The Hipgnosis Songs Fund has made a regulatory filing celebrating Mariah Carey’s song ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You’ making it to number one in the UK charts for the first time in its history.
The £1.5bn investment trust only acquired rights to the Christmas hit in September. It was part of the catalogue of Walter Afanasieff, who co-wrote and co-produced the song with Carey (pictured). The investment trust also has rights to Michael Buble’s cover of the song and a 2011 duet between Carey and Justin Bieber.
Since its release in 1994, the festive track has become the most successful Christmas song of all time, yet had failed to ever make it to number one on the UK charts until this weekend. It will need to retain its spot for two weeks before it is crowned the Christmas number one.
In a filing published on Monday morning, Hipgnosis Songs Fund founder Merck Mercuriadis said: “‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ is not just a beloved Christmas carol, it’s a magnificent song. We are proud to be custodians of the wonderful work of Walter Afanasieff and delighted to see it go to number 1 for the first time in its history in the year of our acquisition.”
In a note issued this month, JP Morgan Cazenove said Christmas songs are taking an ever bigger percentage of the global Spotify top 200 songs, reaching 41% in late December 2019 and set to surpass that in 2020, based on early December figures.
This year also looks set to continue the trend of Christmas songs entering the Spotify top 200 earlier than preceding years. “It appears that Christmas festivities are beginning earlier than usual, because frankly it’s been a pretty awful year and why not,” the note said.
The note said the Hipgnosis Song Fund’s exposure to Christmas songs provided earnings uncorrelated with the economy and with a strong seasonal pattern, showing underlying growth.
The investment trust also earns royalties on a number of other Christmas songs, including: ‘Santa Tell Me’ by Ariana Grande; ‘New Year’s Day’ by Taylor Swift; ‘2,000 Miles’ by the Pretenders; plus Kenny G’s Christmas album ‘The Greatest Holiday Classics’.
See also: Portfolio Adviser‘s 2020 festive series I’ll be home for Christmas…
