Mariah Carey gave Filipino fans an early Christmas treat after she performed her holiday classic ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You’ for the first time ever during her sold-out concert at the SM Mall of Asia Arena on Tuesday night, Oct. 14.
The Grammy-winning singer surprised the crowd when the sleigh bells of her 1994 hit began to play as the show’s finale. This marks Carey’s fourth concert in the Philippines, but her first time performing her iconic holiday song in the country.
The track, which Carey co-wrote with Walter Afanasieff, has become the biggest Christmas song in history, topping the Billboard Hot 100 for a record 18 weeks and surpassing two billion streams on Spotify as of December 2024.
For one of her looks for the Manila leg, the 56-year-old diva donned a glittering pearl mini dress by Dubai-based Filipino designer Michael Cinco. She performed her hits ‘Emotions,’ ‘Hero,’ ‘Fantasy,’ ‘Dreamlover,’ ‘Always Be My Baby,’ and ‘We Belong Together,’ among others.
Jessica Soho, Ara Mina, Alex Gonzaga, and Mikee Morada were among the celebrity attendees at ‘Mariah Carey: The Celebration of Mimi.’
Given that it’s been seven years since Carey visited the Philippines, her Filipino fans went all out to attend the one-night-only concert, with many supporters earlier expressing that they had failed to purchase tickets as it sold out immediately. /edv