Mariah Carey fights back as bar bans famous Christmas song

How soon is too soon to play what many consider to be the ultimate Christmas anthem? Any time before 1 Dec, according to one US bar. And the superstar isn’t impressed….

For many of us, the opening bars of Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas Is You signifies the official launch of the festive season. But one Texas drinking establishment has put the kibosh on playing the song prematurely, or too often.

The Stoneleigh P bar in Dallas has stuck a sign on its juke box instructing patrons not to even think about selecting Carey’s song before 1 December, and warning that from the month of advent, the tune will be allowed to play just once per day.

Should the song be selected more frequently, bar staff will be permitted to ‘skip’ it.

“The sign has been put up for three years now, maybe four,” Stoneleigh P’s general manager Laura Garrison told The Washington Post. “Every holiday season we hear the song so much when you get alcohol involved.” The beleaguered bar boss added that Carey’s Christmas hit creeps in earlier and earlier each year, revealing, “I think this year it was played in September.”

A picture of the sign, shared on Twitter, sparked a social media debate this week, with the superstar diva herself weighing in. The ‘Queen of Christmas’ posted an image of herself armed for battle, after a Twitter user suggested the jukebox sign signalled ‘a war on Christmas’.

The social media storm does not appear to have affected the song’s popularity, which has already entered Apple Music’s Top 100 most-played songs in the US. Last year, by 1 December it was already the second-most-listened-to song in the country, according to Spotify.

First released in 1994, the singer is thought to make US$600,000 to US$1 million each year in royalties from the song. It was kept off the top spot in the UK by East 17’s Stay Another Day, but has since sold more than 1.24 million copies worldwide.

Famously, the crooner took just one hour to pen the hugely successful track.