christmas music
Jimmy Fallon’s first festive album, ‘Holiday Seasoning,’ debuts at No. 2 on Billboard’s Top Holiday Albums chart and at No. 1 on the Comedy Albums chart (both dated Nov. 16). It’s the entertainer’s first album release since 2012. The star-studded set launches with nearly 13,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week […]
Finally! Mariah Carey was right on time on Friday morning (Nov. 1), ushering in the holiday season with her annual Christmas kick-off video. The Queen of Christmas officially declared that the countdown to the most wonderful time of the year had begun with her eagerly awaited “It’s Time” video.
This year, her Instagram post featured a video of Carey, 55, dressed as Morticia Addams from the Addams Family. The clip opens on a dark and spooky night, complete with a full moon, howling wolves and a steady rain falling on a haunted mansion. Cut to Carey in a sparkly black dress, a black wig and dark makeup taking the hand of a dancer dressed as Gomez Addams as they do the couple’s signature terrifying tango.
But after a few spins and dips, Mariah gives Gomez a hard push out of frame, tosses a dagger at his face — which narrowly misses her smiling beloved — and then gives a knowing look right down the lens and uses her mind to open a curious cabinet as the final calendar pages from October fly away.
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You know what was inside: Mariah’s red and white Santa jumper, of course. “IT’S TIME!!!!” Mariah wails in her signature whistle register from the seat of a sleigh filled with presents as the scene fills with fake snow, Gomez is transformed into a snowman and, of course, MC’s iconic holiday classic “All I Want For Christmas Is You” blasts out.
The video ends with Carey smiling broadly as she and her reindeer prepare to take off in her sleigh. Carey had been teasing the launch of Christmas season for weeks, including dropping a “Christmas Time Set List” on Apple Music, unwrapping the cover art for four new “All I Want For Christmas” physical singles and, as always, posting a “not yet” video to make sure nobody jumps the gun on her favorite holiday.
Now that the skeletons needs to be packed away for another year, ’tis the season to crank up “All I Want,” because Carey is celebrating the 30th anniversary of her Merry Christmas album on the Merry Christmas Time Tour, which is slated to kick off on Nov. 6 in Highland, CA. Last year, “All I Want” topped the Billboard Hot 100 once again, marking the fifth year in a row that the holiday classic has topped the tally since first doing so in 2017.
Watch Carey’s “It’s Time” video below.
A new Spanish-language version of Brenda Lee‘s holiday hit “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree” was released Friday (Oct. 25), using “responsibly-trained” artificial intelligence to make the translation. A perennial hit for 66 years and counting, “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree” is the biggest song to have been translated into a new language using AI.
Released via MCA Nashville/Universal Music Enterprises (UMe), “Noche Buena y Navidad” was revamped by four-time Latin Grammy award-winning producer Auero Baqueiro. Baqueiro first translated the lyrics from English to Spanish, trying to match the same phonetics and rhyming structure that made sense for Spanish while maintaining the original lyrical themes from the original English version. Then, he enlisted Chile-born, L.A.-based vocalist Leyla Hoyle to sing the vocals in Spanish in a way that would capture Lee’s unique voice patterns, including intricacies like phrasing, tone, and breaths.
Baquiero ultimately kept the original music and background vocals and, once Hoyle recorded the raw Spanish vocals, used AI to map Lee’s voice over Hoyle’s performance. The translation was made possible using SoundLabs AI’s MicDrop technology, a “responsibly-trained” AI audio plugin that allows users to swap their voices out with another voice or instrument.
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The new AI-powered translation arrives just in time for the holiday season. Despite being released back in 1958, Lee’s “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” is more popular than ever. Last year, her song hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time and stayed in the top spot for three straight weeks.
Lee is not the first artist to use AI to translate her work. In May 2023, HYBE debuted a new K-pop artist, MIDNATT, who used AI to release his first single in six different languages. In November 2023, indie-pop artist Lauv released an AI translation of his single “Love U Like That” in Korean as a nod to his strong fanbase in that country. Similarly to “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” a bilingual human songwriter, Kevin Woo, translated the “Love U Like That” lyrics to Korean. After Woo sang through the song, Lauv’s voice was planted on top of his vocals using the AI voice platform Hooky.
Finally, country icon Randy Travis made headlines in May 2024 by using AI voice technology to record a new single, “Where That Came From,” after his vocal abilities were greatly diminished in a near-fatal stroke a decade before.
The Spanish-language version of “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” is the first release from Universal Music Group (UMG) and SoundLabs’ partnership, which was announced in June 2024. The AI company was founded by software developer and electronic artist BT and is said to be “responsibly” trained. The partnership is part of UMG’s “responsible AI initiative,” as laid out by the company’s CEO/chairman Lucian Grainge, which involves “forg[ing] groundbreaking private-sector partnerships with AI technology companies.”
“I am so blown away by this new Spanish version of ‘Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree,’ which was created with the help of AI,” said Lee in a statement. “Throughout my career, I performed and recorded many songs in different languages, but I never recorded ‘Rockin’’ in Spanish, which I would have loved to do. To have this out now is pretty incredible, and I’m happy to introduce the song to fans in a new way.”
“We are thrilled to work with Brenda Lee to making ‘Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree’ the first classic song translated responsibly into another language with the power of AI, added UMe president/CEO Bruce Resnikoff. “We are also very excited about the possibilities of this emerging technology and look forward to harnessing its capabilities to introduce new material created by and approved by our artists.”
“The minute you hear Brenda Lee’s iconic voice on ‘Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree’ you know it’s the official start of Christmas,” said UMG Nashville chair/CEO Cindy Mabe. “The global hit has touched people all over the world and kept this young 13-year-old spirit of Christmas captured in a time capsule. We are all so excited for this new Spanish version created with the help of AI from that legendary voice and approved by Brenda Lee herself to help celebrate this enduring, timeless classic.”
Jimmy Fallon has loaded up his sleigh with a gang of A-list stars for his first holiday album. On Monday morning (Oct. 21), the Tonight Show host revealed the track list for Holiday Seasoning, in his typically cheerful fashion in a brief video posted on Instagram in which he “unwraps” each feature on the collection […]
The pumpkins and skeletons are just starting to fill the aisles, but Jennifer Hudson is fully in Christmas mode thanks to two big announcements on Wednesday (Sept. 18). The singer and daytime talk show host is teaming up with Hallmark to celebrate the 15th anniversary of their annual “Countdown to Christmas” roll-out of holiday movies and content and the 2024 “Joy To Your World” holiday campaign by teasing the new song “Let There Be Joy.”
In a preview shared with Billboard of the raucous, gospel-tinged holiday anthem, the EGOT performer joyfully wails, “Let there be joy to your world/ Every boy and girl/ Peace on Earth, good will to men/ And may we wall shine our light, make the season bright/ Share a little love again.”
In addition, Hallmark announced that songs from Hudson’s upcoming debut holiday album, The Gift of Love (Oct. 18), will appear across upcoming Hallmark holiday programming. “No one does the holidays quite like my friends at Hallmark, so I couldn’t be more thrilled to celebrate the season together with my new song ‘Let There Be Joy,’ as we Countdown to Christmas,” Hudson said in a statement. “Music and movies have always been a favorite holiday tradition for me and my family, so I hope this song can become the same tradition for everyone on Santa’s list this year!”
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Hallmark chief brand officer Darren Abbott added, “As we mark 15 incredible years of Countdown to Christmas, we continue to focus on our mission of bringing joy and happiness to the world during the holidays. Partnering with Jennifer Hudson couldn’t be a more perfect fit. The original song ‘Let There Be Joy’ captures the heart and soul of what we aim to share each holiday season — pure, genuine joy. We’re excited to share this magical experience and continue our tradition of making the holidays brighter and more joyful than ever.”
In addition, Hudson announced a limited-engagement holiday tour, The Gift of Love: An Intimate Live Experience, which will launch on Nov. 24 in Brooklyn, followed by shows in her native Chicago (Dec. 13), Los Angeles (Dec. 18) and Las Vegas (Dec. 21-22); tickets for the gigs will go on sale on Friday (Sept. 20) at 10 a.m. local time here.
Hudson’s first holiday album will feature covers of such standards as “Jingle Bells,” “O Holy Night,” “Winter Wonderland,” “Little Drummer Boy” and “Auld Lang Syne,” along with a number of originals.
Check out Hudson’s tour announcement below.
On Nov. 1, A&M/UMe is set to release the Carpenters’ Christmas Once More, a new collection featuring 16 Carpenters holiday classics, personally curated by Richard Carpenter. This newly remixed and remastered set includes fan favorites such as “Merry Christmas Darling,” featuring the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, “Sleigh Ride” and “(There’s No Place Like) Home for the Holidays.” The album title is a play on the title of the duo’s 1973 pop smash “Yesterday Once More,” which was later used as the title of a 1985 hits collection by the duo.
The Carpenters have been associated with Christmas since 1970, the year they burst to stardom with “Close to You” (Billboard’s No. 1 Song of the Summer for 1970) and “We’ve Only Just Begun.” That holiday season, they released “Merry Christmas Darling,” a nostalgic Richard Carpenter-Frank Pooler ballad that reached No. 1 on Billboard’s annual Christmas Singles lists in 1970, 1971 and 1973.
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The song remains a classic. “Merry Christmas Darling” ranked No. 41 on Billboard’s 2023 list of the 100 best Christmas songs of all time. Melinda Newman praised the song’s “dreamy reverie” and especially Karen’s lead vocal. “Her vocal on ‘Merry Christmas Darling’ as she longs for her loved one, who is away for Christmas and New Year’s Day, is pure, sublime perfection. She conveys the perfect mix of yearning, sadness and hope since she knows, even though it’s unspoken, they will be joyfully reunited after the holidays. Over 50 years since its release, it’s still the soundtrack for any college couples separated during the holiday break.”
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“Merry Christmas Darling” was re-released in 1974 with a torchy ballad version of “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town” on the B side. It was released again in 1977 with “Christmas Song” on the B side. Also in 1977, the Carpenters headlined their first holiday TV special for ABC, The Carpenters at Christmas. In 1978, finally, they released their first holiday album, Christmas Portrait. It coincided with the release of a second holiday special for ABC, The Carpenters: A Christmas Portrait, which featured film legend Gene Kelly as a guest star.
Christmas Portrait has logged 66 weeks on the Billboard 200. Among the duo’s albums, only Close to You has logged more weeks on Billboard’s flagship albums chart (87).
Richard had a unique idea for creating a near-continuous work that would mix hymns, pop tunes, vocals and instrumentals. He did some of the orchestral arrangements himself, while others were assigned to Peter Knight and Billy May.
“With Karen’s marvelous leads,” Richard has written, “combined with an oversize studio orchestra and chorus, terrific arrangements, and timeless music, Christmas Portrait was, and is, an almost incomparable Christmas album.”
Enough material was recorded during the Christmas Portrait sessions to allow for the release of a second Carpenters holiday album, An Old-Fashioned Christmas, in 1984, the year after Karen’s untimely death at age 32. In 1990, Christmas Portrait – The Special Edition combined tracks from both Carpenters’ seasonal LPs with some additional material. Now comes Christmas Once More, which will be available in multiple formats, including CD, black vinyl, limited-edition gold vinyl, digital download, streaming and ATMOS.
There have been numerous indications in recent years of the Carpenters’ continuing audience appeal. A 1998 compilation, Love Songs, rode the Billboard 200 for 25 weeks. Carpenters songs have been featured in several hit movies, such as 2007’s The Simpsons Movie (which memorably featured “Close to You”). Both “Close to You” and “We’ve Only Just Begun” have been voted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
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The Carpenters got an unexpected shout-out on a global stage in March 2023. While accepting an Academy Award for best original song for “Naatu Naatu” from RRR, M.M. Neeravaani said, “Thank you, Academy. I grew up listening to the Carpenters, and now here I am with the Oscars.” He then proceeded to sing his acceptance remarks to the tune of the duo’s Billboard Hot 100-topping smash “Top of the World,” a move that charmed the audience at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood and the global TV viewing audience.
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Here’s the track listing for the CD edition of Christmas Once More.
1. “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear”
2. “Happy Holiday”
3. “The Christmas Waltz”
4. “Sleigh Ride”
5. “It’s Christmas Time / Sleep Well, Little Children”
6. “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”
7. “Christ Is Born”
8. “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town”
9. “Merry Christmas, Darling” (Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Version)
10. “The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)”
11. “(There’s No Place Like) Home for the Holidays”
12. “Little Altar Boy”
13. “The First Snowfall / Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!”
14. “My Favorite Things”
15. “White Christmas”
16. “Ave Maria”
It’s a merry and bright top 10 on the Billboard 200 albums chart dated Jan. 6, 2024, as half of the region is populated by holiday titles. The top 10 last hosted five seasonal albums on the Jan. 7, 2023, ranking.
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The Jan. 6, 2024, chart reflects the tracking week of Dec. 22-28, 2023.
Leading the holiday pack is Michael Bublé’s chart-topping Christmas, which climbs 4-2 with 78,000 equivalent album units earned (up 11%), according to Luminate. It’s the highest rank for the title in two years, since it spent two weeks in a row at No. 2 on the Jan. 1-8, 2022-dated charts. Christmas was released in 2011 and spent five consecutive weeks at No. 1 in 2011-12.
Nat King Cole’s The Christmas Song hits a new peak, rising 8-4 with 64,000 units (up 15%). The album previously peaked at No. 5 a year ago, on the Jan. 7, 2023, chart. The set includes Cole’s classic title track, along with Billboard Holiday 100-charting favorites including “Deck the Halls,” “O Come All Ye Faithful,” “Joy to the World” and “Caroling, Caroling.”
The classic multi-artist holiday album A Christmas Gift for You From Phil Spector jumps 14-7 — a new peak — with 56,000 equivalent album units earned (up 17%). The album, first released in 1963, previously peaked at No. 8 a year ago (on the Jan. 7, 2023, chart). It first reached the top 10 on the Jan. 8, 2022, chart, when it stepped 11-10. The album, produced by Spector, boasts familiar favorites heard during the holiday season that were initially recorded for the project. Among them are Holiday 100-charting hits including The Ronettes’ “Sleigh Ride” and Darlene Love’s “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” and “Winter Wonderland.”
Mariah Carey’s Merry Christmas jingles 10-8 with 56,000 equivalent album units (up 7%). The album was released in 1994 and peaked at No. 3 that December. The set houses Carey’s classic “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” which has topped the all-genre Billboard Hot 100 chart in each of the last five holiday seasons.
Rounding out the top 10 of the new Billboard 200 is Pentatonix’s The Greatest Christmas Hits, which vaults 60-10, a new peak, with 51,000 equivalent album units earned (up 147%). The 31-song set is the vocal group’s latest release, and it includes 23 earlier-released holiday favorites, along with eight new recordings.
The Greatest Christmas Hits marks Pentatonix’s 11th top 10-charting set, and its first since its last compilation, 2019’s The Best of Pentatonix Christmas, peaked at No. 7 on the Dec. 28, 2019, chart.
Here’s a recap of Pentatonix’s 11 top 10-charting albums on the Billboard 200, six of which are holiday sets: PTXmas (No. 7, 2013), PTX: Vol. II (No. 10, 2013), PTX: Vol. III (No. 5, 2014), That’s Christmas to Me (No. 2, 2014), Pentatonix (No. 1, 2015), A Pentatonix Christmas (No. 1 for two weeks, 2017), PTX Vol. IV: Classics (No. 4), PTX Presents: Top Pop, Vol. 1 (No. 10, 2018), Christmas Is Here! (No. 7, 2018), The Best of Pentatonix Christmas (No. 7, 2019) and The Greatest Christmas Hits (No. 10, 2024).
The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, compiled by Luminate. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The new Jan. 6, 2024-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on Jan. 3, one day later than normal due to the New Year’s Day holiday on Jan. 1. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram.
12/22/2023
Our staff’s picks for our 100 favorite songs to soundtrack the Christmas season.
12/22/2023
Holiday music has exploded in popularity over the last decade as listeners hit play, again and again, on their favorite Christmastime songs on their favorite streaming services. The top 100 holiday tracks — track sales and on-demand audio streams in November and December — rose more than ten-fold from 2014 to 2022 compared to all-genre growth of 165% over those years.
But one group of songs has been left out of the holiday gold rush: religious songs.
Back in 2014, the top holiday song was Pentatonix’s version of “Mary, Did You Know?,” a song penned by Mark Lowry and Buddy Greene in 1991 and originally recorded by Christian recording artist Michael English the same year. In the November to December holiday listening period, that recording of “Mary, Did You Know?” had 276,000 track equivalent units, according to Luminate — with 92% coming from download purchases.
In 2022, the top song was a secular one: Mariah Carey’s omnipresent “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” which amassed 1.6 million track equivalent units in November and December. In 2023, both Carey and Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” are on pace to do even better thanks to constantly growing streaming numbers and the artists’ heavy media presences. Universal Music Group Nashville’s campaign for Lee, which included making an official video and an appearance on NBC’s Christmas at the Opry television special, pushed “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” to No. 1 on the Hot 100 for the weeks ended Dec. 9 and 16.
In contrast, this year’s top religious holiday song, Pentatonix’s “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen,” ranks just No. 47. That lower ranking means fewer royalties from tracks and streams than the 46 secular songs in front of it. From Nov. 3 to Dec. 14, “God Rest” has only 19% of the track equivalent units of the No. 1 recording, “All I Want for Christmas Is You.”
The shift to secular holiday music has been abrupt. Pentatonix took the No. 1 spot in 2014 and the No. 2 spot in 2015, but by 2017, the top 10 holiday tracks were filled entirely with secular songs. Since 2018, no religious track has pierced the top 40. One of the top religious songs in recent years, Nat King Cole’s “O Come All Ye Faithful,” was No. 50 in 2022 and No. 46 in 2021.
Secular music’s command of the top 100 holiday recordings has widened over the last decade. In 2014 and 2015, 14 and 13 religious songs were among the top 100 holiday tracks, respectively. In each of the last three years, however, religious songs have accounted for only seven or eight of the top 100.
This change means religious songs have missed out on the recent financial bonanza. As secular songs dominate holiday listening, religious songs have won a smaller share of royalties. In 2014, 14 religious songs accounted for 83% of the top 100 holiday tracks’ royalties, according to Billboard’s estimate based on Luminate data. By 2022, seven religious songs accounted for just 4% of the top 100’s royalties. This year will have a similar disparity as only eight religious songs are currently in the top 100 holiday tracks.
Demographic shifts and the nature of popular holiday music suggest religious music will have a tough time making a comeback. As Billboard has reported, once a track becomes a holiday favorite, it gains a competitive advantage over other holiday tracks. That’s not to say a religious song can’t climb up the ranks in the coming years. But it takes multiple years for a new holiday recording to stick with listeners, and the young recordings with the most success — such as “Merry Christmas” by Elton John & Ed Sheeran and “Like It’s Christmas” by Jonas Brothers — are all secular. And with a declining Christian population in the United States to boot, it seems consumer sentiment is likely to match that trend, favoring songs about a special feeling this time of year over biblical themes.
When you’ve released nearly 100 holiday songs, as Pentatonix has, it’s no easy task having to narrow down that hefty list to a concise greatest hits album. But that’s just what the vocal group has done on its latest release, the 31-track The Greatest Christmas Hits.
“We put all the bangers” on the album, says the group’s Scott Hoying. And there’s “basically a whole new album [on Hits] as well, with eight new songs” added. In total, the album sports 23 previously released favorites plus eight new tunes. The set has found chart success on Billboard’s tallies, as it marked the act’s 10th top 10-charting effort on the Top Holiday Albums chart and its 12th top 20-charting set on the all-genre Billboard 200.
The vocal group (comprising Hoying, Mitch Grassi, Kirstin Maldonado, Kevin Olusola and Matt Sallee) has supported the new album on the road with The Most Wonderful Tour of the Year, which wraps on Dec. 21 in Austin, Texas. Fans who missed the trek can tune in to The Most Wonderful Tour of the Year: Live From Orlando on Dec. 22, exclusively on Veeps.
With so many holiday albums in its discography, how does Pentatonix select songs when planning a new holiday project?
“Honestly, there’s only so many Christmas songs, and we’ve released 94 of them,” Hoying tells the Billboard Pop Shop Podcast (listen to our interview, below). “So we do the ones that are popular that we haven’t done yet. But then also we like to get creative and do songs that are more wintry and have lyrics that involve the wintertime, like ‘Kiss From a Rose.’ I don’t think anyone’s ever thought of that as a holiday song, but in the pre-chorus it does say ‘when it snows,’ and we were like, ‘That sounds good to us!’ So we get creative like that.
“When curating [the songs on] The Greatest Christmas Hits … from so much touring and releasing so many albums, we’ve [done] subconscious internal research of what moves people and what moves us and what we love to sing, and what we feel would make the best soundtrack for people’s Christmas festivities and opening presents.”
Among the new songs on The Greatest Christmas Hits is the original song “Please Santa Please,” co-written by Karen Kosowski and Emma Lee along with the group’s Olusola and Maldonado. The song, which served as the lead single from the album, recently hit the top 10 on Billboard’s Adult Contemporary chart, landing the group its seventh top 10 hit.
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Classics They’ve Yet to Record: While Pentatonix has recorded nearly 100 holiday songs, there are still familiar favorites they haven’t put their spin on… yet. “I have this new obsession with ‘A Holly Jolly Christmas,’” Hoying says, “because I realized it’s one of the top streaming [and] selling Christmas songs of all time, in the top five or something, and we haven’t done that song yet, weirdly.”
“Or like ‘Silver Bells,’” Olusola adds. “We’ve never done that one either. There’s definitely songs we haven’t done, but you know we also have to pace ourselves, because there are only so many Christmas songs left. [Laughs] And we also want to get creative about how we go about Christmas songs.”
Looking to the future, Olusola says, “We’ve done pop Christmas albums, and so we’re thinking ‘are there different directions we can go that create a theme that allows for us to have a different feel on Christmas than we normally do?’ Which I think will be cool, so, I think we’re thinking about that right now, as we think about the future.”
A Dozen Years of Hits & a New Grammy Nom: 2023 marks the 12th consecutive year Pentatonix has released at least one new album, stretching back to its chart debut with PTX: Volume 1 in 2012. Through those years, the act has topped the Billboard 200 twice (with its self-titled full-length album and A Pentatonix Christmas) and won three Grammy Awards (among four nominations). The act scored its fifth Grammy nomination just last month for best traditional pop vocal album for its 2022 album Holidays Around the World. The set saw Pentatonix collaborate with a bevy of guest artists to highlight sounds and voices from all over the globe.
“We put so much heart and time and effort into this album,” Hoying says, “and we got to collaborate with the most iconic artists from all over the world. It was just such a beast to make … the logistics alone. It was such a creatively fulfilling project — to see it honored in this way [with a Grammy nomination] is really beautiful.”
“You never go into an album project thinking about Grammys,” Olusola adds. “You just want to make the best possible product that you feel speaks to your heart at that time and hopefully reaches people. … So I feel so thankful and honored and blessed that we could even have that opportunity to be recognized by the Recording Academy again.
‘Candy Cane Lane’ & Home for the Holidays: Pentatonix makes an appearance in the new holiday film Candy Cane Lane, starring Eddie Murphy, which premiered Dec. 1 on Prime Video. In the comedy, Pentatonix portray, naturally, carolers. But there’s magic afoot, and the group is seen mostly as enchanted miniature figurines in the film.
“The director [Reginald Hudlin] had been a fan of ours for a while,” Olusola says. “He gave us the premise of what he wanted us to do and we were in. … I don’t think we realized the magnitude of what we were creating. … It was really cool to see the end product. It was cool how they actually created us [as figures].”
“Because we’re figurines,” Hoying says, “it was a really easy process. We just went into the studio and sang these 10-second clips, knocked it out in a couple hours. But then we get to be in so much of the movie because we’re animated. It was a perfect scenario too, because we obviously would want to be on set and have our real likeness in the movie, and we got to do that at the end. So it was so special all around, and I’m just so happy it’s doing so well and people are loving it. The whole cast and crew and director and everyone were so kind and such good vibes. You just want good things to happen to good people, so it’s awesome to see it thriving.”
As families watch Candy Cane Lane during get-togethers this season, certainly many will also be playing holiday songs by Pentatonix around the house too. With so many households soundtracking their holidays with Pentatonix’s tunes, what does Pentatonix itself play around the house during the season?
“When I go home,” Hoying says, “my parents always put on Pentatonix, because they just are so excited that I’m home. I honestly listen to a lot of Pentatonix too during the holidays. But my go-to is a playlist of classic old songs from old Christmas movies, [like] Bing Crosby’s White Christmas. Anything that’s orchestral and one-track, mono. It really puts me in the Christmas spirit. If I’m looking at Christmas lights with [my husband] Mark or we’re driving around or something, we’ll put on the oldies.”
Olusola, too, has Pentatonix playing around the house at home, but for a different reason. “I have a 2-and-a-half-year-old and she’s obsessed with our band. Truly obsessed. She loves watching [the videos for] ‘You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch,’ ‘Please Santa Please,’ ‘12 Days of Christmas.’ She asks for it all the time during this time of the year. So in our house, it really is mainly Pentatonix during this time of the year. … I think also its kind of subliminally a way for her to stay in contact with dad, especially while he’s gone on tour. So I really love that. My wife has texted me so many times, where she goes, ‘She said, ‘I miss daddy, play Pentatonix.”‘ I love that. That really means something to me that I have such a close bond with her that she actually yearns for me, and so I’m very very thankful to be playing Pentatonix in our household because that keeps the connection.”
Also on the new edition of the Pop Shop Podcast, we’ve got chart news on how Nicki Minaj lands her third No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart, becoming the female rapper with the most chart-toppers in history, and how Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” jingles its way back to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
The Billboard Pop Shop Podcast is your one-stop shop for all things pop on Billboard‘s weekly charts. You can always count on a lively discussion about the latest pop news, fun chart stats and stories, new music, and guest interviews with music stars and folks from the world of pop. Casual pop fans and chart junkies can hear Billboard‘s executive digital director, West Coast, Katie Atkinson and Billboard’s managing director, charts and data operations, Keith Caulfield every week on the podcast, which can be streamed on Billboard.com or downloaded in Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast provider. (Click here to listen to the previous edition of the show on Billboard.com.)