Christmas Cheer
Carey’s Merry Christmas to One and All! tour stop at Madison Square Garden featured trio’s surprise performance
Mariah Carey gave her fans an early Christmas gift they won’t soon forget during her show in New York City on Saturday. During her set, she welcomed Ariana Grande and Jennifer Hudson to the stage, where they debuted a live performance of their collab “Oh Santa!” at Madison Square Garden.
“This is unexpected but amazing,” Carey said, teasing what was to come. “We have two Christmas angels here to sing a song called “Oh Santa” with me. And you wouldn’t believe it.” Ariana Grande and Jennifer Hudson were then escorted from the side of the stage to cheers from the crowd. The trio traded verses as well as harmonized, and Carey hit the whistle notes with aplomb, as fan footage showcases.
Carey’s updated rendition of her 2010 song arrived in 2020 featuring Grande and Hudson, and it was included in her Magical Christmas Special that year, as well as on its soundtrack.
She first launched her Christmas shows in 2014 with her All I Want for Christmas Is You mini-residencies at New York’s Beacon Theatre. In 2017, she added a Las Vegas run as well as dates in Europe. The following year, her holiday shows were exclusively in Europe before she revived the run in North America in 2019 for a set of shows. After a pandemic-induced break, Carey brought her holiday season live shows back solely to New York and Toronto last winter.
Carey is currently in the midst of her Merry Christmas One and All! tour, which heads to Boston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore next week before returning to New York at MSG for the finale on Dec. 17.