Mariah Carey, WHAM! or Brenda Lee: Who’s Off to the Early Lead in the Christmas Streaming Race?
Categoria: Musica
This week's Trending Up looks at the first post-Halloween returns from the holiday heavy hitters, plus a revived favorite from a newly elected official and more.
Por Billboard | 11/11/2026
Welcome to Billboard Pro’s Trending Up newsletter, where we take a closer look at the songs, artists, curiosities and trends that have caught the music industry’s attention. Some have come out of nowhere, others have taken months to catch on, and all of them could become ubiquitous in the blink of a TikTok clip. This week: A Christmas preview starring Mariah Carey and George Michael, as well as a victory boost for one winner from the midterms’ Blue Wave, and a couple new viral breakout hits. Early Christmas Race Leaders: Mariah and Wham! Neck and Neck As soon as the calendar turns the page from October to November, you know what that means: Mariah Carey will be coming out of her warm-weather hibernation to declare the holiday season commenced. The tradition continued this year, with Carey posting her traditional “It’s Time” video on Nov. 1 — this time with her as a black-clad hard-rocker converted to mirth and merriment by the Christmas spirit. Unsurprisingly, Carey’s Yuletide perennial “All I Want for Christmas Is You” has gotten off to an early lead among all Holiday-themed songs on streaming. The song attracted nearly 9.99 million official on-demand U.S. streams for seven-day period of Nov. 1-7, according to Luminate — down about 4 percent from the same period in 2025, according to Luminate, but still enough to give it the slimmest of margins over Wham! ‘s “Last Christmas,” which racked up nearly 9.98 million streams over the same period. (Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” the other most frequently recurring holiday favorite at the top of the charts, ranked comfortably behind them with 7.38 million.) But Wham! may already be surging ahead in the race. “Last Christmas” scored a combined 3.1 million streams over Oct. 8-9, according to early data provided by Luminate, which is 7% more than the 2.9 million “All I Want” notched over the same timespan. And of the three heaviest-hitters, “Last Christmas” is the only one that is significantly up year-over-year from 2025 — with its Nov. 1-7 tally up 17% from the same period last year. (“Last Christmas” has a couple timing-related boosts on its side this year, with the George Michael: The Faith Tour concert documentary celebrating the Wham! singer’s biggest solo tour coming to theaters in December, and the 10th anniversary of Michael’s 2016 death — on Christmas day, no less — also coming this year.) As the race heats up on the Billboard Hot 100 — with both songs returning to the chart this week (dated Nov. 14), and “Last Christmas” leading “All I Want for Christmas Is You” No. 37 to No. 39 — all eyes will be on Mariah and Wham! to see who mounts the star atop the Billboard Christmas tree. Will “Last Christmas” finally secure its first-ever week at No. 1, or will Carey dominate the season again