Mariah Carey Sings a new Hanukkah Song

Lior Zaltzman, Kveller
Published November 30, 2021

Mariah Carey is the absolute, unrivaled queen of Christmas music. Even the biggest Christmas grinch alive (that’s me, I am the grinch) can’t argue with the fact that “All I Want for Christmas Is You” is a timeless masterpiece.

Now, Carey is trying her hand at the Hanukkah music, and honestly, I’m here for it, and I need more of it, and I also need a Mariah-branded Hanukkah sweater to go along with it, pretty please.

Last night, on the first night of Hanukkah, Carey shared a video of herself singing a Hanukkah song to her 10-year-old twins, Moroccan and Monroe (who she lovingly called Roc and Roe). “Happy Hanukkah!!!! 💖🕎 Learned this one in grade school, thought I’d teach it to Roc & Roe, I don’t think they’ve got it yet 😂,” Carey wrote.

The song — which this Hanukkah-lover is unfamiliar with, and which does not appear to be a part of the Hanukkah music canon but, instead, the invention of a Hanukkah-loving grade school teacher (please feel free to let me know if I am wrong!) — goes: “Hanukkah is coming, Hanukkah is coming, that’s the time we have the happiest days.” Carey sings it with perfect pitch and candor, and not like she’s casually improvising at a restaurant after a family dinner, which appears to be what she is actually doing.

Despite looking a little sleepy, the twins do seem to hang onto her every (sung) word — obviously, because their mom is five-time Grammy winner Mariah Carey.

As one Twitter use wrote, this is a wonderful gift for Jewish lambs, which is what Carey calls her fans. (In case you have any doubts, I am part of the Lambily… the lamb family, of course.)

This isn’t the first time Carey has dabbled in Hanukkah music. Back in 2019, in a special holiday segment of “Billy on the Street” with Billy Eichner (a self-proclaimed Hanukkah goblin), she demonstrated her mastery of the Hanukkah classic “I Have a Little Dreidel.”

In the segment, Eichner and Carey challenge a passerby to complete the lyrics of the song in order to win a Hanukkah menorah. “Isn’t it time Mariah recorded a Hanukkah song?” Eichner asks, and the stranger heartily agrees. Then Carey and Eichner start singing the song together, and Carey doesn’t even look at the lyric sheet — what a queen.

“Oh dreidel, dreidel, dreidel, I made it out of clay, and when it’s dry and ready…” they chant, and the stranger completes: “A dreidel I shall play.” After they hand him the menorah, Carey interjects with, “I think it’s dreidel I will play.” Eichner, checking the lyric sheet, sees that she is right, yells “WRONG!” and snatches the menorah back.

“Don’t f*ck with Mariah’s Hanukkah lyrics, babe,” Eichner yells as he stomps off with the plastic Hanukkah staple.

Actually, both Carey and the passerby were right — though the song is most often sung with “shall.” But also, I appreciate Carey’s passion for Hanukkah tunes and agree with fellow lamb Billy Eichner: I don’t want to mess with Mariah’s Hanukkah lyrics!

Now maybe she can write some of her own original ones? She wrote “All I Want For Christmas Is You” in less than an hour, after all. I’m sure she can whip up a few Hanukkah classics if she puts her mind to it.

Happy Hanukkah, Mariah!