Every holiday season, a battle between the world's top musicians takes place to see who can top the Christmas charts.
It’s a competition that's been immortalised through the years - even in movies. In 2003’s Love Actually, ageing rocker Billy Mac (played by Bill Nighy) attempts to get his Christmas cover of Love is All Around to the top of the charts over much younger and more popular boybands.
This year has been no different, so who were the top acts during 2022’s holiday season?
For Aotearoa, according to the streaming platform Spotify, on Christmas Eve, Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas Is You dominated Kiwi’s playlists as they prepared for Christmas day. It’s no surprise, as the song has become a quintessential part of the season since its 1994 release. The song has been streamed 1.4 billion times on Spotify.
Wham’s Last Christmas took second place in Aotearoa - Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree by Brenda Lee took the bronze.
Further afield, in the UK - where Christmas number one is a much bigger deal - LadBaby achieved the top spot for the fifth year in a row, breaking a record previously held by the Beatles.
The UK Youtubers released Food Aid, a cover of Do They Know it’s Christmas with the lyrics altered to be about sausage rolls and feeding the UK. All proceeds of the song are going to the Trussle Trust, a network of foodbanks across the UK.
Wham got second in the UK with The Sidemen, a collective of British influencers, beating Mariah Carey and Elton John for the number three spot with their song Christmas Drilling.
In the US Mariah entered her 56th week on the Billboard Hot 100 chart with All I Want For Christmas Is You cruising to the top, Brenda Lee took second with Kill Bill by SZA at number three.
Internationally, it’s all the usual suspects. According to the Billboard Global 200, Mariah Carey achieved her 26th week on the charts taking the top spot and Brenda Lee got second place with Wham! Taking third.
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