Mariah Carey could buy more than 100 Barnet homes with profits from her best-selling holiday song, All I Want For Christmas Is You.

Carey’s iconic tune is in the UK Singles Charts once again this year, after first claiming the top spot in 2020. With 10.8 million streams recorded in the latest cycle by the Official Charts Company, All I Want For Christmas Is You overtook Taylor Swift’s Anti-Hero this week.

Although written in just 15 minutes and recorded by Carey nearly 30 years ago, the song earned over $60 million (£48 million) in royalties up to 2016, according to The Economist.

And making an estimated $2.5 million (£2 million) a year since then – 71 times the median annual salary of £28,700 in Barnet – the song has earned about $75 million (£61 million) up to and including this year.

Carey, often referred to as the “Queen of Christmas”, could purchase about 101 houses in Barnet with the song’s estimated earnings – with recent Land Registry figures showing the average house price in the area was £600,000 in October.

Across the UK, the American singer could purchase most homes, in Burnley with the song affording her 506 houses, while she would get the fewest in Kensington and Chelsea at “just” 45.

Mayah Riaz, celebrity PR manager, said it is “no surprise” All Want for Christmas Is You has hit the top of charts again. “When you think of Christmas songs, it’s the first one people usually think about. It’s so iconic.

“The thing about Christmas songs is that if done right, it can really make artists for life,” she added.

“It’s been released for nearly 30 years, so it’s had the longevity to be memorable for many adults as it’s played on most people’s Christmas playlist. It’ll continue to grow with it having already become iconic and it being part of future generations’ Christmas playlist. So, I very much expect it to keep topping future charts too.”

The song was written and produced by Carey and Walter Afanasief, and was released as a lead single from the album in 1994. It received critical acclaim with The New Yorker saying it is “one of the few worthy modern additions to the holiday canon”.

Since then, it has sold over 10 million copies and has been streamed over 1.3 billion times on Spotify.

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