It remained at the top of the chart for four weeks. "Hero" has become one of Carey's signature songs, and Carey closes many of her concerts with it. Carey and Afanasieff also wrote "One Sweet Day", a duet between Carey and Boyz II Men, which held the record for the longest run at number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 (16 weeks) for 23 years; the record was matched in 2017 by "Despacito", and broken by "Old Town Road" in 2019. The song was nominated for the 1996 Grammy Awards for Record of the Year and Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals, and received the ASCAP Song of the Year Award for 1996. In 1994, Carey released the Christmas song "All I Want for Christmas Is You", composed by Afanasieff and herself. As of December 2018, the song has earned cumulative worldwide sales of over 14 million copies. In 2009, Afanasieff started working with Russian singer Yulia Nachalova. Their album Wild Butterfly was released in 2012 on iTunes. They later produced a video "Zhdi menya" ("Wait for Me") in Russian, released on iTunes in 2015. In 2014, Afanasieff became head of the composers/producers department at Isina, a worldwide talent search and development mentorship for those seeking to pursue a career in music. In 2015, he became one of the mentors of the Russian TV project Glavnaya Stsena ("Main Stage"), the Russian version of The X Factor. Awards 1999 Grammy Award in the Record of the Year category for producing "My Heart Will Go On" by Celine Dion 2000 Grammy Award in the Producer of the Year, Non-Classical category Discography See also List of songs written by Walter Afanasieff References External links Mixonline.com interview with Walter Afanasieff SongwriterUniver interview with Walter Afanasieff on how he wrote "Hero" with Mariah Carey Biography of Walter Afanasieff at AOL Music 1958 births 21st-century American male musicians Living people Grammy Award winners American record producers American people of Chinese descent American people of Russian descent American musicians of Chinese descent Brazilian emigrants to the United States Brazilian people of Chinese descent Brazilian people of Russian descent People from São Paulo American male songwriters