She sleeps with 20 humidifiers, she gave birth to the sound of her own voice, and when she was asked to turn on the Christmas lights at Westfield Shepherds Bush in 2009, she requested 20 white kittens and 100 white doves upon arrival. These are just some of the ‘diva demands’ attributed to Mariah Carey, the music icon and undisputed Queen of Christmas.
When Rylan Clark flew out to meet her in LA to discuss the 30th anniversary of her first Christmas album, Merry Christmas, he was shocked. ‘She turned up half an hour early, so I had to quickly finish getting ready,’ the presenter tells Grazia, ‘I felt embarrassed.’ As for diva demands? ‘There weren’t any, she was just really sweet and really easy.’
In the BBC Two special, which airs on 7 December at 8.15pm, the pair reminisce about how Mariah came to be the face, or rather the voice, of the festive the season. In the past 30 years, the opening notes of ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ have become synonymous with the start of Christmas. Mariah holds three Guinness World Records for that song alone: highest-charting holiday song on the US Hot 100 by a solo female artist, most-streamed song on Spotify in 24 hours by a female artist and most weeks in the UK singles Top 10 chart for a Christmas song. According to The Economist, she earns more than $2.6 million in royalties every year.
Of course, despite Mariah’s diva reputation, this level of astounding success is not something she could have ever anticipated. In fact, Mariah had her reservations about releasing a Christmas album – as did many people on her label. ‘I felt it was too early in my career,’ she recently told The New York Times, having only released two other studio albums at that point, Music Box (1993) and Daydream (1995).
Not only has Merry Christmas become a record-breaking album that dominates the season year after year, but Mariah can boast that she wrote all the original songs herself. Unsurprisingly, the Grammy-winner has learnt to embrace the frenzy with open arms. In 2019, she began her annual ‘It’s Time’ (It’s Tiiiiiiiiime) videos on social media where she reserves the right to declare that Christmas has begun.
‘I think she loves it,’ Rylan adds. ‘All I Want For Christmas. The Christmas album, it was all her. Some people advised her against doing it and she said, “I’m doing it”, she made that call and look at it now.’
If that doesn’t earn her diva-ship, then what does? ‘I’m sure she plays up to it,’ Rylan says of Mariah’s’ reputation. ‘It was so refreshing to talk to someone who has done it for so long and there’s no bullshit, it’s just “this is my job, I love it, I make these videos every Christmas”. She gets it, she’s intelligent and she’s got a great sense of humour.’
As is made clear in the episode, Rylan has always been a big MC fan. ‘It’s Mariah, do you know what I mean? I’ve grown up with her.’ The interview is the second in his ‘Rylan Meets’ series, with his sit-down chat with Cher airing in December 2023. How, then, does he prepare to interview the biggest icons in the industry? ‘I like to not prepare,’ he jokes. ‘I just like to sit down and genuinely have a chat. I’ve got a really good team, and they know how I work so I sit down on the day with my producer Hillary and then we just run free with it. A few little bullet points – that’s all I need.’
Well, whatever he’s doing it’s working. During the special, in which he refers to the Queen of Christmas as ‘babe’ on several occasions and tells her about his time in a Westlife tribute band in Ibiza, Rylan bagged an invite to stay with Mariah in Capri next summer. ‘Me and Mariah in Capri 2025,’ he says, half joking, half serious. ‘I can see us on a boat, easily. I’m just waiting on the call.’
Naturally, next on his hit list is Celine Dion. ‘I’ve had Cher, I’ve had Mariah, I want Celine now. I think now is the time to strike.’ BBC Two, you know what to do.
Watch Mariah Meets Rylan on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer on 7 December at 8.15pm.
Nikki Peach is a writer at Grazia UK, working across pop culture, TV and news. She has also written for the i, i-D and the New Statesman Media Group and covers all things TV for Grazia (treating high and lowbrow shows with equal respect).