Christmas in August? Mariah Carey’s Holiday Songs Pump Up Holiday Spirit on Spotify
While summer temperatures may be peaking, Mariah Carey is already on the Christmas train. Is Christmas in August a thing? Known as The Queen of Christmas, her holiday catalog on Spotify has seen a consistent rise in annual streaming numbers, reaching new heights each year.
Although Mariah has cemented herself as a pop icon through her timeless songs, the singer’s holiday tunes have become a staple in the Spotify Christmas playlist, with her catalog seeing record stream numbers in the lead-up to the festive season. In this exploration of Mariah Carey’s Christmas canon and its consistent increase in Spotify streams, we will explore its performance on the streaming platform between 15 August and 3rd September this year.
On Saturday, December 24, 2023, Mariah Carey’s classic holiday hit, “All I Want for Christmas is You,” was streamed a record 23.7 million times on Spotify worldwide. This broke the record for the most streams of a song in a single 24-hour period on the platform. Over the years, Mariah’s timeless song has become a holiday staple, continuing to hold its place in the hearts and playlists of millions of fans each year. It has increased in daily streams every year and, by the looks of it, this year seems no different.
Last year, Mariah Carey’s iconic holiday hit was certified 14x Diamond by the RIAA for over 14 million units sold in the US alone, maintaining the legacy of being the only Christmas song to ever be awarded Diamond status.
While this is a unique achievement in and of itself, it seems that this is just the beginning for the beloved holiday hit. With its soaring popularity and ever-growing streaming numbers, it seems the song will only continue to break records and garner further certifications. Last year, the Christmas song achieved over 350 million streams on Spotify alone, and with additional platforms such as YouTube, Apple Music, Tidal, Deezer, and the iTunes store, it’s not unreasonable to expect the song’s certifications to grow exponentially going forward.
Some have accused Mariah Carey of starting the holiday season a bit prematurely (although she officially begins each year on November 1st), but it appears that many people are already jumping on the holiday bandwagon even as Summer ends. Of course, we listen to her festive tunes year-round and the Phillippines starts Christmas season in September, but we didn’t necessarily expect casual listeners to follow suit.
While past years have seen an upsurge in Mariah Carey’s Christmas stream numbers in November, since 2020 we’ve seen a noteworthy increase already by October. This year, however, we’ve been monitoring daily figures to keep our daily streaming page up to date and we couldn’t help but notice the significant increase in her Christmas song stream values between August and September. It’s left us wondering: Has Christmas already started in August? So, we digged deeper and started comparing data.
All I Want For Christmas Is You
Obviously, when we think of Christmas, we think of Mariah Carey. And when we think of Mariah, the first song that comes to mind is All I Want for Christmas is You. It’s her most certified song (14 million units sold in the USA), and her most streamed song (Spotify alone accounts for 1.818 billion streams) and we will most probably listen to it in every shopping venue during the holiday season.
With an already equivalent worldwide singles sales of almost 40 million units, on the 15th of August of 2023, the song was receiving a steady average of 80-90 thousand streams daily. On September 3, 2023, the song earned a staggering 216,913 streams: that’s a 154% increase from 15 days ago but a 30.3% decrease from last year’s figures which leads us to believe Christmas started even earlier last year. The daily streams are increasing at a rate of 15 thousand streams daily. In August. So, will we have another record breaking stream count this year, or has the song peaked?
Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)
All I Want For Christmas may be a musical thermometer of the season, but the classic song Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) is seeing a spike in streams as well. Having grown from an average of 7399 daily streams to a staggering 20,627 daily streams as of September 3rd, 2024, the 1963 Darlene Love cover has gained a massive 215% growth in just a matter of weeks. It earned Platinum certification in March 2022 and seeing how quickly the streams are rising, we can only speculate that more certifications are on the way as the holiday season approaches.
O Holy Night
Mariah’s rendition of O Holy Night is our absolute favorite. With streams peaking today at a whopping 14,418, from just 4,336 two weeks ago, this song has seen a massive growth of 232%. The song has already earned a Platinum certification by the RIAA, though, we are sure it’s soon to be eligible for multi-Platinum designation with these astounding numbers. This song is a must-listen during the Christmas season, and we dare anyone to challenge us to find a better version of this timeless classic.
Oh Santa! (feat. Ariana Grande and Jennifer Hudson)
Although Oh Santa! didn’t resonate with the world outside the lambily upon its original release, it saw a huge boost in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic when Mariah presented the world with her Magical Christmas Special at a time when everyone was locked inside in need of holiday cheer back in 2020. Along with the performance of the song in the special, featuring Ariana Grande and Jennifer Hudson, the song’s streams grew exponentially, reaching over 95 million. From 3,980 to 9,741 daily streams in two weeks, a certification for the holiday tune is overdue, with gold now a possibility.
All I Want For Christmas Is You (Super Festive!) Duet with Justin Bieber
It appears that every version of Mariah’s AIWFCIY is enjoying the holiday streaming surge. According to the streams over the last few weeks, Mariah’s duet with Justin Bieber from 2011 has seen a double growth from 3,402 daily streams on August 15 to 8,673 on September 3rd, 2024. With over 100 million plays, the song is definitely soon to be eligible for certification.
Merry Christmas Album
Mariah’s remaining tracks from her beloved first Christmas album have also enjoyed a surge in popularity due to this “Christmas in August streaming effect”. Certified platinum 9 times over with over 2.5 billion streams and counting, it appears that the Diamond award is being kept for a special gift in the near future, with its continuous growth in the holiday season. Check out the leaps in daily streams from August 15 to September 3, in the chart below:
- Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town: 2486 – 8171
- Silent Night: 1570 – 5660
- Hark! The Herald Angels Sing: 642 – 2255
- Joy To The World: 573 – 2219
- Miss You Most: 560 – 1883
- Jesus Born On This Day: 340 – 915
- Jesus Oh What a Wonderful Child: 351 – 807
- God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen: 104 – 302
Fall in Love at Christmas
Fall in Love at Christmas, featuring Kirk Franklin and Khalid, is starting to make a name for itself. Released in 2021, the song is steadily rising, already reaching impressive streaming milestones. From a humble 400 daily streams in August, it now starts rising with 772 plays per day on Spotify. The song has totaled over 15 million streams to date having surpassed classics such as “Make it Happen” and “Fly Like a Bird” on the streaming platform.
Sleigh Ride
When we learned that Mariah was including a cover of Sleigh Ride by The Ronettes in her Magical Christmas Special, we could hardly contain our excitement. With this magical performance, the song has also seen great streams in recent times, with daily streams growing from 328 in August to 703 as of early September. We can’t wait for the holidays to groove to this cover once more!
Other songs from this special such as All I Want for Christmas is You – Magical Christmas Mix or Here Comes Santa Claus have also seen their daily stream count more than double in the past week.
Merry Christmas II You
Mariah’s second Christmas album has been unfairly overlooked by many, leaving it in the shadows of her iconic first holiday album. With 92 million overall streams, the album has yet to earn anything more than a Gold certification for 500 thousand units sold in the United States. However, we cherish this album and its creative arrangements, such as “O Come All Ye Faithful / Hallelujah Chorus”, “The First Noel / Born is the King Interlude”, and the live version of “O Holy Night”. Nevertheless, many of these songs are also seeing a surge in daily streams:
- Oh Santa!: 684 – 1,545
- O Little Town of Bethlehem / Little Drummer Boy – Medley: 100 – 366
- Christmas Time is in The Air Again: 141 – 368
- The First Noel / Born is The King Interlude – Medley: 106 – 954
- When Christmas Comes: 101 – 244
- Here Comes Santa Claus: 82 – 403
- Charlie Brown Christmas – Medley: 60 – 185
- O Come All Ye Faithful / Hallelujah Chorus: 186 – 1,107
- O Holy Night – Live from WPC in South Central Los Angeles: 185 – 419
- One Child: 95 – 263
- Auld Lang Syne (The New Year’s Anthem): 408 – 683
It’s evident that now that the warm weather and beach days of Summer have passed, many people are eager to soak up the holiday spirit. And of course, who better to lead the way than the Queen of Christmas herself? We won’t judge – we listen to her festive catalog all year round. In fact, we’re playing “Christmas Time is in the Air Again” as we finish up this article. But however the surge in streams being quite noticeable in August, these still pale in comparison to last year’s numbers during the same period. Is it warmer in 2024? Are we saving all our streaming power for September onwards? If records have been broken in seasons past, we might see a slight dive this year at this rate. We’ve got 113 days until Christmas, but let’s celebrate early anyway. We promise an October update and until then… Merry August Christmas!
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