Mariah Carey's Christmas hit came out in 1994 and still reaches No. 1 every December. How one meme has kept the song on top for thirty years, and what Ukrainian artists can take from it.
Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas Is You" came out in 1994. It is older than many of its listeners, and it still tops the charts every December.
A ritual the internet waits for
Every year at midnight on 1 November, Carey posts a video and shouts her famous "It's time!". The setup changes each year. In 2026 she first shared "Hermit", a punk song she recorded in the 1990s under the alias Chick, and then had herself "defrosted".
The meme has become the unofficial start of the Christmas season. From then until Christmas, the song is everywhere.
A 1994 song that reaches No. 1 every December
- Seven holiday seasons in a row at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
- 20 weeks at No. 1 in total, a record in the chart's history.
- 23.7 million Spotify streams in a single day, on Christmas Eve 2023.
- More than $60 million earned by Carey in the song's first 23 years, according to a 2017 estimate by The Economist.
Why it works
For a label, a seasonal song is part of the catalogue that can keep earning for years. But an old song does not come back by itself. It needs a reason. Carey keeps hers on top with three things:
1. Ritual: a yearly event on a fixed date that people wait for.
2. A recognisable moment: one line the whole internet quotes.
3. Repetition: an old song gets a new reason to be talked about every year.
What the Ukrainian market can take from this
- If you have a holiday track, give it a yearly ritual: a date, a gesture, a recognisable format.
- Work with older releases as well as new ones. A catalogue needs content too.
- Plan the season early. Carey opens it on 1 November, almost two months before Christmas.
Which Ukrainian song could have its own IT'S TIME? Tell us on Instagram.
Sources: Billboard via NPR/KPBS and IBTimes (December 2025), TechRadar, The Economist.