Mariah Carey provided plenty of holiday cheer at the start of the NFL Christmas games with a performance of their season hit.

The Grammy winner, 55, opened both games — the Kansas City Chiefs vs. the Pittsburgh Steelers at 1 p.m. ET and the Baltimore Ravens vs. the Houston Texans at 4:30 p.m. ET, streaming on Netflix — with a recorded replay from “All I Want for Christmas Is You” on Wednesday, December 25th. Carey stunned in a red sequin bodysuit during a rooftop performance, flanked by dancers in Nutcracker costumes.

“All I Want for Christmas Is You” was released 30 years ago as the lead single from Carey’s first Christmas album in 1994 Merry Christmas. Three decades later, the song continues to dominate the charts and has been certified 16x platinum, making it the highest-certified single ever performed by a female artist.

In November, Carey reflected on the song’s origins in an interview with ABC News.

“I was working on it alone… on this little Casio keyboard, writing down words and thinking, ‘What am I thinking about at Christmas?’ What do I love? What do I want? What am I dreaming about?’” she remembers. “And that’s where it all started.”

When developing the track, Carey hoped it would become a holiday classic.

“My goal was to make something timeless so it didn’t feel like the ’90s when I wrote it,” she added.

Now, 30 years later, the song is still one of the most popular tracks of the season, which Carey attributes to the fact that she “really, really” loves Christmas. “It’s not fake,” she emphasized.

Despite her authentic love for the Christmas season, in a November interview with The New York Times Carey revealed that her 1994 Christmas album almost didn’t happen.

“I felt like it was too early in my career,” she told the outlet.

Ultimately, Carey’s love of the holidays won out and she eventually became known as the Queen of Christmas.

This year, Carey increased her appreciation for the season even further by committing to the 16th date Merry Christmas to everyone. tourwhich made various stops in the United States and Canada from November 15th to December 17th. (Their 2023 holiday tour only consisted of a total of four shows in Toronto and New York City.)

Related: Let Bleachers, Megan Moroney and more spice up your playlist for the 2024 holidays

Mariah Carey has already decorated her halls, but many other musicians are also getting in the mood for the Christmas season this year with original Christmas songs. Jack Antonoff’s band Bleachers released a single called “Merry Christmas, Please Don’t Call” in November. The producer shed light on the inspiration behind the song in a lengthy Instagram post (…)

“Last year we didn’t travel across the country,” she told ABC News. “So we’re doing it this year.”

Carey hoped the tour would give her fans “the merriest of Christmases” while allowing them to enjoy “being together.”

She further teased that new music is “on the horizon,” hinting that she’s recently been “writing new songs” and spending time in the studio “working on something with a choir.”