Mariah Carey once again reigned supreme on the Billboard singles chart over the week prior to Christmas, with her seasonally inescapable “All I Want for Christmas Is You” logging a second consecutive week at No. 1. It’s the 14th No. 1 week in total for the 1994 song, which topped the Hot 100 for the first time in 2019.
“All I Want for Christmas Is You” was one of nine Christmas songs crowding the top 10 this week, with the likes of Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” Jose Feliciano’s “Feliz Navidad,” Burl Ives’ “Holly Jolly Christmas” and the Ronettes’ “Sleigh Ride” also charting in the top bracket. (The lone non-Christmas song on the top 10, Jack Harlow’s “Lovin on Me,” landed at No. 6.)
Carey's 'All I Want for Christmas' has now spent 14 weeks at No. 1, first reaching the summit in 2019.
As familiar as Carey’s December chart reign has become, it’s easy to forget how novel the race for a Christmas No. 1 has been in this country. While the U.K. has long made the competition for the top spot a national sport, prior to 2019 the only Christmas song to ever top the U.S. singles chart was the Chipmunks’ “Christmas Don’t Be Late,” all the way back in 1958.
The rise of streaming and changes to Billboard’s chart methodology have since completely upended the old order, though Carey and Lee’s “Rockin’” are still only the second and third Christmas songs to top the chart, respectively. (In case it ever comes up in bar trivia, the Christmas week No. 1 from the year Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas” was released was Ini Kamoze’s “Here Comes the Hotstepper.”)
Carey's Christmas marketing blitz this year included a tour and a new holiday-themed lingerie line.
Despite being a staple of holiday radio and department store playlists for decades, “All I Want for Christmas” didn’t even reach the top 10 of the singles chart until 2017. With 14 weeks on top, it now ties “We Belong Together” as Carey’s second longest-charting No. 1, with the possibility of passing it should she top next week’s chart as well. (Her all-time biggest hit, 1995’s Boyz II Men collaboration “One Sweet Day,” spent 16 weeks at No. 1.)
Carey certainly hasn’t been shy about embracing her new, partially self-awarded "Queen of Christmas" title, going on a 13-date tour which wrapped at Madison Square Garden on Dec. 17. Expect plenty more where that came from next year, as the song marks its 30th anniversary.
A new music video helped lift Brenda Lee's 'Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree' to its first No. 1 this year.
Of course, Carey’s now-annual run at the top of the chart was interrupted for two weeks by Lee, who became the oldest artist to top the singles chart at 78, as well as the singer with the longest stretch between No. 1s (63 years). Lee put in her share of legwork, too, releasing a new music video for “Rockin’” featuring Lee lip-syncing to the original recording, alongside guest appearances from Trisha Yearwood and Tanya Tucker. The video has since amassed more than 20 million views on YouTube. Lee has also recently been active on TikTok, and performed the song on NBC's Christmas at the Opry on Dec. 7.
