Mariah Carey marks Christmas start with punk bar set and tree finale

The video

Mariah Carey published her annual Christmas video on 1 November, shortly after Halloween ended. The clip opens with the caption 'New York... 31 October' and a countdown starting at 11:58 pm. It shows her on stage in a punk-styled set at a New York bar, singing 'Hermit' with heavy makeup. When the countdown reaches midnight, the mood changes and she switches to a red Christmas outfit, singing 'It's Time' and 'All I Want for Christmas Is You'. The finale places her atop a Christmas tree, and 7sur7 adds that a sleigh, snow, a nutcracker, a penguin and a polar bear also appear.

Song background

The song 'Hermit' comes from 'Someone's Ugly Daughter', an alternative rock album released in 1995 under the name Chick. According to Entertainment Weekly, as cited by SAPO, Carey co-wrote and produced the project and sang backing vocals, but she only revealed her involvement in memoirs published in 2020. El Periódico reports that 'All I Want for Christmas Is You' was released on 29 October 1994. The timeline below collects the dates reported across the articles.

Royalty estimates

No public, confirmed figure exists for the song's earnings. Forbes, in a 2022 article cited by SAPO, put royalties at about 2.5 million dollars a year, citing The Economist, and noted a higher estimate of 3 million dollars from the New York Post. A Billboard analysis, also recovered by Forbes, estimated that the song generated about 6.16 million dollars in recording and composition revenue in 2021. Of that total, the singer's share would be about 1.55 million dollars for recording rights, plus around 830,000 dollars for composition depending on how it is split with her co-author. The often-repeated 60 million dollar figure is a cumulative royalty estimate The Economist published in 2017, not a payment received at release.

Reaction and tradition

El Periódico and 7sur7 both describe the 1 November video as a yearly ritual that marks the start of the Christmas season. La Razón reported that the post had passed 320,000 likes on social media. According to La Razón, this year's punk opening departed from earlier editions, which featured a white angel dress and a red Mrs Claus suit. 7sur7 recalls that in 2023 she appeared trapped in a giant block of ice that thawed once Halloween was over.