Gwen Stefani Says She Wants to Be Mariah Carey, Opens Up About New Christmas Album (Exclusive)

The 48-year-old singer also revealed what it would take to get her back on 'The Voice.'

Gwen Stefani brings her own special flavor to the holidays with her new album, You Make It Feel Like Christmas -- but according to the GRAMMY winner, she was channeling another star.  

"I want to be Mariah Carey," Stefani revealed to ET's Nancy O'Dell on Tuesday. "I mean, she's the one who just... she killed it, you know what I mean?"

"That would be my fantasy [to create a Christmas classic]," she added. 

While Stefani doesn't cover Carey's "All I Want for Christmas Is You," she does sing six other holiday favorites, as well as six new Christmas songs on her new album.

"I feel like it's just one of those things where if I got it right on this record, it will be around for a long time. That's so different from, like, a regular record [which] kind of captures that moment in time in your life, and when you hear the songs, it takes you right back to that, whatever the pain was, or happiness," she explained. "Anytime you write songs and you [connect] with people [who are] affected by that, there's no way to go back after that. It's such an incredible feeling to be part of people's lives, through your own life, your own experience." 

"It was a really super fun project, something I wanted to do for a really long time, kind of a bucket list thing, and it just happened," confessed Stefani, who also scored a Christmas special at NBC. "I did it." 

The mother of three duets with boyfriend Blake Shelton on "You Make It Feel Like Christmas," but whether the couple will ever work together on The Voice again is still up in the air. 

"I feel like people need to write notes to NBC and beg them to let me come back," Stefani joked.

"I love that show so much, and I think that it was something that really helped me with the Christmas record, because it's all about covers, The Voice, and you realize how challenging it can be to do a cover," she shared. "Everything on this record was effortless and fun, but doing some of the covers were hard."

"I'm like, 'Oh my God, I'm in a ska band my whole life. [Why] am I doing 'Silent Night?'" she cracked. "It's hard, but it was fun, and I got to do it in my way, so [it was a] fun project."

You Make It Feel Like Christmas is available now. Stefani's holiday special airs Dec. 12 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on NBC.

See more on the album in the video below.

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