Mariah Carey is making history yet again.
Thanks to “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” Mariah is now the first artist to top the Billboard Hot 100 in four decades.
via Billboard:
“Christmas” spends a third week atop the latest Hot 100, dated Jan. 4, 2020, having first led the charts dated Dec. 21 and Dec. 28, 2019. The song, originally released in 1994, became Carey’s 19th No. 1, after she earned 14 leaders in the 1990s and four in the 2000s.
Meanwhile, holiday songs rank in the Hot 100’s top four spots simultaneously for the first time in the chart’s 61-year history, as, following Carey’s carol, at Nos. 2, 3 and 4, respectively, are Brenda Lee‘s “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” Bobby Helms‘ “Jingle Bell Rock” and Burl Ives‘ “A Holly Jolly Christmas.”Plus, a record five holiday hits infuse the Hot 100’s top 10 simultaneously, thanks also to Andy Williams‘ “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” at No. 7.
Let’s run down the top 10 of the newest Hot 100, which blends all-genre U.S. streaming, radio airplay and sales data. All charts (dated Jan. 4) will update on Billboard.com tomorrow (Dec. 31).
New record streams for a holiday song: Carey’s “Christmas,” on Columbia/Legacy Records, tops the Streaming Songs chart for a fourth consecutive week, and fifth total frame (after a week at No. 1 last holiday season), up 33% to 72.2 million U.S. streams in the week ending Dec. 26, according to Nielsen Music. The total, helped by a new video for “Christmas” released Dec. 20, is the best weekly sum ever for a holiday hit, surging past the 54.4 million that the song drew the previous week.
(“Christmas” is the eighth song with at least 72.2 million U.S. streams in a single week. Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road,” featuring Billy Ray Cyrus, holds the record, with 143 million, as reflected on the Streaming Songs chart dated April 20, 2019.)
“Christmas” rebounds 7-5 on Digital Song Sales, up 17% to 17,000 sold in the week ending Dec. 26, while dropping 14-26 on Radio Songs, down by 28% to 30.9 million in all-format airplay audience in the week ending Dec. 29 (with the airplay tracking week encompassing the four days after Christmas, when stations returned to non-holiday programming).
Originally released in 1994 on Carey’s album Merry Christmas, the modern classic reached the Hot 100’s top 10 at last in December 2017 and rose to its prior No. 3 high last holiday season, before topping the tally for the first time two weeks ago, becoming only the second holiday No. 1 ever on the Hot 100, joining The Chipmunks’ “The Chipmunk Song” (with David Seville), which ruled for four weeks in 1958-59.
First artist to be No. 1 in four decades: Carey becomes the first artist to top the Hot 100 in four distinct decades (notably, with a song from the 1990s extending her run into both the 2010s and 2020s).
Carey passes eight chart cornerstones that have reigned on the Hot 100 in three decades each.
Here’s an updated recap:
’60s, ’70s, ’80s: Stevie Wonder
’70s, ’80s, ’90s: Michael Jackson, Elton John
’80s, ’90s, ’00s: Janet Jackson, Madonna
’90s, ’00s, ’10s: Christina Aguilera, Britney Spears, Usher
’90s, ’00s, ’10s, ’20s: Mariah Carey
Congrats Mariah!
