Mariah Carey

Walter Asanasieff is challenging Mariah Carey's claims to have written her popular Christmas song as a child.

“So on and on, and it was like a game of ping-pong,” Afanasieff said. “So the writing of “All I Want For Christmas” is, I started playing a boogie-woogie, kind of a rock. “I’ve studied music, I have degrees in music. They had a long collaboration relationship, dating back to her albums Emotions and Music Box. She doesn’t know a diminished chord from a minor seventh chord to a major seventh chord. “She doesn’t play anything.

Mariah Carey has previously claimed that she wrote her hit “All I Want for Christmas Is You” on her Casio keyboard as a child — but her former co-producer ...

“We were holed up in this beautiful home that they were renting, and it was the summertime and there was a piano. I’d hit the ball to her, she hits it back to me,” he said. She doesn’t know a diminished chord from a minor seventh chord to a major seventh chord,” Afanasieff claimed. “I’ve studied music, I have degrees in music. “So to claim that she wrote a very complicated chord-structured song with her finger on a Casio keyboard when she was a little girl, it’s kind of a tall tale,” he added on the podcast. “She doesn’t play anything, she doesn’t play keyboard or piano.

'She doesn't know chord changes and music theory or anything like that,' the music producer claimed about Carey.

I was going over all the things I think about at Christmas time that make me happy and how to turn it around and make it into a love song.” They also said that Carey “was not a child when the song was written”. [was taken from a song of the same name he co-wrote for Vince Vance & the Valiants in 1989](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/mariah-carey-all-i-want-for-christmas-sued-b2093825.html). He also claimed that this baseline gave her the idea to sing the note of the line: “I don’t want a lot for Christmas.” “And it was like a game of pingpong. “Then I sat in this small room with a keyboard and started doing little melodies and stuff. “So on and on,” he added. “She doesn’t understand music, she doesn’t know chord changes and music theory or anything like that,” he claimed. [music producer](/topic/music-producer) then shared his version of how the song was written and how they came up with the tune while making three songs for her Christmas album, Merry Christmas. “It’s a difficult song.” “So it just sort of developed in her mind.” However, it wasn’t until 10 years ago that an “alternate story” was shared about the songwriting process.

Speaking on the Hot Takes & Deep Dives podcast, record producer Walter, 64, said: "When she started to hint at the fact that, 'Oh, I wrote that song when I was ...

She’s the one that made the song a hit, and she’s awesome. "She doesn't know chord changes and music theory or anything like that," he said. Walter added in the 2019 interview: "Mariah has been very wonderful, positive and a force of nature. There was never any alternate story until probably 10 years ago." He told Variety that the song is now "bittersweet" for him as "a lot of people just don't believe that I'm a co-writer of the song". [Mariah Carey](https://www.dailystar.co.uk/latest/mariah-carey) has been slammed by her All I Want For Christmas Is You co-writer for seeming to take all the credit for the writing of the track.

Her co-writer on, and producer of, the smash festive hit Walter Afanasieff, 64, poured scepticism on the singer's claim she wrote the song as a child on her ...

“Then I sat in this small room with a keyboard and started doing little melodies and stuff. She doesn’t understand music, she doesn’t know chord changes and music theory or anything like that. “When she started to hint at the fact that, ‘Oh, I wrote that song when I was a little girl!’ But why weren’t you saying that for 12 or 13 or 15 years prior to that?

Since Carey and Afanasieff were co-writers on the song, their even cut is approximately $830,000 each —$747,000 if a 10 percent publishing administration fee is ...

In 2010, Carey re-recorded the song for her second holiday album, Merry Christmas II You, and again as a duet with Justin Bieber for his 2011 album Under the Mistletoe. On writing the song, Carey remembers the lyrics coming to her while she was in Upstate New York. Globally, “All I Want for Christmas Is You” pulled in 823 million streams and 94,000 downloads in 2021 alone. Released on Carey’s 1994 album Merry Christmas, “All I Want for Christmas Is You” first reentered the Hot 100 top 10 (at No. Based on the 2021 figures, Carey pulled in an estimated $2.4 million in 2021 for the hit. The song pulls in an estimated $6.1 million per year, [according to a recent report](https://www.billboard.com/pro/how-much-mariah-carey-make-all-i-want-for-christmas-is-you/), from combined publishing and master recording revenues.