Mariah Carey in “Fall in Love at Christmas”. (Screen capture via YouTube)
Mariah Carey has officially killed Halloween and done vocal runs over it as she released a brand-new Christmas single.
At midnight Friday (5 November), Carey, who actually invented the annual tradition of Christmas so she could release “All I Want for Christmas Is You” in 1994, has once again thrown the first bauble at Stonewall.
The benevolent goddess of Christmas dropped “Fall in Love at Christmas“, a festive R&B track that DJ Khalid had lent a hand with.
#FallInLoveAtChristmas Out Now ❤️🎄 @thegreatkhalid @kirkfranklin https://t.co/j78BB7qQh3 pic.twitter.com/UcsmgsoJog
— Mariah Carey (@MariahCarey) November 5, 2021
In the song’s aggressively extra and, of course, Christmas music video, a pyjama-clad Carey and Khalid sit on a couch in the Butterfly Lounge at Carey’s house.
And, as she is almost legally obligated to do, the walls are decorated with the 8x Platinum plaque for her Merry Christmas and 7x Platinum plaque for The Emancipation Of Mimi. Not that you needed a reminder that when it comes to Christmas music, Carey knows her stuff.
Gospel music titan Kirk Franklin then joins in as a gospel choir of carolers begin crooning as Mariah ascends into the high notes only she can reach in the heavens above.
“Listen,” says Franklin, “more than ever before, love needs to be something we do, not something we say.
“This holiday season, let’s give love away.”
Because it’s Christmas, Carey has christened us all with not just one version of the song, but three: A five-minute-long edit, a radio edit and a radio edit with an added outro.
And for her fans, Halloween was all but a distant memory as they were tinselling up their houses.
Literally on repeat all day and now I want to start Christmas decorating 😅❤️ https://t.co/uMCNyxG7R7
— Treacle (@treacletots) November 5, 2021
The kind of music genre mix that only @MariahCarey can pull off. Well done–now, go fall in love starting this Christmas! https://t.co/ya87CuVRIi
— MisterCarey (@MisterCarey4) November 5, 2021
I’m Sorry But Mariah Carey is Not the Queen of Christmas. She is the Queen of Christmas and Love Songs. All Hail the Queen. The Greatest Female Artist of All Time. Decades and Decades to Generation to Generation of High Quality music. Thank you Mariah. This is a New #1. https://t.co/hgDFVcnWCL
— DeejayKing (@DeddrickJackson) November 5, 2021
On 29 October 1994, the world was introduced to the 13 twinkle introduction of “All I Want for Christmas is You“, changing the course of shopping mall music, festive advert campaigns for years to come.
The 26-year-old megahit, quite possibly the campest song in recorded human history, finally topped the UK number one last year.
It was propelled to the top spot after tallying up 10.8 million streams over seven days – the most streams in a week of any song in 2020, according to the Official Charts Company.