Billboard Celebrates Season With Holiday Songs Chart
Billboard this week launches its first-ever Hot 100-style ranking of seasonal favorites with the launch of the Holiday Songs chart. Like the Hot 100, the survey ranks tracks based on a formula blending airplay, download sales and streaming data as tracked by Nielsen Entertainment. The 50-position chart will appear in print and on Billboard.com and Billboard.biz through the holiday season.
Topping our inaugural ranking is Mariah Carey's 1994 Christmas classic "All I Want for Christmas Is You." Carey's song also appears on the list at No. 33 in a rendition by Michael Buble that appears on his No. 1 Billboard 200 album "Christmas."
In previous years, Billboard's Holiday chart was based solely on radio airplay on adult contemporary (and a few adult top 40) stations, most of which made the switch to all or nearly all-Christmas music following Thanksgiving.
Because radio gravitates to the familiar, past Holiday Songs charts featured primarily classic Christmas tracks pre-dating this century. With the change in methodology to include downloads, streaming and airplay from all monitored radio stations, the reconfigured Holiday Songs survey presents a more balanced picture of new releases (Justin Bieber at No. 2) and traditional seasonal selections (Brenda Lee, Nat King Cole and Bobby Helms at Nos. 3-5, respectively).
