Photo Credit: Mariah Carey by Filipe Vicente / Setor VIP / CC by 2.5
Mariah Carey will open Netflix’s NFL Christmas Gameday on December 25, delivering a (taped) performance of “All I Want for Christmas Is You.”
Self-proclaimed Queen of Christmas Mariah Carey will open Netflix’s NFL Christmas Gameday on December 25, delivering a pre-recorded performance of her festive hit, “All I Want for Christmas Is You.” The event marks Netflix’s first major foray into the world of sports.
On Christmas Day, the Kansas City Chiefs will face off against the Pittsburgh Steelers at 1 PM ET, followed by a match between the Baltimore Ravens and the Houston Texans at 4:30 PM ET. And it’s a day for divas, with Beyoncé performing a live halftime show during the Ravens-Texans game.
Besides streaming on Netflix, the Christmas Day games will air on broadcast TV by CBS affiliates in the competing teams’ cities, and will be available on NFL+ on mobile devices in the United States. Netflix’s involvement is part of a three-year deal between the streaming platform and the NFL, which will see Netflix air at least one holiday game in 2025 and 2026.
Mariah Carey is on the final stretch of her largest Christmas tour to date for the 30th anniversary of her holiday album, Merry Christmas. Its lead single, the incomparable “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” has been certified 16x platinum by the RIAA — the highest-certified single of all time from a female artist.
Despite the track’s dominance around the holiday season over the past 30 years, data shows the public might be getting tired of the festive hit. NBC News reported data of the past 20 years of fans’ listenership of the song, which has declined 35% between 2023 and 2024, and 22% from November 2023 to November 2024. Fans have also been fighting at Mariah Carey’s concerts during her latest Christmas tour, with at least two altercations reported in Baltimore and St. Louis during her shows.
