‘Queen of Christmas’ Mariah Carey admits she’s a diva

Mariah Carey is timeless.

She doesn’t like to talk about her age, and when it came to creating her Christmas hit All I Want for Christmas Is You, she and first husband Tommy Mottola were careful to give it a classic and non-classic feel-the moment .

“I didn’t want it to feel period specific, so we didn’t use sounds that were happening at the time,” Carey told W Magazine in an interview for the December issue, which includes a flirty black-and-white photo of Carey on the cover , taken by it photographer Ethan James Green.

She and Mottola, a music executive 21 years her senior, crafted the tune one evening at her apartment, plucking notes on a keyboard. It debuted in 1994 and has charted every holiday season since.

“I never thought it would become such an important part of my life,” Carey told writer Alex Hawgood.

She sang the song at this year’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and was joined on stage by her 11-year-old twins, Moroccan and Monroe, in a standout moment at the annual celebration.

“I want mine [them] having everything they can have,” Carey said of her children, who she shares with ex-husband #2, Nick Cannon. “I want them to understand that they can be anything they want.”

The singer had a notoriously difficult upbringing, growing up on Long Island. She told W that by observing her occasional diva behavior, people forget that – and judge her for it.

“Yes, I play with you. And yes, some of it’s real,” she said of her antics, which included walking offstage at 2016’s Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve. “I can not help myself.”