holiday music
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Is this finally the year that Christmas music streaming is cannibalizing holiday music sales? The raw numbers appear to suggest that’s the case, and some music industry execs have taken notice.
Since 2017, seasonal music album sales — physical formats and digital downloads — have dropped 61.8% to 1.44 million copies (so far) in 2022, as of Dec. 8. That’s down from 4.1 million copies in 2017, even though album sales are essentially at the same level of 90.55 million copies this year versus 91.64 million back then, according to Luminate data up to Dec. 8.
What’s more, seasonal music has held steady during that time, at 6.41 million album consumption units so far in 2022 versus 6.24 million album consumption units in the comparable 49-week year-to-date period of 2017, with an overall annual average coming to 6.3 million album consumption units during that five-year period. But within that, as you might expect, streaming has more than doubled, from 3.2 billion in overall holiday song streams, as of the 49th week of 2017, to 6.68 billion holiday song streams so far this year.
“This might be the year that streaming is impacting Christmas sales,” says one major label executive.
But while music wholesalers concede that the genre is not having the greatest holiday season in terms of sales, they counter there’s another reason this year’s numbers are sluggish. They argue 2022 is missing a key ingredient that in the past has proved to be a big catalyst for the overall genre during the holidays: a big, new Christmas album that drives traffic and fuels sales across the entire genre.
“While a lot of the new albums are doing fine and have done a decent volume, not one of them has been a breakaway hit,” says Alliance Entertainment senior vp of purchasing and marketing Laura Provenzano. In years past, big holiday music albums came from the likes of Josh Groban and his Noel album, which scanned 3.7 million album copies in its debut year of 2007 and now totals 6.32 million album consumption units in the U.S.; Michael Buble‘s Christmas, which scanned 2.45 million copies in its release year of 2011 and a total of 4.5 million album consumption units to date; or, going back further, Kenny G‘s Miracle, the Holiday Album, which scanned nearly 3 million copies in its 1994 debut. Those albums really stoked the genre’s sales numbers in the years they were released.
Besides lacking a big album this year, music merchandisers say the complexion of physical sales has changed, with more titles coming out in the expensive vinyl format while budget-priced CDs’ role in driving holiday sales has faced diminished floor space in discount department stores. So while merchants are realizing more revenue-per-copy thanks to vinyl’s popularity, they’re also seeing a drop in CD unit sales because of a squeeze on budget floor space.
“Some key retailers have pared back their presence in the budget business; there are fewer $5 bins on the sales floor nowadays,” offers Provenzano. Meanwhile, as more holiday albums come out on vinyl, “now that a lot of holiday music has a higher price point, it is no longer as much of an impulse item,” Provenzano adds.
For example, as of week 49 of 2017, physical holiday and seasonal album sales totaled 2.987 million copies, with 100,000 courtesy of the vinyl format. As of the 49th week of this year, total physical sales were 1.142 million, of which 637,000 were in the CD format and 503,000 vinyl, according to Luminate.
Music is generally considered impervious to economic downturns, but that doesn’t mean all genres are immune to the threat of recession, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic changed everything, music merchandisers say. While vinyl has been growing in leaps and bounds, when it comes to holiday music, shoppers are much more price sensitive these days, agrees All Media Supply music buyer Joe Pica.
Music retailers and wholesalers say that even if turns out to be a softer year for holiday music, many perennial Christmas titles are still selling consistently, if not as much as they once were; and that some of the new albums are doing pretty well too. The new releases they point to are Lindsey Stirling‘s Snow Waltz, which so far this year has generated 37,000 units — 25,000 physical copies — since its October release; and her 2017 collection Warmer In the Winter, which has generated 25,000 album consumption units so far this year and 455,000 units — 176,000 physical — since its release. Other new releases include the Bocelli’s A Family Christmas at 66,000 album consumption units — including nearly 52,000 physical copies — since its October release; and the Backstreet Boys‘ A Very Backstreet Christmas, which has so far accumulated 57,000 album consumption units, of which 38,000 are physical copies.
If only, music merchandisers lament, there was that one big album emerging from the pack. In fact, merchandisers were hoping the Backstreet Boys album would fill that role since it was initially going to be paired with a Dec. 14 special on ABC. But that show was pulled due to allegations that singer Nick Carter raped a 17-year-old girl during a 2001 tour — an accusation which he has denied. That news initially broke on Dec. 8.
A look at daily sales for that title for the last two weeks shows that the album is still selling at about the same pace, ranging from 1,100 to 1,400 copies daily through Dec. 12, with the exception of a 7,000 album consumption unit bump on Dec. 5. But even though its sales and streaming activity appears to be holding despite the allegations, the album is unlikely to enjoy a windfall in incremental sales that the holiday TV special would have delivered had it aired.
Besides new releases, other Christmas albums issued over the last few years — including Dolly Parton‘s A Holly Dolly Christmas — are also still generating healthy activity. Kelly Clarkson‘s When Christmas Comes Around has generated nearly 51,000 album consumption units, of which 15,000 copies are in physical formats, amounting to 106,000 units overall since its release in Oct. 2021; while Carrie Underwood‘s My Gift has garnered 46,000 album consumption units so far this year, of which 17,000 are physical, and 628,000 album units since its 2020 bow.
Meanwhile, Pentatonix has built up a strong holiday brand through six seasonal albums, which so far this year have garnered 251,000 album consumption units including 28,000 units from its latest effort, Holidays Around the World. However, only 10% — or 25,000 units — are physical copies. Trans-Siberian Orchestra is another holiday music brand still putting respectable numbers up on the board, as its four genre albums this year have collectively achieved 111,000 units in album consumption activity, of which nearly 28,000 are physical copies.
But even with that showing from current artists like Underwood, Clarkson and Pentatonix, plus legacy artists like Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Ingram Entertainment’s head of sales and marketing Steve Harkins wonders if we are seeing a changing of the guard in the holiday genre. For instance, the holiday seasonal album chart for the week ended Dec. 8 shows that albums from Christmas perennials from the last 50 years, like Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Andy Williams, Elvis Presley, Johnny Mathis and Burl Ives, collectively have only four albums in the top 25 of the Dec. 8 chart; and another six albums in the second half, from Nos. 26 to No. 50.
“We have always relied on the old staples, but now we are seeing more contemporary artists moving up into the top spots on the holiday charts; it could be a generational transition,” says Harkins. “Some of the crooners are being replaced. We are selling less units from them, although they do still sell steadily.”
Others disagree with that assessment, saying that while the old guard may not sell as well as they used to, they still do well, according to Provenzano. Or as All Media’s Pina puts it, “Are the kids today buying Bing? I find that hard to believe. But we still sell plenty of Alabama‘s Christmas album and other [perennial] holiday sellers keep plodding along.”
While the rise of newer holiday music may be true so far this year for the seasonal album chart, it’s not so for the overall holiday/seasonal song streaming chart. Of the top 25 in that chart, only three songs — Ariana Grande‘s “Santa Tell Me” at No. 6, Pentatonix‘s “Hallellujah” at No. 17 and Sia‘s “Snowman” at No. 20 — are from the last 10 years. That’s down from the prior year, when four songs within a 10-year release window made the Top 25 year-to-date holiday songs in the period ending Dec. 2, 2021. In fact, this year only 22 songs in that chart’s top 100 have been released in the last 10 years, and overall, only 34 of the top 100 holiday season songs were released in the current century. As for new holiday tunes released this year, only four songs made the top 100 holiday season songs as of Dec. 9, with Lizzo‘s “Someday At Christmas” showing the most activity at No. 55.
Some holiday classics remain strong sellers year in and year out, and some even grow stronger every year. Alliance’s Provenzano wonders how many copies of the Vince Guaraldi Trio‘s A Charlie Brown Christmas the industry can sell every year. Since 2017, that title has grown every year, from 76,000 album consumption units to nearly 191,000 units as of the 49th week of each subsequent year. This year represents its strongest frame yet, with the album up slightly from 189,000 last year, which was better than 2020 (164,000), 2019 (134,000) and 2018 (88,000).
But other traditional big holiday sellers, like the Mannheim Steamroller albums — consisting of nine studio and four compilation or live albums dating back to the late 1980s that have collectively amassed 23 platinum awards from the RIAA — have slowed down considerably. This year, that catalog has generated about 75,000 album consumption units so far, and of that only a little more than 3,000 were physical sales.
Still, the labels haven’t given up on their perennial sellers. They’ve begun boosting sales of various titles by refurbishing those albums, in some cases adding bonus tracks like the eight extras on Holly Dolly Christmas; or issuing the albums in different colored vinyl like with the Vince Guaraldi Trio classic. Up in Brighton, Mass., Newbury Comics buyer Larry Mansdorf says the latter LP is the chain’s No. 3 selling album — overall, not just seasonal — thanks to the chain carrying the album in green-swirl vinyl.
Still, unless holiday season album sales rebound, the major labels might begin to pare back their offering, says one label executive working in catalog. As it is currently, about 2,300 holiday Christmas titles are still in print, including about 400 that are also available in the vinyl format, wholesalers say.
“This may be the year we look at our Christmas title range and see what’s worth keeping in physical print,” the label executive says.
While it may seem like most every major artist has released a full-length holiday album, there are still quite a few superstars that have yet to drop a seasonal project – including such chart-topping acts as Adele, Beyoncé, Lady Gaga and Ed Sheeran.
On the latest Billboard Pop Shop Podcast (listen below), hosts Katie and Keith discuss a dozen artists that are missing from the holiday cannon and debate whether we’ll ever actually get a seasonal album from them. (We’re looking at you, Paul McCartney!)
Also on the show, the Pop Shoppers chat about SZA scoring her first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 with SOS (and securing one of the biggest debuts of 2022) and how Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” reaches double-digits at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart, spending its 10th nonconsecutive week atop the list.
Katie and Keith also take a stroll down chart memory lane in the chart stat of the week feature, revisiting the all-star charity album A Very Special Christmas and what became the start of a mega-successful holiday music series.
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 senior director of charts 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.)
This time every year, enduring favorites by Mariah Carey, Brenda Lee and Bobby Helms rise to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 as Americans turn to holiday streaming playlists and Christmas-focused radio stations. However, these evergreens, celebrating the biggest Christian holiday of the year, are more secular than in years past.
It used to be that contemporary takes on traditional songs about the birth of Christ — “Little Drummer Boy,” “Joy to the World,” “Silent Night” and “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” — were among the most popular holiday songs. Listeners enjoyed Nat King Cole’s “O Come All Ye Faithful” as much as his version of “Deck the Halls.” Kenny Rogers had a popular take on “Mary, Did You Know?,” first recorded in 1991 by Michael English of the Christian group the Gaither Vocal Band. Martina McBride’s rendition of “O Holy Night,” a Christmas carol from the 1840s, was among the top 100 holiday songs.
In 2022, as streaming playlists drive listening, the top 100 holiday songs are more likely to conjure images of Santa, sleigh bells and cold weather than a baby Jesus and the Virgin Mary. Through Dec. 8, religious music had only a 4.4% share of the top 100 holiday songs’ total consumption — tied with 2021 for the lowest since 2010, according to a Billboard analysis of Luminate data. The top religious song since the first week of November, “O Come All Ye Faithful” by Nat King Cole, ranks only No. 50, the lowest for a No. 1. religious song since 2010. “Mary, Did You Know?” by Pentatonix ranks a mere No. 68 and Rogers’ version of the song has fallen to No. 255.
In terms of market share, religious holiday songs peaked in 2015 with 18.2% of the top 100 holiday tracks’ total consumption, which measures digital downloads and streaming. Vocal group Pentatonix owned six of the 13 religious songs in the top 100 holiday tracks, including No. 3 (“Mary, Did You Know?”), No. 25 (“Little Drummer Boy”) and No. 30 (“White Winter Hymnal”). The combined consumption of two versions of “Mary, Did You Know?” by Jordan Smith (No. 2) and Pentatonix (No. 3) that year was 17% greater than that of the No. 1 recording, Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You.”
Religious songs captured the most number of spots in the top 100 in 2013, with 14 of the top holiday songs for the final two months of the year being religious in nature. There were two versions of “The Little Drummer Boy,” by Pentatonix (No. 3) and Harry Simeone Chorale (No. 74). Recordings of “Silent Night” by Kelly Clarkson (No. 21) and The Temptations (No. 44) were popular at the time. There were four versions of “O Holy Night” in the top 100: Celine Dion (No. 48), Mariah Carey (No. 77), Martina McBride (No. 96) and Pentatonix (No. 97). And Amy Grant’s original song “Breath of Heaven (Mary’s Song)” ranked No. 82.
To categorize holiday music as secular or religious, Billboard considered each track’s lyrical content. Religious songs contain references to Biblical characters (e.g., Jesus, God or the Virgin Mary) or Christian themes (the nativity scene). Billboard counted Adam Sandler’s “The Chanukuh Song” as religious for its references to Judaism. A song like “Hallelujah,” written by Leonard Cohen and covered countless times by the likes of Pentatonix and Carrie Underwood, has a religious-sounding title but is classified as secular.
How holiday music is consumed — like all music — has changed over the years. From 2015, when religious holiday music reached its peak market share, to 2022, downloads’ contribution to total consumption of the top 100 holiday songs dropped from 49% to just 1.4%. This year, numerous religious songs, including For King & Country’s “Little Drummer Boy” and Lauren Daigle’s “Light of the World,” have relatively strong download sales but too few streams to make the top 100.
Radio stations favor a different slate of religious holiday songs than streaming platforms, such as versions of the 1962 song “Do You Hear What I Hear?” by Martina McBride, Carrie Underwood and Whitney Houston that fall outside of the top 100 holiday streaming recordings. Traditional songs like “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen,” recorded by the likes of Barenaked Ladies and Mannheim Steamroller, consistently perform well at U.S. radio. “Songs like ‘O Holy Night,’ ‘Do You Hear What I Hear?’ and ‘The First Noel’ still test equally well for us,” says Tom Poleman, chief programming officer for iHeartMedia, in an email to Billboard.
But the data show U.S. radio airplay of holiday music has also become more secular in recent years. In November and December of 2015, there were 16 religious songs in the top 100 holiday recordings as measured by spins. The top religious recording, “The Little Drummer Boy” by Harry Simeone Chorale, ranked No. 25 and was closely followed by two versions of “Do You Hear What I Hear?” by Houston and Bing Crosby at No. 33 and No. 34, respectively. Rogers’ and Pentatonix’s covers of “Mary, Did You Know?” also ranked in the top 100.
This year, through Dec. 8, there were only 6 religious songs in the top 100, and the top track, “The Little Drummer Boy” by Harry Simeone Chorale, had fallen to No. 72. Christian artist Amy Grant still makes the top 100, but her versions of “Winter Wonderland,” “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year,” “Sleigh Ride” and “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” have performed better than her top religious song, “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.”
The final rankings could have more religious songs come Christmas, however. Radio stations tend to play religious-themed songs more often as Christmas nears, says Sean Ross, author of the Ross on Radio newsletter. That would mean tracks such as “The First Noel” by Andy Williams and “Joy to the World” by Nat King Cole, both top 100 tracks in 2021, could get more plays and rise through the ranks in the coming week.
Following last week’s news of Chuu‘s removal from LOONA, the former girl group member is moving forward with a new seasonal duet.
As the latest installment in a series of singles produced by Korea’s Lotte Department Store, “Dear My Winter” dropped Monday (Dec. 5) as a new duet between Chuu, a current face for the retail brand, and rising R&B singer George. With a jazzy, old-timey production that brings the same nostalgia of classic Christmas songs, the harmonious collaboration highlights the duo’s softer vocals to sing of a “winter” lover that comes to them like a wrapped present or comforting holiday.
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The accompanying video is also suited for the season with Chuu and George in cozy sweaters and blankets to duet inside an animated living room complete with a Christmas tree, fireplace and snow falling outside.
“Dear My Winter” is the latest solo release from Chuu this year, following her “Lullaby” duet with rapper-singer B.I from June, plus two covers of classic ’90s K-pop songs via “One and Half” in August and “Confession” in October. The star had been consistently building up solo work and appearances, in addition to performing with LOONA through the past years, until the confusing back-and-forth between the K-pop group and LOONA’s record label led to Chuu’s ousting. Billboard can confirm that this single was scheduled for release since at least mid-November, meaning that the current situation with Chuu and her label was not a factor in this song’s release.
There have been no further updates from either Chuu or her former record label BlockBerryCreative since the star posted a short message on her Instagram thanking fans for support. However, LOONA fans are still eager for answers and taking to social media asking for information.
Watch the “Dear My Winter” video from Chuu and George below:
Louis Armstrong’s new seasonal compilation album Louis Wishes You a Cool Yule debuts in in the top 10 across multiple Billboard charts (dated Nov. 26), including Top Holiday Albums.
Louis Wishes You a Cool Yule bows at No. 9 on Top Holiday Albums, and launches in the top 10 on Jazz Albums (No. 4), Traditional Jazz Albums (No. 4), Top Album Sales (No. 7), Top Current Album Sales (No. 6) and Vinyl Albums (No. 7). It also starts at No. 122 on the Billboard 200, becoming his highest charting album since Hello Dolly spent six weeks at No. 1 in 1964.
The new 11-track set is promoted as Armstrong’s “first-ever Christmas album,” though the late artist (who died in 1971) has previously released a number of holiday compilations alongside other acts that feature most of the album’s tracks (such as Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald’s Ella & Louis Christmas). Louis Wishes You a Cool Yule was released through streaming services and digital retailers on Oct. 28, and bowed on CD and vinyl on Nov. 11.
Notably, Louis Wishes You a Cool Yule includes a previously unreleased recording from Armstrong, “A Visit From St. Nicholas” (also known as “The Night Before Christmas”), recorded shortly before his death. It is his first newly released track in over 20 years.
Louis Wishes You a Cool Yule earned 9,500 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending Nov. 17, according to Luminate. Of that sum, traditional album sales comprise 7,500 — Armstrong’s largest sales week for any album in over 20 years. He last had a larger sales week in February 2001, when the best-of compilation Ken Burns Jazz – The Definitive Louis Armstrong sold 8,000 copies (No. 142 on the Feb. 17, 2001-dated Top Album Sales chart).
Elsewhere on the Top Holiday Albums chart, Michael Bublé’s Christmas holds atop the list for a 38th nonconsecutive week. Familiar seasonal albums like Mariah Carey’s Merry Christmas (rising 3-2), Vince Guaraldi Trio’s A Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack (4-3), Nat King Cole’s The Christmas Song (5-4) and Pentatonix’s The Best of Pentatonix Christmas (6-5) round out the top five on the list.
The Top Holiday Albums chart ranks the 50 most popular seasonal albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each units 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. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram. The seasonal Top Holiday Albums returned for another festive season with the Oct. 22-dated list and will continue as part of Billboard’s weekly chart menu until it dashes away in January 2023.
Jazz Albums, Traditional Jazz Albums and the Billboard 200 rank the week’s most popular overall jazz, traditional jazz, and albums across all genres, respectively, by equivalent album units. Top Album Sales, Top Current Album Sales and Vinyl Albums list the week’s top selling overall albums, current albums (not catalog, or older titles) and vinyl albums, respectively.
Sleigh bells ring and your favorite artists sing — are you listening? Everyone from Lizzo to Phoebe Bridgers has specially released new holiday songs in 2022, just in time for the happiest time of year.
Better yet, this year’s bounty of festive tunes features a Thanksgiving dinner table-full of different genres. Camila Cabello is offering up some Mariachi merriment, Kane Brown has a countrified carol to contribute and The Linda Lindas have tied a bow on a punk-rock present for their fans.
Some musicians went particularly above and beyond this year, with Backstreet Boys, Alicia Keys and Debbie Gibson all dropping full-length Xmas albums. And Sia, who created a modern seasonal classic in 2017 with her hit “Snowman,” revisited her 2018 album Everyday Is Christmas by releasing a deluxe edition complete with three all new holly jolly tunes.
This batch of artists is clearly excited to either join the holiday canon or make further additions to it, and who can blame them? Christmas songs are just as evergreen as balsam trees; unlike most hits that eventually fade into oldies status, they unfailingly come back in style every single year. In fact, a record 39 holiday songs occupied spots on the Hot 100 just two years ago.
You can even keep an eye on which jingles are trending by checking Billboard‘s list (and checking it twice!) of top Holiday Airplay songs, or by perusing the Holiday 100. And if you need even more inspiration on which tracks to add to your wintertime playlists after reading this roundup of newbies, try taking a look at Billboard‘s 2021 ranking of the best Christmas songs of all time.
But for now, keep reading to see which artists have released new holiday songs in 2022 below.
Alicia Keys’ first seasonal effort, Santa Baby, jingles onto Billboard’s Top Holiday Albums chart (dated Nov. 19) as the list’s highest debut of the week, arriving at No. 19. The 11-track effort is Keys’ first independently released album after a career in the major-label system, first with J Records and then RCA. The download and streaming editions of the album are exclusive to the iTunes Store and Apple Music, respectively, while the physical album is widely available to all retailers.
The set bows with 3,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending Nov. 10, according to Luminate, with traditional album sales powering 74% of that sum.
Meanwhile, Keys’ cover of “Please Come Home for Christmas,” from the Santa Baby project, enters at No. 27 on the Adult Contemporary airplay chart – her seventh visit to the list.
A second debut joins Santa Baby on Top Holiday Albums as Switchfoot’s first Christmas release, This Is Our Christmas Album, enters at No. 400 (1,000 units). Coincidentally, both include covers of a pair of classics: “Christmas Time Is Here” and “The Christmas Song.”
Elsewhere on Top Holiday Albums, Michael Bublé’s Christmas crowns the chart for a 37th nonconsecutive week (rising 2-1 with 13,000 units; up 107%), while the various artists compilation A Christmas Gift for You From Phil Spector jumps 10-2 (a new peak) as holiday streaming programming kicked into gear post-Halloween in the chart’s tracking week of Nov. 4-10.
The Top Holiday Albums chart ranks the 50 most popular seasonal albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each units 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. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram. The seasonal Top Holiday Albums returned for another festive season with the Oct. 22-dated list and will continue as part of Billboard’s weekly chart menu until it dashes away in January 2023.
Happy holidays, Pharbz. Phoebe Bridgers has released her annual holiday song cover, this time performing The Handsome Family’s “So Much Wine” and donating proceeds to the Los Angeles LGBT Center.
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The 28-year-old musician recorded and produced the track with longtime collaborators Tony Berg, Ethan Gruska, Marshall Vore, Harrison Whitford and Sebastian Steinberg, with Andrew Bird credited for contributing vocals, violin and whistling. Normal People star Paul Mescal, Bridgers’ boyfriend and rumored fiancé, is also featured on the song, first released by The Handsome Family on their 2000 album In The Air.
“Listen to me, Butterfly,” Bridgers sings on the cover, her fluttering voice supported by a mellow choir of male voices. “There’s only so much wine you can drink in one life.”
Following suit with the style of artwork used for the Grammy nominee’s past holiday recordings, the “So Much Wine” cover art features two minimalistic ghosts painted onto a portrait of snowy mountains and white-dusted evergreen trees. The “Motion Sickness” singer first started her tradition of releasing a yearly festive single in 2017, when she covered “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.”
In the years since, Bridgers has dropped reimagined versions of Tom Waits’ “Day After Tomorrow,” Merle Haggard’s “If We Make It Through December,” Simon & Garfunkel’s “‘7 O’Clock News/ Silent Night” with Fiona Apple and The National‘s Matt Berninger, and McCarthy Trenching’s “Christmas Song” with Jackson Browne. Every year, proceeds from her covers benefit organizations that serve communities in need like the Los Angeles LGBT Center, which assists lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and people living with HIV with treating substance abuse, housing, legal assistance, healthcare and more.
Listen to Phoebe Bridgers’ new cover of “So Much Wine” below.
Mariah Carey might be the “Queen of Christmas,” but a new legal ruling means she won’t be able to stop others from using the same name.
In a decision issued Tuesday, a tribunal at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office rejected Carey’s application to register the royal title as a federal trademark. The decision went in favor of Elizabeth Chan, another singer who says she’s used the same name for years.
Chan filed a legal case against Carey in August, arguing that “Christmas is big enough for more than one Queen.” After that, Carey never responded to the case or defended her applications for the trademarks, prompting the Trademark Office to rule in favor of Chan by default.
“We are pleased with the victory, and delighted that we were able to help Elizabeth fight back against Carey’s overreaching trademark registrations,” said Tompros, an attorney at the law firm WilmerHale.
In the same statement, Chan herself added: “Christmas is a season of giving, not the season of taking, and it is wrong for an individual to attempt to own and monopolize a nickname like Queen of Christmas for the purposes of abject materialism.”
Carey’s attorney did not return a request for comment on the decision.
In a statement, Chan’s lawyer Louis Tompros called Carey’s efforts to secure legal protection over the “Queen” name “a classic case of trademark bullying” – a term used to criticize overly-aggressive trademark protection by big brands.
Likely playing on her perennial smash hit “All I Want For Christmas Is You,” Carey’s company (Lotion LLC) applied last year to register the “Queen” name as an exclusive brand name for a variety of different goods and services, ranging from music to alcohol to fragrances.
Trademarks are different than copyrights, and they do not give someone blanket ownership over particular words. If Carey had won the registrations and wanted to sue someone, she still would have needed to prove that consumers had confused the two brand names – not always an easy task, particularly with a fairly unoriginal name like “Queen of Christmas.”
But such registrations are still important, and would have empowered Carey’s company to start threatening litigation and crowding out others from using it in similar commercial contexts. That potentially would include Chan, who calls her self “pop music’s only full-time Christmas singer” and says she’s also been repeatedly dubbed the “Queen of Christmas.”
The risk of such litigation prompted Chan to file her August case at the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, a court-like body within the USPTO that decides disputes over who is entitled to register particular trademarks. Repped by Tompros, she argued that no single singer or company should be able to lock up the title.
“Ms. Carey can call herself whatever she wants, but she shouldn’t have the ability to block others from doing the same,” Tompros said at the time.
It’s unclear exactly what motivated Carey and her lawyers (from the elite trademark law firm Fross Zelnick) to file the applications, particularly after she gave an interview in December in which she seemed to disclaim the title: “To me, Mary is the Queen of Christmas.”
The dispute over the “Queen” title prompted some fun wrangling among other Christmas “queens.” Darlene Love jokingly urged Carey to “call my lawyer,” noting that David Letterman had “officially declared me the Queen of Christmas 29 years ago.” And just last week, Dolly Parton quickly conceded the title to Carey after an interviewer suggested that Parton might be “the new Queen of Christmas.”
“Now, don’t you say that! I’m not going to compete with Mariah,” Parton said in the interview with Better Homes and Gardens. “I love her. You think of Christmas, you think of Mariah.”
“Is it true that Mariah Carey trademarked ‘Queen of Christmas?’ What does that mean that I can’t use that title?” Love asked in the post. “At 81 years of age I’m NOT changing anything. I’ve been in the business for 52 years, have earned it and can still hit those notes! If Mariah has a problem call David or my lawyer!!”
Backstreet Boys debut at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Holiday Albums chart with the group’s first seasonal effort, A Very Backstreet Christmas. The set launches atop the list dated Oct. 29 with 20,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending Oct. 20, according to Luminate.
Also bowing the Oct. 29-dated chart: Reba’s The Ultimate Christmas Collection (No. 14), the Country Christmas Greatest Hits compilation (No. 24), Selah’s At This Table: A Christmas Album (No. 26), the Now That’s What I Call a Wonderful Christmas compilation (No. 31) and Jim Brickman’s A Very Merry Christmas (No. 32).
The seasonal Top Holiday Albums chart returned to Billboard’s weekly chart menu for the current season with the Oct. 22-dated chart. That week, the top debut was Lindsey Stirling’s Snow Waltz at No. 2, while the soundtrack to Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas spent a 12th nonconsecutive week atop the list. Top Holiday Albums will continue to be published on a weekly basis through January of 2023, when it will dash away until the next holiday season. (The chart generally returns every October.)
The Top Holiday Albums chart ranks the 50 most popular seasonal albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each units equals one album sales, 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. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.
The Oct. 29-dated Top Holiday Albums chart is populated by festive favorites that have decorated the chart through the years, including Michael Bublé’s Christmas, Mariah Carey’s Merry Christmas, Josh Groban’s Noel, Vince Guaraldi Trio’s A Charlie Brown Christmas (the survey’s all-time top title) and Carrie Underwood’s My Gift.
Upcoming holiday album releases that could impact the Top Holiday Albums chart include: Gloria Estefan, Emily Estefan and Sasha Estefan-Coppola’s Estefan Family Christmas (Oct. 13); Chris Isaak’s Everybody Knows It’s Christmas (released Oct. 14); Andrea, Matteo and Virginia Bocelli’s A Family Christmas (Oct. 21); Crowder’s Milk & Cookies: A Merry Crowder Christmas (Oct. 21); Debbie Gibson’s Winterlicious (Oct. 21); Thomas Rhett’s Merry Christmas, Y’all (Oct. 21); Pentatonix’s Holidays Around the World (Oct. 28); Alicia Keys’ Santa Baby (Nov. 4); Jane Monheit’s The Merriest (Nov. 4); Michael W. Smith’s Christmas at Home (Nov. 4); Switchfoot’s This Is Our Christmas Album (Nov. 4); Louis Armstrong’s Louis Wishes You a Cool Yule (Nov. 11); Nelson, A Nelson Family Christmas (Nov. 11); Loreena McKennitt, Under a Winter’s Moon (Nov. 18); André Rieu, Silver Bells (Nov. 18); the Spirited soundtrack (Nov. 18); David Foster and Katharine McPhee’s Christmas Songs (Nov. 25); and Cliff Richard’s Christmas With Cliff (Nov. 25).