Interview w/ Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas Is You" co-writer Walter Afanasieff — Celine Dion, Beyonce, Titanic

Hot Takes & Deep Dives

Jess Rothschild

Rhony, Tv & Film, Andycohen, Rhobh, Realhousewives, Bravotv, Vpr, Rhoc, Bravo, Popculture, Rhop, Pumprules, Bethennyfrankel, Lgbtculture, Rhod, Realhousewivesofnyc, Rhoa, Vanderpumprules

4.7 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 22 December 2022

⏱️ 61 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Jess is joined by WALTER AFANASIEFF, the Grammy-winning songwriter and producer responsible for co-writing and producing the majority of MARIAH CAREY's ‘90s hits, including “Anytime You Need a Friend,” “My All,” “Hero,” “One Sweet Day,” and of course “All I Want For Christmas Is You.” Afanasieff walks us through the creation of the modern Christmas classic and his professional fall-out with Mariah. We also discuss how the music and songwriting industry has changed since the ‘90s, producing CELINE DION's “My Heart Will Go On” from TITANIC, writing with BEYONCÉ, BARBRA STREISAND and the story of how a record company sabotaged the career of a singer destined to win American Idol.

IG: @jessxnyc & @hottakesdeepdives

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome back to Hot Takes and Deep Dives and today I am joined by one of the most prolific
0:19.8	songwriters and producers in the history of pop music.
0:24.0	Not only has Walter Afanasiev written for Beyoncé, Destiny's Child, Ricky Martin,
0:29.4	Josh Grobin, Barbara Streisand, and produced part of the Bodyguard soundtrack with Whitney
0:34.5	Houston.
0:35.5	But he is perhaps most notable for his 28 songs co-written with Mariah Carey.
0:41.4	I'm talking about the enormous hits from our early albums including One Sweet Day, My
0:46.2	All, Hero, Anytime You Need A Friend, plus Deep Cut fan favorites like Forever, Whenever
0:52.2	You Call.
0:53.6	But Walter, would you say all I want for Christmas is you will be your lasting legacy?
1:04.9	I would say yeah, all I want for Christmas is you is the most reoccurring chart positioning
1:11.4	over and over over the last 25, 26 years.
1:14.9	You know occasionally somebody will put on an old Mariah Carey record or a Celine Dion
1:20.5	record or whatever.
1:21.7	But it isn't the same as having a radio blasting for literally six, seven weeks straight
1:28.4	this very famous Christmas song.
1:30.5	My kids can be very grateful because they don't want to college on that song.
1:35.7	You know, there's been a lot of very, very genuinely and we're all very grateful.
1:41.4	I'm always grateful to Mariah for having the wherewithal and the power and the sort of
1:47.4	the staying power to be the Christmas queen every year.
1:51.8	And certainly, you know, there's a lot of people out there writing great Christmas songs
1:56.3	and the original Christmas song is something that I am very, very in favor of people doing
	...

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