Mariah Carey’s All I Want for Christmas Is You remains as evergreen as a Christmas tree.
Last Friday night, 12-year-old Abiha Mansoor rocked a red Santa dress and gripped the attention of the watching nation with her powerful, confident and joyful rendition of Carey’s song as she closed out the Late Late Toy Show.
Carey could hardly have done it better. Wait, was that really Mariah Carey in a pre-recorded video, name-checking the Toy Show, and wishing all the participants well? It was. Some begrudgers out there – most likely those silly people who don’t believe in Santa – said it must have been created by AI, but no folks, that really was Mariah Carey.
And to add to the magic of the show, host Patrick Kielty told Abiha that Carey’s people had listened to her singing, and were so impressed that they were going to fly her and her mother, Mariam, out to Las Vegas to attend one of Carey’s shows. This was right before Abiha did her big number, and it was clear from her face that this news was a total surprise to her.
“I didn’t know in advance,” Abiha says by phone a couple of days later. “It was all a surprise.” Neither she nor her mother have been to the US before, let alone Las Vegas, so 2025 is already shaping up to be a great year for the family. Abiha’s father, Faisal, works for The Irish Times as an application support specialist in the technology department. The family live in Clonsilla, in Dublin.
So how did it all happen?
“We sent an audition video to the call-out, I think in September,” Abiha says. She sang The Impossible Dream, a song by Jennifer Hudson, as her calling card. Not long after, the phone started ringing, and she was called for an in-person audition in October. Abiha already had some experience singing live as she was a semi-finalist in this year’s Junior Eurovision.
When she was told that she was going to be one of the some 250 children performing on the Late Late Toy Show, she didn’t yet know what plans were in store for her. It was only after rehearsals began – she went through six in total, she thinks, some at a hotel, and some on location at RTÉ – that Abiha was told she was going to be closing the show.
A performing slot on the Late Late Toy Show is one to to be treasured. Did she have to keep the news a secret from her classmates? “I was able to tell people I was going to be on, but not what the song was. We couldn’t say what the theme of the show was either, but I didn’t know what it was anyway.” It was Home Alone, in tribute to the 1990 Christmas film starring Macaulay Culkin.
Her red Santa dress for the night was provided by RTÉ, and no, she did not get to keep it.
On the big day itself, there was no rehearsal. “We got there about 8pm in the evening,” she says. “We got made up, and then relaxed until the show [started]. People were coming and going and we had a very long night. It was about 12 in the night when Patrick [Kielty] had his talk with me. I was super-excited and a bit nervous.”
Kielty told the Late Late Toy Show audience the Carey’s All I Want for Christmas Is You and her Christmas album are 30 years old this year. “But we’re going to bring it bang up to date tonight with our very own Toy Show queen of Christmas,” he said, before calling on Abiha.
Before Abiha’s live performance, Kielty asked if she was “ready to give Mariah Carey a run for her money”, and Abiha responded: “Yes, absolutely.” She nodded and smiled when Kielty asked if she had “got all the high notes sorted”.
“We just want to let you into a little secret. We actually told Mariah’s people, Sony Music, about you. They had a little listen to your voice and they are so impressed that they’d like to fly you and your mum to Las Vegas to see the actual Mariah Carey in concert,” he added. “That’s going to happen.”
Abiha asked: “Actually? Really?” before hugging Kielty, as the Late Late Toy Show audience cheered.
“While you get your head around that are you ready to sing us out tonight?” Kielty asked Abiha, and again she replied: “Yes, absolutely.”
Contrary to what you might assume, none of the parents of any of the performers were in the audience. Some were in the Green Room, or backstage, and some were not even on the premises, due to the shortage of space. Abiha’s mother was watching from backstage, while her father was at home watching the show live with her siblings. After the show, Abiha and her mother got home sometime after 2am.
“I couldn’t even stand up by then, I was so tired,” she says happily.
And what might she like to do when she is older?
“Probably be a singer,” Abiha replies right away.
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