Billboard explains why Mariah Carey and Brenda Lee compete for No.1 on the Hot 100 with their Christmas classics "All I Want For Christmas Is You" and "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" during the holiday season.
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00:00It's the battle between the Christmas Queens,
00:02Mariah versus Brenda.
00:04Every holiday season, Mariah Carey and Brenda Lee
00:07battle it out for the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100.
00:10But how did these two Christmas classics
00:12become the top song?
00:13And what's the story behind this holiday competition?
00:16This is Billboard Explains Mariah Carey and Brenda Lee's
00:19battle for the Christmas throne.
00:21There are many holiday classics
00:23that are in rotation every December.
00:25Wham's Last Christmas, Bobby Helms' Jingle Bell Rock,
00:28and Burl Ives' A Holly Jolly Christmas,
00:31just to name a few.
00:32But two songs are always fighting for the number one spot
00:35on the Hot 100.
00:37Mariah Carey's All I Want for Christmas is You.
00:39♪ All I want for Christmas is you ♪
00:43And Brenda Lee's Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree.
00:46♪ We're rockin' around the Christmas tree house ♪
00:50So how did we get here?
00:51Let's go back to the beginning.
00:53Nearly 14-year-old Brenda Lee released
00:54Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree in 1958,
00:57and it debuted on the Hot 100 dated December 12, 1960.
01:01The song originally peaked at number 14 two weeks later,
01:04but it reentered the Hot 100 decades later
01:07during the 2013-2014 holiday season.
01:10It first hit the top 10 during the 2018-2019 holiday,
01:13and spent nine weeks at number two
01:15during the 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022 holidays.
01:19Right behind Mariah Carey's All I Want for Christmas is You.
01:23Speaking of Mariah, All I Want for Christmas is You
01:25first appeared on the Billboard charts in 1994,
01:28and it hit the Hot 100's top 10
01:30for the first time in December 2017.
01:33It reached number one on the Hot 100
01:35for the first time in 2019,
01:37and has continued to dominate
01:38every holiday season since then.
01:40But that all changed in 2023
01:42when Brenda's Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree
01:44finally reached the number one spot
01:46and spent three weeks at the top,
01:48while Mariah's Carol led for two weeks last holiday season.
01:51But what is it about these two songs
01:53that keeps the battle going every Christmas?
01:55With the rise of streaming and curated holiday playlists,
01:58these two tracks are always staples on those lists,
02:00which helps bring them back to the chart every year.
02:03Plus, radio, airplay, and sales are always strong
02:05for both songs, among many other seasonal standards
02:08over the holiday.
02:10But the stars play into the fun too.
02:12Mariah has her viral It's Time videos.
02:14It's time!
02:18While Brenda filmed a music video
02:19for her classic hit last year,
02:21and even joined the world of TikTok to promote the song.
02:24Regardless of why these two songs
02:26are the songs of the holiday season,
02:28we can't get enough of these two Christmas queens.