Mariah Carey brought her winter holiday classic to sports fans during Netflix’s inaugural NFL stream. The singer performed “All I Want For Christmas Is You” in a pre-recorded concert aired ahead of the Christmas Day (Dec. 25) matchup between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Kansas City Chiefs.
In the clip, the 55-year-old set the tone for the day of sports and fanfare. As the performance loads up, fans prepare for kickoff, including a cameo from Kevin Hart and a nod to the streamer’s popular Squid Games series. Footage of both competing teams is also intertwined into the video.
The setting changes from Mariah Carey singing in a bright red leotard on a snow-covered platform surrounded by Christmas trees and festive-costumed background dancers to the home viewers, to the stadium.
The performance comes as “All I Want For Christmas Is You” continues to set records in its 30th year. According to Billboard, earlier this week, the track set a new mark for the most time spent at No. 1 on its Streaming Songs chart since its 2013 inception. Additionally, “All I Want For Christmas Is You” leads the Billboard Hot 100 chart for a 17th total week.
“All I Want For Christmas Is You” was initially released in 1994 on the R&B singer’s Merry Christmas album. Earlier this year, the mother of two revealed her initial anxiety around releasing a holiday-themed LP.
“So that was the record company saying, ‘You should do a Christmas album,’” she explained to the Associated Press.
“And I was like, ‘I don’t know that I should at this juncture.’ Because, you know, I was very young and was just starting out and I felt like people do Christmas albums later in their lives. But now people have started to do them whenever, like right at the top of their career. So, I mean, what was I feeling like? I was a little bit apprehensive and then I was like, ‘I love this.’ And I decorated the studio and just had the best time.”
Watch Mariah Carey kick off the Netflix NFL Christmas programming above.
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