Mariah Carey’s ‘It’s a Wrap’ Explodes at Streaming Thanks to TikTok Challenge
Over the past month, Mariah Carey has beckoned her fans toward “It’s a Wrap,” a luxurious album cut from her 2009 album Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel, and the Lambily has responded in kind. Since Carey launched a TikTok dance challenge in mid January, weekly U.S. on-demand streams of “It’s a Wrap” have soared by more than 1,000% compared to where they were at the beginning of the month, and have kept climbing as more Carey fans have participated in the challenge.
On Jan. 15, Carey acknowledged a sped-up version of “It’s a Wrap” gaining social media traction by performing her own elaborately choreographed sequence to the song. The clip, complete with backup dancers and a sandwich wrap at the end for a cheeky sight gag, has earned more than 575,000 views on TikTok to date.
Naturally, her diehard fans wanted to recreate her choreography over the following days — and on Jan. 26, the superstar shared a slew of her favorite fan clips. “Battery about to die.. just watched hundreds of videos of IT’S A WRAP ON TIKTOK!!! I can’t even know what to say!!!” Carey posted.
The combination of Carey kicking off the challenge with her own clip, then personally posting some standouts from the thousands of fan clips that followed, has helped generate tons of new interest in “It’s a Wrap” on streaming platforms. During the week ending Jan. 26, the song earned 1.65 million U.S. on-demand streams, according to Luminate — a massive increase from its pre-TikTok challenge total, as it earned 17,000 streams in the week ending Dec. 29.
“It’s a Wrap” was never released as a single from Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel, which was led by the top 10 hit “Obsessed,” and has yet to hit the Billboard Hot 100. Its TikTok revival follows Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” once again scaling the chart and reaching No. 1 during the holiday season.
Click here to read more about the “It’s a Wrap” TikTok revival and watch more of Carey’s favorite fan clips.
Jason Lipshutz
Billboard