Mariah Carey’s hit festive track made history this week by becoming the longest-running single to ever top the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The 1994 seasonal staple has been number one for a total of 20 weeks, thus it is going past Lil Nas X Old Town Road record of 19 weeks. For Carey, the return to the top spot is a very déjà vu moment – she had previously set the record with her 1995 collaboration One Sweet Day with Boyz II Men which stayed number one for 16 weeks.
It’s more than just a record for Mariah Carey’s song to be number one for so many weeks; it’s a sign of how streaming has changed the Billboard scene. Before streaming, holiday songs hardly ever went back to the top after their initial run. Currently, playlists on services like Spotify make sure seasonal hits are played every year, thus they become traditions. Carey’s song was not even in the top 10 of the Hot 100 before 2017, but it has been number one every Christmas season since 2019—that is seven consecutive years. Now, the track has been streamed on Spotify more than 2 billion times, and the royalties are estimated at $2.5–3 million yearly; hence, the song’s dominance is a frozen one.
Behind the explosion of Christmas charts, however, comes not only Carey’s effort but also Grande’s. Ariana Grande, for instance, also has a seasonal revival. Her 2014 single Santa Tell Me is again at No. 5 on the Hot 100, thus equaling its former peak, while she is carrying out an incredible act on the Billboard 200 as she charts eight albums concurrently. These include the Wicked soundtrack albums and the huge albums such as Thank U, Next and Positions, as well as the Christmas EP Christmas & Chill, which reached new heights on the physical and vinyl charts in the UK. Grande’s dominance of the charts across different periods indicates the fact that the absence of new music during the months of December opens room for the catalog acts to dominate.
However, WHAM!’s Last Christmas is slowly gaining momentum, and it is expected to enter the chart at No. 2 this season. The majority of Christmas songs project happiness, but the synth pop that targets unrequited love in Last Christmas is also responsible for its unique identity within the current playlisting trend. Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree and Jingle Bell Rock by Brenda Lee and Bobby Helms, respectively, also make regular appearances, while The Christmas Song and It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year by Nat King Cole and Andy Williams, respectively, make up the rest of the top list, which is comprised of Christmas songs across many years.
One of the seasonal songs competition has been very tough but an unlikely contender has burst forth: She & Him’s *I Thought I Saw Your Face Today*, a 2008 ballad that for the first time ever in the Hot 100, debuted at No. 99. The trigger? TikTok. Similar to Connie Francis’ *Pretty Little Baby* or Kate Bush’s *Running Up That Hill*, the track has been able to revive its popularity as users have been pairing it with the trend of nostalgia and emotional clips on TikTok. TikTok’s rediscovery effect has become a very strong force behind the charts—according to a recent industry report, 84% of songs entering the Billboard Global 200 in 2024 were TikTok viral first . For long-gone tracks, the platform is like a time machine that brings these oldies to new listeners who may not be aware of them.
The transition streaming versus TikTok ones that the Billboard methodologies round the chart have been changed. Seasonal hits are ensured of their yearly callbacks, whereas, a TikTok viral trend can put in the limelight abandoned gems. Knowing a well-timed challenge or sync can lead to millions of streams, record labels nowadays allocate budget specifically for TikTok campaigns. As for artists, this setting is both a revival and a reinvention vista – a decades-old carol of Mariah Carey’s can be at the top of the chart together with a newly viral indie ballad.
The record of Mariah Carey seems to be almost uncatchable as her Christmas season keeps going on. As each December keeps increasing its weeks, it is not even a question of whether *All I Want for Christmas Is You* will lead further, but rather of just how much of a lead she will maintain until a new challenger appears on the scene. For now, she is the queen of Christmas, her song echoing through more than just the mall and even through the history book itself.
