Mariah Carey appeared on CBS’ The Late Show on Wednesday, where she took part in host Stephen Colbert‘s recurring segment, the “Colbert Questionert,” and set the record straight on a misconception about her.
“I never called myself ‘The Queen of Christmas’,” Mariah insisted, challenging anyone to “look up every interview I’ve ever done.”
“Not to get super religious, but I think like if anybody would be the ‘Queen of Christmas,’ that would be Mary,” she continued. “Christmas is for all.”
Mariah went on to say that she owed her love for the holiday to a “tough childhood.”
“I had a tough childhood and I always wanted Christmas to be perfect and it never was,” she explained. “And so then when I was finally able to kind of provide for myself…and my friends, and now my little kids [Moroccan and Monroe, whom she shares with ex-husband Nick Cannon] are 11…we have the most festive Christmas ever.”
The 52-year-old pop superstar added, “People say like how do you write these Christmas songs and do this and why…because it’s actually authentic and came from a place of longing to have some normalcy and some peace and just like a lovely holiday…so now…I wait for [Christmas] all year long.
As for her holiday classic “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” Mariah admits she never expected the song to do as well as it has, adding that she doesn’t get to hear it playing in the trendy shops where she picks up gifts for her friends because they “play cool music, not the little Christmas ditties.”
The tune at the top of Mariah’s holiday playlist, she revealed, is “The Christmas Song” — either Nat King Cole or Donnie Hathaway‘s version.
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