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Mariah Carey graces The Late Show With Stephen Colbert with her presence on Wednesday night’s (Dec. 7) episode, and in the lead-up to the sit-down, the talk show gave fans a sneak peek at the Queen of Christmas taking Stephen Colbert’s famed “Colbert Questionert.”
The host kicks off the round of questions by asking, “You only get one song to listen to for the rest of your life. What is it?” Mariah’s answer turns out to inadvertently be one of her very own. “Stephen Colbert’s latest hit,” she replied cheekily, to which Colbert informed her, “The last song I sang was ‘All I Want for Christmas’ on this show, last night, actually. … I ended the monologue singing your song last night!”
Of course, the icon wanted to know just how much of her No. 1 hit the host crooned, and he treated her to the song’s iconic intro and part of the chorus. “You skipped a little part of the B section, but that’s all right,” Mariah sang along to the melody as the audience erupted into laughter with her.
“All I Want for Christmas Is You” has already begun its now-annual journey up the Hot 100 for this Christmas season. On the chart dated Dec. 10, the 1994 single sits at No. 2, just behind Taylor Swift’s “Anti-Hero.” It’s peaked at No. 1 three years in a row now, dating back to its first ascension in 2019.
Later this month, Carey is bringing her Christmas spirit to New York City and Toronto for a quartet of Merry Christmas to All! holiday concerts, and will also get her very own primetime holiday special on CBS.
Watch a preview of Mariah’s festive “Colbert Questionert” below.
Christmas is a time for giving. And for boy bands, that usually means putting on their chunkiest sweaters, adhering to all the chestnut-roasting and kissing under the mistletoe cliches and complementing their multi-part harmonies with enough sleigh bells to give Santa Claus tinnitus.
But which pin-ups over the years have delivered the best musical present?
It could be argued that Wham!’s “Last Christmas” – a song so ubiquitous it sparked a survival game based on avoiding it throughout the whole of December – was the progenitor of the trend. But to avoid the debate about whether George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley’s chart-topping duo could really be described as a boy band, our Christmas list only focuses on the heartthrobs who emerged from the late 1980s onward, when the concept of the all-singing, all-dancing, all-male group truly kicked in.
To narrow things down further, were only rewarding those who came up with something original. That means there’s no place for The Wanted’s take on Bing Crosby’s classic “White Christmas” or The Vamps’ cover of Wizzard’s “I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday.” And to prevent the domination of those who truly committed to the season by recording a full-length holiday album, we’re being Scrooge-like and limiting each boy band to just one track.
So if you’ve grown sick of the yuletide staples that clog up the Hot 100 at the end of every year, here are ten teenybopper-friendly alternatives.
And to check out our list of stone-cold candy cane classics, head here for Billboard’s 100 Best Christmas Songs of All Time.
Peter Cooper, a Grammy-nominated producer, highly regarded Nashville journalist and Country Music Hall of Fame executive, died Dec. 6. He was 52.
His family confirmed the death, posting on Facebook that he died in his sleep after suffering a severe head injury following a fall late last week.
A South Carolina native, Cooper joined the staff of The Tennessean as its prime music writer in 2000 before moving to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2014 as museum editor.
“He grew to assume the role of museum senior director, producer and writer, driving several important creative initiatives and bringing a poetic grace to them all,” the hall’s CEO Kyle Young said in a statement. “He developed and implemented mission-oriented programs, exhibitions, podcasts and, as a writer, elegantly described the rich character of the country music story. His talents were immense, but his heart was even bigger, and he touched the lives of those he encountered in immeasurable ways. Our thoughts are with his family during this difficult time.”
For all his talents, many saw Cooper first and foremost as a journalist, who brought tremendous empathy to the subjects he covered, including such titans as Johnny Cash, George Jones and Kris Kristofferson, who reportedly told Cooper that he looked “at the world with an artist’s eye, and a human heart and soul.”
Ricky Skaggs tells Billboard he considered Cooper “one of the most gentle and soft-spoken men I ever knew. His knowledge of music, the writers, the players and singers was really unmatched in Nashville. Our industry lost a vital voice for our times. He will be sorely missed!”
Best-selling biographer/journalist Alanna Nash added, “One of the many things that separated Peter from the rest of us who do this work, aside from just the breathtaking humanity that imbued his writing, was his side gig as a musician and his intimate understanding of the torment artists endure. He wrote journalism from the inside of the story, from its guts, because he lived all the wrenching passion and rode every threadbare highway. You don’t drive Hank Williams’ 300-mile ‘last ride’ from Knoxville to Oak Hill, W.V., as Peter did for a story about the 50th anniversary of Williams’ death, without feeling that same pain.”
Like Tom T. Hall, whom he revered, Cooper was, above all, a storyteller through his reported pieces and his own career as a performing singer/songwriter. An accomplished musician, he released several albums as part of the duo Eric Brace & Peter Cooper and was in the trio Eric Brace, Peter Cooper and Thomm Jutz.
His songs had been recorded by John Prine, Todd Snider, Bobby Bare and Mac Wiseman, among others.
Cooper received a Grammy nomination in best children’s album for 2011’s I Love: Tom T. Hall’s Songs of Fox Hollow, a tribute album to the songwriter’s story songs.
A memorial service will take place in early 2023. In lieu of flowers, his family asks that donations be made to the Baker Cooper fund to support his 12-year-old son’s education care of Wells Fargo Bank or to the Country Music Hall of Fame.
–Assistance in preparing this story provided by Jessica Nicholson.
After a record 31 years away, Iggy Pop is back on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Airplay chart.
“Frenzy,” the Godfather of Punk’s lead single from his upcoming album Every Loser, debuts at No. 38 on the ranking dated Dec. 10.
Iggy Pop makes his first appearance on the list since “Candy,” a duet with Kate Pierson of The B-52’s, peaked at No. 30 in January 1991 and charted into that February.
In between “Candy” and “Frenzy,” Iggy Pop has stayed busy, releasing nine albums between 1993 and 2019. While none spurred singles that reached Mainstream Rock Airplay, he appeared on Alternative Airplay with two tracks (“Wild America,” No. 25, 1993; “Little Know It All,” No. 35, 2003) and Adult Alternative Airplay with one (“Gardenia,” No. 26, 2016).
Iggy Pop’s 31-year absence from Mainstream Rock Airplay breaks a record set earlier in 2022 by Jeff Beck. Beck had been away for 28 years, from his Seal co-bill “Manic Depression” in 1994 to his featured turn on Ozzy Osbourne’s “Patient Number 9” this year.
Longest Gaps Between Mainstream Rock Airplay Entries31 years, nine months, two weeks, Iggy Pop (1991-2022)28 years, four months, Jeff Beck (1994-2022)27 years, five months, Elton John (1992-2020)25 years, 11 months, three weeks, Brian May (1993-2019)23 years, four months, three weeks, Charlie Daniels (1987-2011)
“Frenzy” is Iggy Pop’s sixth Mainstream Rock Airplay appearance, dating to the chart’s 1981 inception. He achieved his best with “Real Wild Child,” which hit No. 27 in 1987.
Every Loser is due as one of 2023’s first album releases, on Jan. 6.
‘Tis the season to start listening to Christmas songs on repeat without thinking: Is it too soon? As if on cue, like many other artists across genres, Latin acts have begun releasing back-to-back bilingual (Spanish and English) holiday songs — whether original or covers — to get in the spirit navideño.
Among those who recently released a cover of their favorite Christmas song is Kenia Os, who dropped her version of “Blanca Navidad.” “It’s a classic that’s never missing in my house when Christmas begins,” the influencer and singer says in a statement about the recording. “When they asked me to choose a song that represented that magical moment of being close to our loved ones, the first one that came to my mind was ‘Blanca Navidad.’”
José Feliciano — of course known for his anthemic “Feliz Navidad,” which celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2020 and it remains one of the top 10-performing hits in the decade-plus history of Billboard‘s Holiday 100 chart — is now back with a whole new Christmas-inspired album, Love & Christmas, which includes his new up-tempo track “Viva La Navidad.”
There’s also Chiquis, who unleashed her rendition of “Jingle Bells (Vamos All the Way)” with a twist on the lyrics, marking the first time she’s released a holiday-themed song. The Mexican-American artist’s version is a catchy urban-tinged cumbia track that will get anyone on their feet and singing along to her Spanglish lyrics.
Ahead of the holidays, here’s a list of new Navidad-themed or inspired Latin songs released this year, to add to your Christmas music playlist.
Stevie Nicks is praising Lizzo for her powerful speech at Tuesday’s 2022 People’s Choice Awards.
After being presented with the People’s Champion award by her mother, Shari Johnson-Jefferson, Lizzo admitted she’d gone back and forth about accepting the award in the first place, and then gracefully turned the spotlight over to a number of activists, artists and other champions she invited up onstage.
Nicks was impressed with the selfless gesture, and she posted her appreciation Wednesday (Dec. 7) on Instagram.
“Dearest Lizzo~ In my opinion~ your presentation last night on the People’s Choice Awards was not only so beautiful and so needed~ that you get the award for being a great woman of our time,” the Fleetwood Mac legend wrote in an open letter to the Special singer on Instagram. “I was so impressed and so touched that you put that together and pulled it off. It was stunning~ and everyone heard you. You have given all women soundbites forever~ flute player, singer, songwriter, future politician…? Your name is in the stars now~ Much Love, Stevie Nicks.”
Appropriately enough for the People’s Choice Awards, Lizzo turned her acceptance speech over to the people, highlighting an impressive array of activists who are effecting real change every day.
“To be an icon isn’t about how long you’ve had your platform,” Lizzo said on stage. “Being an icon is what you do with that platform. And ever since the beginning of my career, I’ve used my platform to amplify marginalized voices. So tonight, I am sharing this honor — make some noise for the people, y’all,” she said before introducing Mary Copeny (i.e. “Little Miss Flint”), Beauty 2 the Streetz founder Shirley Raines, Women’s March Foundation president Emiliana Guereca and many more.
Just last week, Nicks penned a poignant handwritten letter to her Fleetwood Mac bandmate Christine McVie after the “Songbird” singer died at age 79.
Read Nicks’ tribute and watch Lizzo’s full speech below:
Sabrina Carpenter is bringing the heat to the holiday season with a spicy new remix of her Emails I Can’t Send fan-favorite, “Nonsense.”
In “A Nonsense Christmas,” the 23-year-old pop star switches up the goofy lyrics to take on a more festive, flirty spin. Think I only want you under my mistletoe / I might change your contact to ’Has a huge North Pole’ / You said you like my stockings better on the floor / Boy, I’ve been a bad girl, I guess I’m getting coal,” she sings in the opening verse, later noting in the chorus that “Lookin’ at you got me thinkin’ Christmas.”
“y’all made me do this,” Carpenter tweeted announcing the single on Wednesday (Dec. 7). “‘A Nonsense Christmas‘ is out now on all streaming platforms happy hoelidays!!”
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Last month, the star revealed to Billboard on the American Music Awards red carpet that the original version of “Nonsense” was the “most fun” song to write. “It’s just the silliest song,” she continued of the track, “and when we were writing it, I was like, ‘It’s never gonna be put out.’ … At first I was like, ‘It doesn’t make sense with the album,’ and then I kind of realized that there’s a lot of dual feelings to heartbreak and grieving and moving on, and it can happy and sad and confident and insecure. So yeah, that’s one of my favorites too.”
Emails I Can’t Send as a whole peaked at No. 23 on the Billboard 200 upon its release, giving Carpenter the highest chart entry of her career.
Listen to “A Nonsense Christmas” below.
