WHAT better way to immerse yourself in the magic of the festive season than with some Christmas tunes? Hits like Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You” and Michael Bublé’s “Holly Jolly Christmas” have set the tone for decades, but there are plenty of other songs that come racing back up the charts during the holidays.
French music streaming platform Deezer has taken a closer look at the phenomenon of Christmas songs. Recording a festive anthem, or even an entire album, is almost a rite of passage in the careers of many music stars. Rich with songs often created for the occasion, and which have become true classics, the English-language repertoire largely dominates the scene.
But there are a multitude of songs celebrating this festive time of year. Take, for example, “Feliz Navidad” by Puerto Rican singer and guitarist José Féliciano. A popular Christmas song in the Spanish-speaking world, it was first released in 1970. It has steadily gained in popularity over the decades, so much so that it was re-released in 1989 and 2011. “Feliz Navidad” even features in the Grammy Hall of Fame, a prestigious selection established by the Recording Academy that honours “recordings of lasting qualitative or historical significance that are at least 25 years old.”
Every year, since its release in 1958, “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” sung by US star Brenda Lee, has become a fixture on Christmas playlists, playing in stores the world over, from small boutiques to major chains. The song has been covered many times over the years, including by Cyndi Lauper in 1988, Kacey Musgraves in 2019 and Justin Bieber in 2020.
Its success remains undeniable: in 2023, it reached the prestigious top spot on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart for the first time on Christmas Eve — an unprecedented feat since its release in the 1950s. This year, Universal Music Group, holder of the rights to “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” has broken new ground by unveiling a Spanish-language version of this Christmas classic, recorded with the help of artificial intelligence.
Originally released in 2017, “Snowman” by Australia’s Sia has really taken off in recent years, thanks in particular to internet users posting on social networks as soon as the first snowflakes appear. On TikTok, the song is used in over 845,000 posts of all kinds, securing its status as a modern holiday must-have.
Queen of Christmas, Mariah Carey
Although most Christmas songs belong to the pop repertoire, listeners are showing growing interest in a variety of musical genres during the festive season. This period seems to be the ideal opportunity for music lovers to explore styles and songs they might not otherwise have discovered — a trend exemplified by artistes such as Girl in Red, at the crossroads of alternative and pop, or Phoebe Bridgers with her 2020 Christmas EP.
But few artistes can match Mariah Carey during the holiday season. The American star has established herself as the true queen of Christmas thanks to her iconic track “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” which she co-wrote and co-produced with Walter Afanasieff. Released in October 1994, both as a single and on the album “Merry Christmas”, the song has become a timeless classic, re-entering the music charts every year as the festive season approaches. In 2021, it passed the one billion listener mark on Spotify — a feat that testifies to his enduring success.
However, the success of “All I Want for Christmas Is You” was not immediate. It wasn’t until December 2017 that the song reached the top 10 of Billboard’s Hot 100 for the first time, before entering the top five during the 2018 holiday season. It wasn’t until 2019 — 25 years after its release — that it finally reached the top spot of this prestigious chart. This late success can be largely explained by the rise of streaming, but also by the influence of the movie “Love Actually”, in which the song is covered by Olivia Olson. Today, this iconic track enjoys a meteoric rise in popularity every year, with an 800 per cent increase in listens as of November, notes Deezer.
