Mariah Carey has picked up four new awards from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
Her 1994 holiday album, Merry Christmas, is now certified 9x-platinum. The festive project has sold over nine million equivalent units in the U.S.
It’s one million units away from becoming certified diamond, which is awarded to works that have sold at least 10 million units. (Carey has two diamond-selling albums so far: 1993’s Music Box and 1995’s Daydream. The latter is certified 11x-platinum.)
Three songs from Merry Christmas have also scored new RIAA certifications. The modern classic, “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” moves to 14x platinum for selling more than 14 million equivalent units.
The song, which Carey co-wrote and co-produced with Walter Afanasieff, has over 1.6 billion streams on Spotify to date. It’s Carey’s most-streamed song on the streaming service.
Additionally, Carey’s versions of “O Holy Night” and “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing / Gloria (In Excelsis Deo)” are now certified platinum. The former has surpassed 114 million streams on Spotify, while the latter amassed over 21 million streams.
In other festive news, Carey is currently on her Merry Christmas One and All Tour. She performs in Boston tonight (Dec. 11), with additional stops in Philadelphia and Baltimore, before concluding on Dec. 17 in New York.
Over the weekend (Dec. 9), Carey’s tour made its first stop in New York. She surprised concertgoers at Madison Square Garden with a special performance of “Oh Santa!” with Ariana Grande and Jennifer Hudson.
Carey’s “Oh Santa! (Remix)” with Grande and Hudson appears on her album Magical Christmas Special, released in 2020.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWDk-bqpRpU
Speaking on the song, Carey previously explained, “It required a little bit more of me as a producer structuring the song for three voices rather than just for me, and really kind of taking the opportunity to have fun with it and play.”
The original version, which Carey co-wrote with Bryan-Michael Cox and Jermaine Dupri, appears on 2010’s Merry Christmas II You.
Revisit Mariah Carey’s Merry Christmas album below.
