Mariah Carey has cemented her status as the “queen of Christmas“, and it seems that South Africans also can’t get enough of the megastar during the festivities.
The global icon’s holiday hit, “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” is the top-streamed song on Spotify during the holiday season in the country so far.
The ’90s Christmas hit was also the popular holiday song on the streaming service globally.
In addition, data from the music-streaming service, from the first week of November to December 6, revealed that The Kiboomers is this season’s top-streamed holiday artist in South Africa.
The musical group is renowned for their educational children’s songs.
Meanwhile, Spotify added that the top-streamed Christmas album globally this year is “Christmas” by Michael Bublé, which is also their most-streamed holiday album of all time.
Bublé is followed by Carey, Bing Crosby, Ariana Grande and Frank Sinatra as Spotify’s top-streamed holiday artists.
As for the soundtrack of the season Spotify said: “It’s a battle for the ages among the season’s most-streamed holiday tracks – with songs from the ’90’s, ’80s and ’50s all making the top five list.”
The Spotify data also revealed that this year’s top global tracks over the Christmas period so far are:
– “All I Want for Christmas Is You” by Mariah Carey (1994)
– “Last Christmas” by Wham! (1984)
– “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree” by Brenda Lee (1958)
– “Jingle Bell Rock” by Bobby Helms (1957)
– “Santa Tell Me” by Ariana Grande (2014).
Meanwhile, the most popular Christmas songs on Spotify in South Africa differ slightly in comparison to listeners across the world. They are:
– “All I Want for Christmas Is You” by Mariah Carey (1994)
– “Last Christmas” by Wham! (1984)
– “Santa Tell Me” by Ariana Grande (2014)
– “Snowman” by Sia (2017)
– “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree” by Brenda Lee (1958).
And when it comes to newer holiday hits which were released in the past five years, these are the songs that are leading streams globally on Spotify:
– “Merry Christmas” by Ed Sheeran and Elton John
– “Santa, Can’t You Hear Me” by Ariana Grande and Kelly Clarkson
– “Christmas Tree Farm” by Taylor Swift
– “Like It’s Christmas” by The Jonas Brothers
– “Winter Wonderland – Spotify Singles” by Laufey.
Other notable findings from the Spotify Christmas data was that holiday playlist creation by the music streaming service’s listeners spiked by over a whopping 1 400% since the start of November.
Spotify added that apart from December, holiday music streams this year spiked most on November 26 – and around the world, fans stream holiday music the most on Sundays.
The streaming service added that they have several festive playlists which can keep the merriment flowing.
They include: “Christmas Hits”, “Christmas Classics”, “Country Christmas”, “New Music Holiday” and “Snow Globe”.