"One Sweet Day" is a song by American singer-songwriter Mariah Carey and vocal harmony group Boyz II Men. The artists co-wrote the song with Walter Afanasieff, who co-produced it with Carey. Inspired by people in their lives and the sufferers of the AIDS epidemic, "One Sweet Day" sees the singers grieve the loss of a loved one and hold onto the hope of reuniting in heaven. It is a sentimental ballad influenced by R&B and pop, featuring keyboards, synthesizers, a synth bass, and guitar. Columbia Records released it on November 13, 1995, as the second single from Carey's fifth studio album, Daydream (1995).
On release, "One Sweet Day" received widespread critical acclaim for its emotionally resonant lyrics about grief and loss, as well as for the vocal performances of Carey and Boyz II Men. Music critics identified the track as a standout from Daydream. It reached number one in Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, and the United States, and charted within the top ten in Australia, Belgium, Denmark, France, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Panama, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. In the US, "One Sweet Day" became the fourth song to debut at number one on Billboard Hot 100 and spent 16 consecutive weeks atop the chart, breaking the record for the longest-running number-one song in history; it held this record for 23 years.
Larry Jordan directed the music video for "One Sweet Day", which features scenes of Carey and Boyz II Men in and around the studio, as well as during the recording session. Because both acts had busy schedules, there was no time to produce a full-scale video. The song was performed at the ceremony for the 38th Annual Grammy Awards (1996) and the memorial service for Princess Diana (1997). Carey has also performed the song in most of her concert tours and residencies, first during the Daydream World Tour in 1996. Retrospectively, critics have ranked "One Sweet Day" highly amongst her songs. It appears on her compilation albums #1's (1998), Greatest Hits (2001), The Ballads (2008), and #1 to Infinity (2015).
Background and development "Dreamlover" was released as the lead single from American singer-songwriter Mariah Carey's third studio album, Music Box (1993). A mid-tempo pop song, "Dreamlover" was identified by some critics as the singer's first attempt into the contemporary R&B market. By the release of her first holiday album, Merry Christmas (1994), Carey had already recorded seven songs for her fifth studio album, titled Daydream (1995). She sought greater creative control over her work and increasingly pursued the R&B and hip-hop influences she had long admired.
Carey had previously worked with close friend and music producer David Cole on two of her studio albums, Emotions (1991) and Music Box, as well as on her MTV Unplugged project (1992). After his death in 1995, Carey began writing a song about how losing someone close can change a person's life and perspective. Carey had developed an "initial idea" for the song with Walter Afanasieff and had already written the chorus. As an admirer of their work, she wanted to collaborate with the American vocal harmony group Boyz II Men, so she set the song aside, saying she did not want to finish it because it could be "our song if we ever do it together".
After meeting with Boyz II Men, Carey learned that group member Nathan Morris had been developing a similar song for the group, dedicated to Khalil Rountree, their late tour manager. According to Carey, it featured "basically the same lyrics" and fit "over the same chord changes". Using Carey's chorus and concept alongside the melody created by the group, they wrote and composed the song together. The track was co-produced by both Carey and Afanasieff; the latter expanded on the melody and incorporated additional grooves and beats. As work on the song progressed, Carey expanded the chorus with additional lyrics intended to make it resonate with those affected by the AIDS epidemic, which peaked in the mid-1990s. Her sister, Alison Carey, had been diagnosed with HIV in 1988 at the age of 27, which strained their relationship.
Composition
"One Sweet Day" is a sentimental R&B and pop ballad that runs for four minutes and forty-one seconds. Journalist Ana Monroy Yglesias, writing for the Grammy Awards website, deemed it a slow jam. Carey wrote the lyrics with Afanasieff and the four members of Boyz II Men—Michael McCary, Nathan Morris, Wanya Morris, and Shawn Stockman—while she and Afanasieff composed the music. Dan Shea performed the keyboards, synthesizers, drum and rhythm programming, while Dann Huff played guitar. Shea and Afanasieff both worked with the synth bass electronically. The track was engineered by David Gleeson, Jay Healy, and Dana Jon Chappelle in WallyWorld in San Rafael, California, and the Hit Factory in New York. It was then mixed by Mick Guzauski at Sony Music Studios in New York City, and mastered by Bob Ludwig at Gateway Mastering.
Critics have interpreted "One Sweet Day" as a dialogue between the narrator and a deceased loved one, with the former expressing regret over things left unsaid. The narrator sings in the hope of an eventual reunion, believing they will meet their departed loved ones again in heaven. Its themes revolve around yearning, sadness, and hope, as Tom Breihan of Stereogum wrote, who interpreted the song as conveying a universal experience of loss. Music commentator Stephen Holden, writing for The New York Times, described the chorus as more uplifting, opining that it anticipates a future reunion that extends beyond a single individual to include others who have been lost. Psychologist John H. Harvey interpreted the song as expressing hope that deceased loved ones have found peace in the afterlife.
"One Sweet Day" is structured in verse–chorus form. According to the sheet music published at Musicnotes.com by Sony/ATV Music Publishing, the song is in a slow tempo of seventy-six beats per minute and is composed in the key of A♭ major, with the singers' vocal range spanning from E♭4 to A♭5. "One Sweet Day" is delivered as a duet; the five vocalists harmonize together only during the chorus. Carey and Boyz II Men lead vocalist Wanya Morris employ extensive melismatic phrasing throughout the song. Musicologist David Metzer observed that, at times, the two singers appear to compete in elaborating on melodic lines established by the other group members and suggested that this may occasionally overshadow the song's themes of mourning.
Critical reception Music critics praised "One Sweet Day" on release. Unnamed writers for People praised Carey's "bravura" belting as one of the strengths on Daydream, while commentators from Music & Media commended Boyz II Men's contributions to the "skillful ballad" for adding a "soulful touch" to Carey's "perfectionist vocals". Jonathan Takiff, in the Philadelphia Daily News, deemed it one of the best songs from Daydream. Ervin Dyer of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette opined that "One Sweet Day", along with the ballad "Melt Away", contributed a sense of "tender passion" to Daydream that he found lacking in Carey's earlier albums. Entertainment Weekly contributor Ken Tucker wrote that "One Sweet Day" radiates a "breezy sexiness" that Carey, "for all the brazen hussiness of her public persona, rarely permits herself to reveal in song". In more negative reviews, James Masterton of Dotmusic described the song as "a saccharine piece of American soul slush", while Cheo H. Coker, writing for the Los Angeles Times, deemed the track "largely forgettable". Gina Morris of Smash Hits characterized it as a "soulful, purer-than-pure twee little number".
Retrospective commentary of "One Sweet Day" has generally remained positive. Writers for Entertainment Weekly praised Carey"s "heavenly vocals", in addition to its universal message and Boyz II Men's "sweet" harmonies. Billboard named it one of the greatest singles of the 1990s decade, describing it as "an event vocal showcase for two of the preeminent vocal artists of the decade", while writing that its "jaw-dropping showiness never overshadows its genuine emotion". In Pitchfork, Jamieson Cox praised its "killer" hook and its "ecstatic second half" in which the vocalists build on the "sturdy" chorus with "gymnastic riffs and clusters of harmony". He added that no other track on Daydream matched its emotional impact. In a negative review, Breihan deemed it "overwrought" and "self-satisfied", stating that it "left [him] cold" both at the time of release and later. He suggested that "One Sweet Day" did not endure culturally in proportion to its record-breaking chart run.
Accolades and rankings Music critics have regarded "One Sweet Day" as amongst Carey's strongest works. The Guardian ranked it fourth among her best singles, while Cleveland.com and Vulture placed it ninth and tenth, respectively. On lists of her best songs, "One Sweet Day" ranked sixth on Billboard and seventh on Oprah Daily. At the 38th Annual Grammy Awards, Daydream and its songs received six nominations. "One Sweet Day" earned two of these, for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals and Record of the Year. To the surprise of both Carey and critics, the album did not win in any of its nominated categories. At the Billboard Music Awards in 1996, it received a Special Hot 100 Singles Award – Most Weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. "One Sweet Day" received a Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Adult Contemporary Single Female.
Release and commercial performance "One Sweet Day" is the third track on Daydream. The album was first released in Taiwan on September 26, 1995, by Columbia Records. It was then issued in the United States on October 3. Three days earlier, the album's lead single, "Fantasy", debuted atop the US Billboard Hot 100, becoming the first song by a woman to do so, and the second song overall. While "Fantasy" was still atop the chart, Columbia first issued "One Sweet Day" in Australia on November 13 as both a cassette and CD single, before releasing it as a CD maxi single in the United States a day later.
"One Sweet Day" debuted atop the Billboard Hot 100 chart dated December 2, 1995. It became the fourth song in history to debut at number one, opening with sales of 204,000 copies. Maintaining sixteen consecutive weeks atop the chart, "One Sweet Day" broke the joint record previously held by Houston's "I Will Always Love You" (1994) and Boyz II Men's "I'll Make Love to You" (1994) for the longest-running number-one song in Billboard Hot 100 history. This was the third time Boyz II Men had broken the record, following "End of the Road" (1992) and "I'll Make Love to You" (1994), which respectively spent thirteen and fourteen weeks at number one.
"One Sweet Day" was the third best-selling single of 1995 in the US, with sales of over 1.3million. It ranked atop Billboard decade-end Hot 100 chart as the most successful chart hit of the 1990s, a distinction Carey would achieve again in the 2000s with "We Belong Together" (2005). In 2017, the 16-week record was tied by Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee's "Despacito" featuring Justin Bieber. The record was later surpassed by Lil Nas X's "Old Town Road" featuring Billy Ray Cyrus in 2019, and it was tied in 2025 by Shaboozey's "A Bar Song (Tipsy)". Both spent 19 weeks at number one on the chart. However, Carey reclaimed the record with "All I Want for Christmas Is You", which spent 22 weeks atop the chart. The Recording Industry Association of America certified the song quadruple platinum.