US Charts: Mariah Carey’s Surprise Hot 100 Hit

When an artist has a catalogue of music as strong as that of Mariah Carey then anything is possible. In fact, although her current releases have struggled to dent the US charts, the mega diva’s inescapable Holiday anthem, ‘All I Want for Christmas is You’, has returned to the Billboard Hot 100 and even reached a new peak.

While Bruno Mars’ ‘Locked Out of Heaven’ claimed the #1 spot on the Hot 100, it was Carey’s ‘All I Want for Christmas is You’ that made headlines more than 18 years since its initial debut in 1994. Indeed, reentering the lineup at #29 this week, the song has surpassed the #83 peak that it achieved in 2000.

The newfound success of ‘All I Want for Christmas is You’ was made possible via the Hot 100 rule changes launched earlier this year. The reworked guidelines state that any songs that have accumulated enough radio airplay, online streams and sales to crack the top 50 of the Hot 100 will be eligible to chart. Whitney Houston’s ‘I Will Always Love You’ benefited from those stipulations when it climbed to #3, following her death in February.

Remarkably, ‘All I Want for Christmas is You’, which is Carey’s first top 40 entry since ‘Obsessed’ peaked at #7 in 2009, failed to chart when it was first released in 1994. The then Hot 100 rules prevented songs without physical singles available for purchase from entering the ranking. Who needs a new hit when your old songs are still ruling the airwaves?

See the other leading releases in the top 10 of both Billboard 200 and the Hot 100 below:

Billboard 200

1. Taylor Swift – ‘Red’ – 167K (total: 2.39)

2. Wiz Khalifa - ‘O.N.I.F.C.’ – 141K (debut)

3. Rod Stewart - ‘Merry Christmas, Baby’ – 127K (total: 603K)

4. One Direction – ‘Take Me Home’ – 107K (total: 915K)

5. Michael Buble – ‘Christmas’ – 106K (total: 2.77 M)

6. Ke$ha – ‘Warrior’ – 85K (debut)

7. Alicia Keys – ‘Girl on Fire’ – 77K (total: 236K)

8. Blake Shelton – ‘Cheers’ – 68K (total: 271K)

9. Phillip Phillips - ‘The World From the Side of the Moon’ – 65K (total: 308K)

10 Florida Georgia Line - ‘ Here’s to the Good Times’ – 63K (debut)

Billboard Hot 100

1. Bruno Mars – ‘Locked Out of Heaven’

2. Rihanna – ‘Diamonds’

3. Ke$ha – ‘Die Young’

4. Lumineers - ‘Ho Hey’

5. Maroon 5 – ‘One More Night’

6. Flo Rida – ‘I Cry’

7. Phillip Phillips – ‘Home’

8. fun. – ‘Some Nights’

9. Justin Bieber – ‘Beauty & a Beat (Ft. Nicki Minaj)’

10. Ne-Yo – ‘Let Me Love You (Until You Learn To Love Yourself)’

Watch the original video for Carey’s ‘All I Want for Christmas is You’ below:

Thoughts?