Mariah Carey, it is clear that she is a queen. She’ll also forever be associated with the holiday season. Carey, her fans BillboardHave all dubbed her “The Queen of Christmas.” It’s a fun moniker and not a totally inaccurate one, as of course, starting sometime just after Halloween, everyone in America gets inundated with her song “All I Want for Christmas Is You.”Carey and her colleagues want to trademark Carey’s name. Is this a good idea, or just pure ego? I know what I feel.
Yes, she is a Queen
I’m not going to fight the argument that Mariah Carey is the modern pop music “queen of Christmas.” “All I Want for Christmas Is You” has sold an obscene amount of copies over the years — upwards of 16 million, according to reliable sources. It was a gradual process. The song first appeared on Mariah Carey’s 1994 album Merry ChristmasThis was added immediately to the holiday playlists at mall stores throughout the country.
The song would need to reach gold status in more than a decade and platinum status in more than 20 years. In 2019, it had become a smash hit. It reached the top of the U.S. charts for the first year. A year later, it reached the top of the UK charts. Now, the song is not just heard in stores and restaurants, it’s on everyone’s holiday playlists at home too.
Mariah Carey is the only Queen of Christmas?
The impressive success of “All I Want for Christmas Is You,”Carey and her attorneys have applied for a trademark to mark the monikers “Queen of Christmas,” “Princess Christmas,” “Princess of Christmas.”This is pure ego for me. It doesn’t make sense to be the queen or princess of two things. Or the fact there are more than two billion Christians around the globe who consider Christmas to be one of the most holy days on the calendar. It is also a secular holiday that many people celebrate, especially in the area of music. It is possible that only one person, no less a pop singer, could be the sole celebrator. “Queen of Christmas”It is quite offensive.
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How would Christians feel about Carey being more significant than the Virgin Mary on Christmas Eve? How about the 100 million+ Anglicans, Episcopalians and others who regard Queen Elizabeth as the head church? Sure, she’s a figurehead, but she’s also an actual queen. The name is being tossed around. “Queen of Christmas”It is an incredibly bold move, considering all that.
Then There’s Darlene Love
Long before “All I Want for Christmas Is You”Darlene Love was the first to record every American speaker each December. Love made its first recording in 1963 “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)”Phil Spector. The song’s success is remarkably similar to Carey’s tune. It wasn’t an instant hit, as it took years to build up. By the ’80s, however, it was huge, and it would only keep growing in popularity.
Love sang the first song. Late Night with David Letterman in 1986, and it became a yearly tradition for her to perform the song on the final episode of Letterman’s show before Christmas for the next 28 years. 2008 Rolling StoneIt was ranked at the top of its rankings “Greatest Rock and Roll Christmas Songs” list. Mariah Carey even covered it. Merry Christmas.
Darlene Love seems to have good reasons to reject the notion that Mariah Carey was the only one “Queen of Christmas.”Love posted on Facebook her opinion about the trademark attempt. “Is it true that Mariah Carey trade marked ‘Queen of Christmas’? 🤣 What does that mean that I can’t use that title? 🤔 David Letterman officially declared me the Queen of Christmas 29 years ago, a year before she released ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ and at 81 years of age I’m NOT changing anything. I’ve been in the business for 52 years, have earned it, and can still hit those notes! 🙏🏾 If Mariah has a problem call David or my lawyer!! 👎🏾👑🎄🎶❤️ — feeling confused.”
There’s Another Contender For The Throne, Elizabeth Chan
Elizabeth Chan used to call herself the “Queen of Christmas” for years, though she hasn’t attempted to trademark it. She’s pushing back even harder than Love, filing an official rebuke with the patent and trademark office in an attempt to stop Carey. In a statement VarietyChan sums it all by saying that Carey shouldn’t be allowed to use this term.
“Christmas has come way before any of us on Earth, and hopefully will be around way after any of us on Earth and I feel very strongly that no one person should hold onto anything around Christmas or monopolize it in the way that Mariah seeks to in perpetuity. That’s just not the right thing to do. Christmas is for everyone. It’s meant to be shared; it’s not meant to be owned and it’s not just about the music business. She’s trying to trademark this in every imaginable way — clothing, liquor products, masks, dog collars — it’s all over the map. If you knit a ‘Queen of Christmas’ sweater, you should be able to sell it on Etsy to somebody else so they can buy it for their grandma. It’s crazy — it would have that breadth of registration.”
Chan says it as it is. Mariah Carey is an amazing singer and one of the biggest pop stars of the last 30 years, but she’s not the only queen on Christmas.