Auld Lang Syne (The New Year's Anthem) Auld Lang Syne (The New Year's Anthem) "Auld Lang Syne (The New Year's Anthem)" is a song by American singer and songwriter Mariah Carey from her second Christmas album/thirteenth studio album, "Merry Christmas II You" (2010). The second single from the album, an extended play consisting of nine remixes was released by Island on December 14, 2010. Using the public domain poem "Auld Lang Syne" by Robert Burns, Carey along with Randy Jackson and Johnny "Sev" Severin (of RedOne) composed a new arrangement, added lyrics and re-titled it. The track garnered a negative response from critics, all of whom disliked
Auld Lang Syne each word, rather than the slight melisma required to fit Burns' original words to the melody. The tune to which "Auld Lang Syne" is commonly sung is a pentatonic Scots folk melody, probably originally a sprightly dance in a much quicker tempo. English composer William Shield seems to quote the "Auld Lang Syne" melody briefly at the end of the overture to his opera "Rosina"', which may be its first recorded use. The contention that Burns borrowed the melody from Shield is for various reasons highly unlikely, although they may very well both have taken it from a common source,