Well, that was tricky!
Discussion of Mariah Carey’s Christmas classic On CNN’s New Year’s Eve show, host Andy Cohen asked the chanteuse, “ When you recorded ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You,’ did you feel like it was going to take so long? Because it is one of those songs you listen to and it still sounds like a brand new song. “
“Thank you,” replied the Grammy winner, “but first of all, I hate to say this all the time, but as a writer I wrote that song.”
Cohen was quick to add, “I know,” but it was too little, too late, for the diva.
“Yeah, but you said, ‘recorded it,’ so I just had to clarify it for people back home,” Carey, 50, replied. (Carey and songwriting partner Walter Afanasieff wrote the tune, presumably in just 15 minutes.)
Carey added a dash more cringe to the exchange, then asked what the background sound was, forcing Cohen to reply that it was Jennifer Lopez’s gig for the night.
Carey, whose alleged feud with Lopez dates back to her feeling that Lopez was copying her “Loverboy” with “I’m Real,” kept an unyielding smile on her face.
The situation was skewed in Carey’s recent memoir, which described “a female entertainer on [Sony’s] label (which I don’t know), ”an aside herself referring to her famous interview response of“ I don’t know her ”to a question about Lopez.