Media
Page: 273
First Country is a compilation of the best new country songs, videos & albums that dropped this week. Trace Adkins and Melissa Etheridge team upn for the best duet for their careers, Kenny Chesney remembers his recently passed dog, Ashley McBryde’s standout track from ‘Ashley McBryde: Presents Lindeville’ and more!
In 1994, Mariah Carey‘s Merry Christmas, which contains her seasonal chart-topping carol “All I Want For Christmas Is You,” helped revitalize the contemporary pop holiday album. The singer’s effort was not the top selling yuletide-themed project of the year — that title went to Kenny G’s Miracles: The Holiday Album — but its enduring popularity helped set a new standard for the modern Christmas album.
By the turn of the century, recording a holiday album became a rite of passage for almost every burgeoning pop star, with some releasing more than one over the course of their careers. Mariah herself released Merry Christmas II You in 2010, while a cappella group Pentatonix dropped six holiday albums in a decade.
At the same time, seasonal music, secular or otherwise, continues to transcend genre and age. Both Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber were just 17 when they released their first holiday collections, The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection and Under the Mistletoe, respectively. And now that well over a decade has passed since both releases, only time will tell if the two have festive fa-la-la follow-ups up their sleeves.
To celebrate “the most wonderful time of the year,” Billboard decided to take a look back and tally up the 21 best Christmas albums of the 21st century so far. Whether you’re curled up by the fireplace with a warm cup of cocoa, taking a drive through winter wonderland or rocking around the Christmas tree with your friends and family, listen in below.
And check out our top 100 Best Christmas Songs of All Time list here.
Westeros isn’t so different from the world of pop. The top slot on the Billboard charts is just as sought-after as the Iron Throne — though artists use their music as weapons instead of, well, actual weapons.
Back in 2016, ahead of the season 6 premiere of Game of Thrones on HBO, we decided to see if we could draw a direct line between the citizens of the Seven Kingdoms and our very own pop royalty. These people are playing very different games, but often using similar strategies. We published animated illustrations reimagining six of the biggest musicians in the world as six of the biggest characters on the wildly popular show, which came to an end in 2019 after eight seasons.
This week (Dec. 7), our gallery of GIFs became relevant once again, when Taylor Swift told The Hollywood Reporter for their Women in Entertainment Power 100 issue which Thrones character she most identifies with: Arya Stark. “I realize I don’t know how to use a sword and I’ve never had to rise up from near death to go on an epic revenge mission,” the pop star quipped. “But I have been in the music industry for over 15 years, so …”
When we published the original gallery, we had Swift pegged as the Mother of Dragons, Daenerys Targaryen — of course, that was before (spoiler alert) Dany burned it all down in the final season. Also since the gallery was posted, Swift has spoken of her kinship with the Stark daughters (Sansa too) and how they partially inspired her 2017 album reputation. “So much of my imagination was spent on Game of Thrones,” Swift told Entertainment Weekly in 2019. “At the time, I was making reputation and I didn’t talk about it in interviews, so I didn’t reveal that a lot of the songs were influenced by the show.”
But Swift isn’t our only pop star featured in the gallery. Below, find animated illustrations of pop stars as their kindred Game of Thrones characters. (And maybe for our next round, we’ll include musicians as House of the Dragon standouts.)
This gallery was originally published in 2016.
Bad Bunny talks to our Chief Content Officer of Latin Leila Cobo about his current tour, World’s Hottest Tour, his favorite places to tour, how he approaches collaborations, when he wants to take a break from his career, reflects on his journey to the top and more!
Related Images:
Related Images:
Related Images:
The Billboard charts are getting ever more festive in the march to Christmas.
On the Billboard Hot 100 songs and Billboard 200 albums charts (both dated Dec. 10), the lists are looking very merry and bright. On the Hot 100, Mariah Carey’s evergreen chart-topper “All I Want for Christmas Is You” vaults to No. 2 and Michael Bublé’s former No. 1 album Christmas jingles up the Billboard 200 into the top five. Christmas was released in 2011 and spent five weeks atop the list late that year and in early 2012 and has returned to the top 10 in every subsequent holiday season.
Speaking of Bublé, earlier this year on the Billboard Pop Shop Podcast, he joined hosts Katie and Keith to discuss his then-new album Higher (a recent Grammy Award nominee for best traditional pop vocal album). Well, the latest Pop Shop Podcast (listen below) has a special unheard moment from that interview, where Bublé was asked about his Christmas album and what it means to know that the ever-popular set has become a favorite in homes around the world each year, soundtracking family gatherings.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
“Well, can you imagine how lucky I feel to be invited into all of that?” Bublé tells the Pop Shop Podcast. “I mean, I knew what I was doing when I made the record. I had high hopes. I was quite ambitious. Because I really genuinely love the songs. I never had any idea that it would be like this ever, ever.”
“And it’s funny, years ago, I would complain about it [the album’s success], and I would say [exasperated] ‘Well, you know, they keep talking about the Christmas album,’” he recalled. “But it was when my son got sick, I remember sitting in the hospital, and I just remember thinking how lucky I was. I just remember thinking so clearly, you know, how wonderful this is, that this is a part of your legacy. …
“What’s interesting, too, is it’s become less about what religion you are and it’s become about just a time when us human beings might need a bit of a break. And there’s a little more empathy and kindness. And I thought, man, to be connected to something so beautiful, there are much worse things in life.”
Also on the latest Pop Shop Podcast, Katie and Keith discuss the death of singer-songwriter Christine McVie and the pop sensibility she brought to her work with Fleetwood Mac. Plus, the Pop Shop team chats about Amber Riley (spoiler alert!) winning The Masked Singer and what it could mean for her career in the future. They also talk about her Dec. 5 guest appearance on The Jennifer Hudson Show, where Riley and Hudson duetted on “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going” from Dreamgirls.
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.)
Related Images: