Billboard's Holiday 100 Chart Returns, Led Again by Mariah Carey's 'All I Want for Christmas Is You'

publish date: 2016-12-02
source: billboard

We unwrap the seasonal survey & find Carey's 1994 classic at its familiar spot on top. Plus, Pentatonix's "A Pentatonix Christmas" leads Top Holiday Albums.
The Holiday 100 makes its annual dash back to 's charts menu, ranking the top seasonal songs via the same formula used for the Hot 100, measuring sales, airplay and streaming.
In what's become a modern tradition, Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas Is You" leads the list (for a 21st week of the chart's 26 total frames since it launched in 2011). The 1994 chestnut keeps roasting, topping the Holiday Streaming Songs chart with 4.8 million U.S. streams, up 71 percent, in the tracking week, according to Nielsen Music. It ranks at No. 2 on Holiday Digital Song Sales (14,000 sold, up 80 percent) and No. 5 on Holiday Airplay (22 million in audience, up 181 percent).
Carey is set to celebrate the season with nine "All I Want for Christmas Is You" shows this month at New York's Beacon Theatre.
Pentatonix's cover of late legend Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" makes its first appearance on the Holiday 100, at No. 2. The song is from the vocal act's new seasonal set, A Pentatonix Christmas, which leads the Top Holiday Albums chart for a fifth week (94,000 sold, up 87 percent; it has sold 270,000 copies in its first five weeks). "Hallelujah" tops Holiday Digital Song Sales (24,000, down 12 percent) and places at No. 2 on Holiday Streaming Songs (4 million, down 13 percent). It also drew 1.8 million in radio audience (up 55 percent).
Brenda Lee's 1958 classic "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" ranks at No. 3 on the Holiday 100 and rules Holiday Airplay (25 million, up 161 percent). It holds the No. 3 spot on Holiday Streaming Songs (2.6 million, up 98 percent) and No. 5 on Holiday Digital Song Sales (5,000, up 86 percent).