USA
Billboard Report (excerpt)
Mariah Carey's carol notches 20th week at no.1
Tuesday, December 16, 2025
by Keith Caulfield & Gary Trust, Los Angeles

Mariah Carey's “All I Want for Christmas Is You” achieves a record-breaking 20th week at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, rewriting the mark for the longest reign over the chart’s 67-year

history. The song, originally released in 1994, surpasses the No. 1 runs of two hits that led the Hot 100 over one release cycle each: Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” in 2024, and Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road,” featuring Billy Ray Cyrus, in 2019. Carey claims the Hot 100’s No. 1 longevity record for a second time — In 1995-96, her and Boyz II Men’s “One Sweet Day” dominated for 16 weeks, a mark that stood on its own for more than 23 years, until it was tied by Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee’s “Despacito,” featuring Justin Bieber, in 2017, and then passed by “Old Town Road.” (She, thus, breaks the record with a song released before “One Sweet Day.”) “All I Want for Christmas Is You” became Carey’s 19th Hot 100 No. 1, the most among soloists and one away from the Beatles’ overall record 20. It also made Carey the first artist to have ranked at No. 1 on the chart in four distinct decades (1990s, 2000s, ‘10s and ‘20s). “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” on Columbia

Records / Legacy Recordings, drew 39.5 million streams (up 17%) and 22.6 million radio airplay audience impressions (up 1%) and sold 3,000 downloads (up 3%) in the U.S. Dec. 5-11, according to Luminate. The single holds for a record-extending 24th week atop the Streaming Songs chart; backtracks 21-23 on Radio Songs, where it has hit a No. 7 best; and dips 4-5 on Digital Song Sales, following six weeks at the summit. Carey collects her record-extending 99th week at No. 1 on the Hot 100, across her 20 leaders, dating to the chart’s inception. “All I Want for Christmas Is You” leads eight holiday songs in the Hot 100’s top 10, including the entire top five. Lee’s “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” dances 3-2 on the Hot 100; Wham!’s “Last Christmas,” from 1984, ranks at No. 3 a week after hitting a new No. 2 high; the late Bobby Helms’ “Jingle Bell Rock” holds at No. 4, with the 1957 release having reached No. 3; and Ariana Grande’s 2014 single “Santa Tell Me” rebounds three spots to its No. 5 best. Late legend Nat “King” Cole’s “The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas to You)” ascends 9-8 on the Hot 100, marking a new high for the chestnut that Cole first recorded in 1946. Kelly Clarkson’s “Underneath the Tree” reenters the Hot 100’s top 10, up two spots back to its No. 9 best. The 2013 release drew 26.7 million streams (up 20%), 10 million in airplay audience (up 1%) and 2,000 sold (up 22%) in the tracking week. The late Andy Williams’ “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year,” from 1963, keeps at No. 10 on the Hot 100, after reaching No. 5. Elsewhere in the Hot 100’s top 10, Huntr/x’s “Golden,” from Netflix’s KPop Demon Hunters, is the highest-charting non-holiday hit, down 5-6 after eight weeks at No. 1 beginning in August. Taylor Swift’s “The Fate of Ophelia” falls 6-7 on the Hot 100 after spending its first eight weeks at No. 1, having tied “Anti-Hero” for her longest-leading career hit. Her The Life of a Showgirl collects a ninth nonconsecutive week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart (dated Dec. 20), with 89,000 equivalent album units earned in the United States in the week ending Dec. 11 (down 10%). Of Swift’s 15 No. 1 albums, only three have spent more weeks at No. 1: The Tortured Poets Department (17), and 1989 and Fearless (each with 11). Of The Life of a Showgirl’s 89,000 equivalent album units earned in the latest tracking week, SEA units comprise 50,000 (down 5%, equaling 65.83 million on-demand official streams of the set’s tracks; falls 2-4 on Top Streaming Albums), album sales comprise 39,000 (down 16% — it rebounds 2-1 on Top Album Sales) and TEA units comprise less than 1,000 (down 4%). Former chart-toppers populate the rest of the top four on the Billboard 200, as Morgan Wallen's I’m the Problem is a non-mover at No. 2 with 74,000 equivalent album units earned (up 4%), the KPop Demon Hunters soundtrack is steady at No. 3 (67,000, up 1%) and Bublé’s Christmas climbs 6-4 (64,000, up 11%). Bing Crosby’s Ultimate Christmas ascends 7-5 with 59,000 equivalent album units (up 15%), while Nat King Cole’s The Christmas Song returns to the top 10 with an 11-6 jump (50,000, up 17%). Olivia Dean’s The Art of Loving bumps 8-7 (49,000, up 2%) and Vince Guaraldi Trio’s A Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack skates 9-8 (48,000, up 6%). A Christmas Gift for You From Phil Spector is back in the top 10 with a 13-9 increase (43,000, up 15%), while Stray Kids’ former No. 1 DO IT dips 4-10 in its third week (42,000, down 35%).

Record Of The Month
As the first salvo from her new album, Lux, Spanish reggaeton and flamenco artist Rosalíá has uncorked a dazzling opus featuring Björk, Yves Tumor and a full-on symphony orchestra.

United Kingdom
Music Week Report (excerpt)
'Last Christmas' tops an eleventh week
Monday, December 15, 2025
by Alan Jones, London
 
Unable to reach No.1 when it was first released more than four decades ago, Last Christmas is unable to stop reaching No.1 in the 2020s, rising inevitably and inexorably to pole position yet again this week for Wham! First released in 1984, as a double A-sided hit alongside Everything She Wants, Last Christmas

peaked at No.2 at the time for Wham!, behind Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas?. It finally topped the chart at the end of 2020, returning to the summit for two weeks the following year, adding four more weeks in 2023/4, and a further three in 2024/5. It jumps 3-1 this week on ACR-adjusted consumption of 42,470 units (80 CDs, 297 12-inch vinyl, 550 digital downloads and 41,543 sales-equivalent streams) – the lowest for a No.1 for 20 weeks. It simultaneously achieves unadjusted consumption of 84,013 units – 8.45% lower than its unadjusted tally for the same week last year. No.1 for the 11th time, it has spent longer at the summit than all but two of the other 84 songs that have taken turns at the apex in the 2020s, trailing Alex Warren’s Ordinary (13 weeks) and matching Ed Sheeran’s Bad Habits. Where Is My Husband! is No.2 for the third straight week for Raye – but its consumption of 37,677 units is the lowest of its 12-week chart tenure,

lowest of its 12-week chart tenure, the lowest for a No.2 for 16 weeks and a prelude to its relegation to ACR next week. Kelly Clarkson is in the Top 5 for the first time since 2011, with her belated fourth Top 5 hit, 2013 track Underneath The Tree climbing 9-5 (27,739 sales) to reach a new peak. Thirteen years old when she recorded Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree in 1958, Brenda Lee celebrated her 81st birthday some days ago. The song, which first charted in 1962, when it reached No.6, hit a new peak of No.4 in 2022, and again in 2024. It returns to that slot yet again this week (6-4, 33,278 sales). It also achieves quintuple platinum in the digital age, with unadjusted consumption of 66,305 units raising its overall tally since 2004 to 3,042,687 units. Defying the incessant creep of Christmas, Olivia Dean continues to have three songs in the Top 10, with So Easy (To Fall In Love) (5-6, 26,994 sales), Man I Need (8-7, 26,367 sales) and Sam Fender duet Rein Me In (7-9, 25,172 sales). So Easy (To Fall In Love) looks set to slump next week, however, as it enters ACR. In reality more popular, Man I Need is already on ACR, while Rein Me In is safe from ACR for at least three more weeks. With unadjusted consumption of 52,104 units, Man I Need is, in reality, the fifth most popular track on the chart, and the only one in the Top 10 of the Top 200 Combined Tracks chart that is not Christmas-related. The rest of the Top 10: All I Want For Christmas Is You (4-3, 36,135 sales) by Mariah Carey, Fairytale Of New York (12-8, 25,883 sales) by The Pogues feat. Kirsty MacColl and Jingle Bell Rock (14-10, 25,003 sales) by Bobby Helms. Overall singles consumption is up 1.07% week-on-week to 32,365,276 units, their highest level for 30 weeks and 3.59% above same week 2024 consumption of 31,243,045 units. Paid-for sales are down 1.85% week-on-week at 272,561, 2.15% below same week 2024 sales of 278,555. A decade after Kylie Christmas reached No.12 for Kylie Minogue, its 10th anniversary is marked by the release of Kylie Christmas (Fully Wrapped), which dashes to a No.1 debut on consumption of 23,279 units (10,125 CDs, 9,510 vinyl albums, 1,441 cassettes, 1,057 digital downloads and 1,146 sales-equivalent streams). It becomes the first album of seasonal material to reach No.1 for a female solo artist since Susan Boyle topped with The Gift in 2010. The original Kylie Christmas has already undergone several incarnations, and the Fully Wrapped edition has both omissions and additions, most pertinently showcasing new tracks Hot In December, This Time Of Year and Office Party and Amazon-exclusive XMAS. Ineligible to be combined with the previous releases, it is Minogue’s 22nd Top 10, and 11th No.1 in an album chart career that spans 37 years. Her previous No.1s: studio albums Kylie (1988), Enjoy Yourself (1989), Fever (2001), Aphrodite (2010), Golden (2018), Disco (2020), Tension (2023), Tension II (2024) and compilations Greatest Hits (1992) and Step Back In Time: The Definitive Collection (2019). One of 17 acts to have 10 or more No.1 albums hitherto, the 57-year-old is now one of 12 to have 11 or more – with just seven acts ahead of her – and the only Australian. In all of its previous incarnations, Kylie Christmas has total consumption of 176,868 units. Number one on debut 41 weeks ago, People Watching catapults 34-3 (14,443 sales) for Sam Fender, after being released in a new edition which adds eight tracks, most notably the duet version of Rein Me In, with Olivia Dean, and Elton John collaboration, Talk To You. In the Top 100 continuously since release, People Watching is in third place in Fender’s list of most-consumed albums, with 263,598 units, behind his other studio albums and No.1s, 2019 debut Hypersonic Missiles (558,650 units) and 2021 follow-up, Seventeen Going Under (476,838 units). The rest of the Top 10: The Art Of Loving (1-2, 20,233 sales) by Olivia Dean, The Life Of A Showgirl (2-4, 11,442 sales) by Taylor Swift, Christmas (4-5, 11,320 sales) by Michael Bublé, Man’s Best Friend (3-6, 9,800 sales) by Sabrina Carpenter, So Close To What (5-7, 7,703 sales) by Tate McRae, 50 Years: Don’t Stop (7-8, 7,373 sales) by Fleetwood Mac, The Highlights (8-9, 7,134 sales) by The Weeknd and Rumours (13-10, 6,556 sales) by Fleetwood Mac. Rumours has improved its position for three weeks in a row, and is back in the Top 10 for the first time in 85 weeks. Overall album sales are up 1.63% week-on-week at 2,902,774 units, 3.14% above same week 2024 sales of 2,814,503. Physical product accounts for 617,860 sales, 21.29% of the total.