The co-writer of Mariah Carey’s seminal Christmas tune wants the singer to publicly give him credit for co-writing “All I Want for Christmas Is You.”
Walter Afanasieff penned and produced the 1994 hit with Carey. But the public and the singer’s fans, known as the Lambily, often provide the hitmaker with sole credit.
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Now, Afanasieff wants to set the record straight.
"It has come to a place where it's almost bittersweet for me because of the fact that I'm constantly, every single year at this same time of the year having to defend myself, because a lot of people just don't believe that I'm a co-writer of the song," he told Variety. "Mariah has been very wonderful, positive and a force of nature. She's the one that made the song a hit and she's awesome. But she definitely does not share credit where credit is due. As a result, it has really hurt my reputation, and as a result, has left me with a bittersweet taste in my mouth. Because here it is, such a wonderful, huge event for me, yet my life is being threatened on the Internet, because Mariah fans are accusing me of stealing from her."
Carey has not helped matters in some recent interviews. While discussing how the holiday classic came to be, she made it seem as if she composed it all on her own.
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“I just sat down, decorated a little tree and put on ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ and tried to get into that mood,” she told Cosmopolitan's December 2019 issue. “Then I sat in this small room with a keyboard and started doing little melodies and stuff.”
In an Entertainment Weekly interview this week, Carey said she wrote "the beginning and the middle on the keyboard in a little house in Upstate New York, in a room by myself." She acknowledged bringing the song to Afanasieff, with whom she has written and produced songs such as "Hero," "My All" and "Butterfly." In an Amazon Music mini-documentary released earlier this month, Carey mentioned Afanasieff by name. She said she took the holiday tune to "Walter A" after she composed it so he could co-produce it.
Earlier this week, Billboard announced that "All I Want For Christmas" hit the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart 25 years after its release. But while the moment is celebrated, Afanasieff has had to fend off internet trolls who he said attack him whenever he asserts himself.
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“I want to talk about the song, since I’m a co-writer, I own 50% of the song, we’re equal co-writers, we’re so joyous and, and I mean, we’re so blessed,” he told Variety of his estranged collaborator. “Yet I can’t call her. She doesn’t call me. She continues to deny the existence of a co-writer on this. So on this wonderful first day that the song is No. 1 on the Hot 100, I’m still being attacked left and right and ridiculed and pummeled by the Internet and social media.”
“I’m just saying, geez, I wish people weren’t such haters. It’s just not fair, to me and my family anymore, to have these horrible, ugly words that have nothing to do with the truth,” he added.
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