hard to see how a new song could pass it. The holiday music canon moves so glacially that it’s easy to imagine a world in which Carey’s staple remains an annual or near-annual No. 1 for the next 10, 20, maybe even 30 years. Then let’s say some new song takes it over — how long will it take that song to catch up to Carey’s head start? It’s near-unfathomable. Honestly, the best chance a song might have is coming out strong next year during a fallow chart period and just dominating for over 20 weeks. But even then, it’ll probably only be another year or two before it cedes the record back to “Christmas.”
5. “Christmas” has essentially averaged three weeks at No. 1 a year in its seven consecutive seasons so far having topped the Hot 100. At this time 10 years from now, do you think it will have spent more or fewer than 50 weeks total at No. 1?
Christopher Claxton: “All I Want for Christmas Is You” is the gift that keeps on giving and I believe that at this time, 10 years from now it will have more than 50 weeks total at No. 1. People anticipate the song every year and willingly replay it year after year which makes this achievement more than likely. “Christmas” feels more like a historical outlier than anything else.
Kyle Denis: This feels like a math question…. but I will go with fewer than 50 weeks only because I anticipate that it stalls at Nos. 2 or 3 some years. Wham! and Brenda Lee are right on Mimi’s heels!
Paul Grein: Fewer. Nothing lasts forever, and it seems likely that another Christmas song will emerge to give Carey’s song a run for its money. Wham!’s “Last Christmas” could ascend to the top spot in holiday seasons to come. It was released 10 years before “All I Want for Christmas Is You” but in some ways seems fresher, if only because it has been less celebrated. Just as most people were happy to see Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” break Carey’s iron-grip on the top spot and snag a few weeks at No. 1 over the 2023-24 holiday season, many would be happy to see “Last Christmas” or another song have its moment.
Jason Lipshutz: I’ll be conservative and say fewer — just because a lot can happen in a decade, including a different holiday song supplanting Carey’s smash as the de facto No. 1 Christmas song. But the fact that we’re even entertaining the question is pretty staggering!
Andrew Unterberger: I’m actually gonna say over. Yes, “Last Christmas” may take over temporarily, yes some other songs might steal a week here and there — but look at how early the Christmas chart takeover is beginning these days! We may soon be headed for a period where there’s a five- or even six-week annual window of potential chart domination for “Christmas.” Then it all it needs is to average half the season at No. 1 for the next 10 years, and 50 weeks is just the beginning.
