Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas Is You (Columbia) has finally reached No.1, 26 years after it was first released.
Mariah Carey topped the singles rundown despite the Official Charts Company’s ACR rules, which include a requirement for catalogue tracks to stream double the amount of new releases in order to register the same ‘sales’.
So while the sales figure of 44,016 (up 21.4% week-on-week) may have been unspectacular, it was actually based on the biggest weekly streaming total so far in 2020. All I Want For Christmas Is You racked up 10,816,358 streams (7,675,650 premium, 1,251,052 ad-funded and 1,889,656 video). There were also 2,781 downloads, which helped lift its career total to 2,901,536.
The impact of Christmas playlists means that Carey’s festive smash outperformed the big week one total of 10,584,210 streams for Billie Eilish’s No Time To Die (Polydor) in February. But without the impediment of ACR, Eilish’s Bond theme is still the biggest seller of the year to date (90,488).
The last single to overcome ACR status to reach No.1 was Three Lions in June 2018.
Martin Talbot, chief executive, Official Charts Company, said: “It’s been a long time in the making, but it is fantastically apt for 2020 to be the year in which the British public finally take Mariah’s timeless festive classic all the way to the top of the Official Chart. What a fabulous, feel-good way to round off a challenging year for so many of us.”
It’s been a long time in the making, but it is fantastically apt for 2020 to be the year in which the British public finally take Mariah’s timeless festive classic all the way to the top
Martin Talbot
Upon its original release in 1994, All I Want For Christmas Is You peaked at No.2, just missing out on the Christmas No. 1 that year to East 17’s Stay Another Day. As it reaches the summit in its 70th week in the Top 40, the single sets a new chart record: no other song has spent more weeks in the Top 40 before eventually reaching No.1.
Across its lifetime, All I Want For Christmas Is You has racked up 1.24 million pure sales, making it the UK’s 84th best-selling song in history, according to Official Charts Company data.
Since the advent of digital, Carey’s Christmas classic has returned to the chart every December since 2007. The last three years have seen it match its original No. 2 peak.
Wham!’s Last Christmas (Sony Music CG) is back at its No.2 peak. The single also overcame ACR status to increase sales by 23% week-on-week (39,797). The single’s post-1994 sales total is 1,951,345.
Carey leads a festive Top 40, which includes a further 22 Christmas songs, including The Pogues feat. Kirsty MacColl’s Fairytale Of New York (No.4), Shakin’ Stevens’ Merry Christmas Everyone (No.6), Michael Bublé’s It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas (No.7), Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas (No.8) and Elton John’s Step Into Christmas (No.10).
Jess Glynne’s Amazon Original cover of Donny Hathaway’s This Christmas (Atlantic) could still be a No.1 contender. Sales are up 49.8% week-on-week (24,558). Crucially, though, Glynne’s new recording isn’t affected by ACR – although Carey’s No.1 single is now likely to accelerate its streaming numbers.
On the albums chart, Yungblud debuted at No.1 with Weird! (38,759 sales). It’s the 12th No.1 of 2020 for Polydor – no other label has managed more than seven chart-toppers in a year.
Subscribers can click here for our magazine report on Christmas streaming.
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