Mariah Carey becomes the first to have No. 1 singles in four separate decades

Mariah Carey has become the first artist to place a No. 1 single on the Billboard Hot 100 in four separate decades, the trade publication announced Monday.

 “All I Want for Christmas Is You” sits atop the Billboard chart for Jan. 4, the third week in a row, which qualifies the Greenlawn-raised pop star for chart-toppers in the 2010s and now the 2020s. Carey previously had 14 songs at No. 1 in the ’90s (the first being 1990’s “Vision of Love”), followed by four in the 2000s.  Stevie Wonder ('60s, '70s, '80s), Michael Jackson and Elton John ('70s, '80s, '90s),  Janet Jackson and Madonna ('80s, '90s. '00s), Christina Aguilera, Britney Spears, and Usher ('90s, '00s, '10s) have had Billboard Hot 100 No. 1s in three separate decades.

Carey tweeted her enthusiastic reaction "Yaaaaaaaaay!!! WE. DID. IT....But.... what’s a decade."

"All I Want for Christmas Is You" was first released in 1994, but did not hit No. 1 until Dec. 21, 2019, which gave Carey the most No. 1 singles for a solo artist with 19. The Beatles are still the all-time chart-toppers with 20.

“When it first came out, it was more of a gradual thing,” Carey had told Entertainment Weekly about the song's success. “It was popular, but it didn’t have what it has now. I feel like people have grown up with the song and it’s become a part of people’s lives in terms of the way they celebrate the holidays. That makes me feel really proud as someone that loves Christmas so much.”

The holiday hit also broke another Billboard record: Of Carey's 19 Hot 100 No. 1s, "Christmas" is her 10th to occupy that position for three weeks or more.

By Andy Edelstein

andy.edelstein@newsday.com

Andy Edelstein, Newsday's entertainment editor, supervises coverage of TV, celebrities, movies and pop music. He has written three books on popular culture, including "The Brady Bunch Book."