Ross King: Mariah Carey’s a skier not a diva – and that’s snow joke

IT’S only halfway through November so you should have heard Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas Is You around, oh, 300 times by now.

Since her festive hit was released 23 years ago it has sold 16m copies to become the 11th biggest-selling single of all time, earning about £35m in royalties.

The song is so massive that they’ve only gone and made a movie out of it.

Which might sound ridiculous – but Hollywood has done this sort of thing before.

If you’re a fan of Kenny Rogers you’ll remember they did the same thing with his hit songs The Gambler and Coward Of The County.

And then there was Kris Kristofferson’s movie Convoy, which was based on the CW McCall track of the same name. How’s that for a fact?

Anyway, no offence to Kenny or Kris but I’d much rather chat to Mariah – and that’s what I did last week.

She’s quite lovely – not really a diva. Although you do feel like you’re being granted permission to speak to royalty when you sit down for a chinwag!

Mariah refused to tell me if she was naughty or nice as a child because I wasn’t Santa. At least I don’t look like an old fat bloke quite yet.

Mariah, who is now 47, has six-year-old twins, and one of them has joined in singing duties with mum.

“They’re the best, but they’re yet to see the animated film in its entirety,” she told me.

“My daughter is singing background vocals on one of the new songs on the soundtrack, called The Snowman.

“They asked me if they can do this! They’re doing background vocals on the soundtrack to another movie I’m doing called The Star.

“They love to sing.”

Mariah loves heading to Aspen, the snowy winter wonderland in the rocky mountains 900 miles east of Los Angeles.

Much like I try to do every year! I asked if she’d be hitting the slopes there this festive season.

She said: “I try to ski, it’s really better for me to just have a go on maybe one ski lift and that’s it!

“The kids love to ski, though, and they’re big snowboarders, too.”

If they’re halfway decent then they’re probably already better than me.

Although if you see me falling over after too much Baileys this winter then it’s because I’ve been on the piste …