Five-time Grammy winner Mariah Carey. Image: Instagram/@mariahcarey
The queen has spoken.
While she instructed her fans to hold off jamming to her iconic Christmas tune “All I Want for Christmas is You,” several months before the holiday season, Mariah Carey made an exemption for her “Filipino lambs.”
On X (formerly Twitter), the Grammy Award-winning diva shared a post from a fan page, which claimed that her chart-topping hit collected a little over 316,000 streams on Spotify on the first day of September, which the page noted marks a 75-percent increase from around 180,000 streams from a year ago.
In her post’s caption, Carey told her fans that it’s “not yet” the time for them to sing along to her almost 30-year-old holiday track. However, seemingly aware of the Philippines’ early commencement of holiday festivities, the “Hero” singer excused her Filipino fans from the directive.
“I’ll allow it for my Filipino lambs though! [sheep emoji] [heart emoji],” she said, adding “I don’t make the rules! [person shrugging shoulders emoji]”
🗣️🗣️🗣️ Not yet!!!!
I’ll allow it for my Filipino lambs though! 🐑❤️ (I don’t make the rules! 🤷♀️) https://t.co/qgyHI6lq37
— Mariah Carey (@MariahCarey) September 2, 2023
Local fans flocked to Carey’s post, and one after another, expressed their feelings about the special shout-out from the singer-songwriter.
One @mainpopgirI responded, “not Mariah being aware of September being the start of [the] Christmas season in the Philippines [crying face emoji], while some non-Filipino users expressed their curiosity on how the country celebrates the Christmas season.
Screenshots from Mariah Carey’s X page
Several Filipinos took the time to address questions from a user, who seemed to have genuinely enjoyed learning about local holiday traditions.
Screenshots from Mariah Carey’s X page
The user, who goes by @With_luv_tracy, even got to discover “Christmas in Our Hearts” singer Jose Mari Chan, whose voice they found “so soothing and happy.”
Screenshot from Mariah Carey’s X page
Originally released in 1994 as one of the tracks in Carey’s “Merry Christmas” album, “All I Want for Christmas is You” reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100, 25 years later, in December 2019. It became the “Glitter” star’s 19th no.1 hit on the songs chart, and her first since 2008 when “Touch My Body” ruled the Billboard Hot 100 for two consecutive weeks in April. EDV