It’s been settled: Christmas music has no ‘official queen’

Who deserves the title “Queen of Christmas?” The truth is, there can be several queens.

Vocalist Mariah Carey’s company, Lotion LLC, petitioned the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in 2021 to trademark the title ‘Queen of Christmas,’ meaning that no one else would be able to use it,” wrote Rachel Treisman of the NPR Network.

 

At age 56, Mariah Carey of Huntington, N.Y., “is virtually synonymous with Christmas – her smash holiday hit ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You’ (co-written by Carey and Walter Afanasieff) has been a seasonal staple since 1994.”

 

The trademarking attempt sparked a lot of controversy. “At least two other artists known for their holiday seasonal songs publicly took issue with Carey laying claim to the throne,” Treisman said.

Darlene Love, 84, of Los Angeles, said that television late night talk show host David Letterman christened her “Christmas Queen” nearly four decades ago.

 

Elizabeth Chan, 45, of New York City, is a full-time Christmas singer-songwriter.” Her attorneys filed a motion in opposition to Carey’s request.

Darlene Love began recording in 1962 with producer Phil Spector and sang lead on “He’s a Rebel” and “He’s Sure the Boy I Love,” songs credited to the Crystals.

She was soon a highly sought-after vocalist and worked with many rock and soul musicians of the 1960s, including Sam Cooke, Dionne Warwick, Bill Medley, the Beach Boys, Elvis Presley, Tom Jones and Sonny and Cher. She also performed with the group known as the Blossoms.

 

In 1963, Darlene Love recorded “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home),” a song written by Spector, Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry. This is the song that David Letterman invited her to sing on his show, beginning in 1986.

Letterman has stated that the annual performance by Darlene Love, who he dubbed as the “Christmas Queen,” became his favorite Christmas tradition. Her song became an annual event for as long as his show aired (through 2014).

She is still active within the entertainment industry and has appeared in numerous films and television programs as well as in Broadway productions. Darlene Love was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2011.

Elizabeth Chan was relieved in 2022, when the Patent Office’s Trial Trademark and Appeal Board effectively denied Carey’s request to own the trademark for “Queen of Christmas.” 

Louis Tompros of the WilmerHale law firm, who represented Elizabeth Chan, said the decision means “nobody can claim exclusive and permanent rights to the “Queen of Christmas” title.

“I feel it’s important for people to understand my motivation was to really protect and save Christmas for generations after us,” Elizabeth Chan told Vulture, a unit of Vox Media. “I always thought about the future of Christmas music and wanting to protect the genre to allow other artists like me to shepherd in Christmas music without anything in their way.”

Chris Willman of Variety wrote: “Elizabeth Chan is the only singer-songwriter of any renown who does nothing but original holiday songs, releasing an album a year since 2013.”

She left a corporate marketing job with SELF magazine in 2011 to begin her Christmas songwriting venture. By concentrating only on Christmas music, Elizabeth Chan says she enjoys living a life where she “thinks about Christmas every day.”

Her career got a big boost in 2013 when she struck up a conversation at a conference with the music supervisor at Bunim/Murray Productions, based in Glendale, Calif. 

He said he was “doing a Christmas special for the Kardashians” and invited Elizabeth Chan to send him some of her music. He licensed nine of her songs for that project.