Mariah Carey has expressed her delight at All I Want for Christmas Is You being added to the U.S. National Recording Registry.
On Wednesday, Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden announced that 25 recordings will be inducted into the institution, including the superstar’s 1994 festive classic.
Reacting to the news, Mariah emphasised just how “thankful” she is for the hit track.
“I’m most proud of the arrangements, the background vocal arrangements,” she said. “All I Want for Christmas is sort of in its own little category, and I’m very thankful for it.”
All I Want for Christmas Is You is the first of Mariah’s songs to make the National Recording Registry.
But when working on the song in the mid-1990s, the Hero hitmaker was actually reflecting on a much more difficult time in her life.
“I tried to tap into my childhood self, my little girl self, and say, ‘What are all the things I wanted when I was a kid?'” the singer recalled. “I wanted it to be a love song because that’s kind of what people relate to, but also a Christmas song that made you feel happy.”
Other songs to be added to the National Recording Registry this year include Madonna’s 1984 classic Like a Virgin and Queen Latifah’s 1989 track All Hail the Queen.