The Artist behind the artist… Walter Afanasieff

Walter Afanasieff is a Grammy award-winning songwriter and producer who’s worked with Whitney Houston, Aretha Franklin and Celine Dion, as well as Australia’s Tina Arena and Savage Garden. But it’s his work with Mariah Carey that has made the headlines - at first for the right reasons (the pair wrote multiple number one hits over the years, including “All I Want For Christmas”). 

The pair haven’t worked together since Carey’s hit 1997 album Butterfly, and a rift has formed since Mariah diluted Walter’s involvement in the song when recounting how it came to be. “About 10 years ago, and I’m not sure why, but Mariah started to say things that weren’t in the realm of my truth,” Afanasieff told The Morning Show.“ It might be in the realm of her truth, but we literally co-wrote the song...we’ve written many, many, many songs together,” he said. The rift began when Carey divorced Sony Music boss Tommy Mottola in 1998. At the time, Afanasieff was under exclusive contract and was unable to continue working with Mariah. “She found that to be a little bit of a slap in the face,” Afanasieff said in 2018.
Thanks to digital sales and streaming, All I Want For Christmas Is You has seen a resurgence in recent years. It’s become so popular that it topped Australia’s ARIA Top 50 singles in 2018 and 2019, and became her 19th Billboard #1 hit in the United States. It’s also on track to hit the top spot in the UK for the very first time.