Mariah Carey, WHAM! or Brenda Lee: Who’s Off to the Early Lead in the Christmas Streaming Race?
Billboard ·
This week's Trending Up looks at the first post-Halloween returns from the holiday heavy hitters, plus a revived favorite from a newly elected official and more.
Welcome to Billboard Pro’s Trending Up newsletter, where we take a closer look at the songs, artists, curiosities and trends that have caught the music industry’s attention. Some have come out of nowhere, others have taken months to catch on, and all of them could become ubiquitous in the blink of a TikTok clip.
This week: A Christmas preview starring Mariah Carey and George Michael, as well as a victory boost for one winner from the midterms’ Blue Wave, and a couple new viral breakout hits.
As soon as the calendar turns the page from October to November, you know what that means: Mariah Carey will be coming out of her warm-weather hibernation to declare the holiday season commenced. The tradition continued this year, with Carey posting her traditional “It’s Time” video on Nov. 1 — this time with her as a black-clad hard-rocker converted to mirth and merriment by the Christmas spirit.
Unsurprisingly, Carey’s Yuletide perennial “All I Want for Christmas Is You” has gotten off to an early lead among all Holiday-themed songs on streaming. The song attracted nearly 9.99 million official on-demand U.S. streams for seven-day period of Nov. 1-7, according to Luminate — down about 4 percent from the same period in 2025, according to Luminate, but still enough to give it the slimmest of margins over Wham! ‘s “Last Christmas,” which racked up nearly 9.98 million streams over the same period. (Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” the other most frequently recurring holiday favorite at the top of the charts, ranked comfortably behind them with 7.38 million.)
But Wham! may already be surging ahead in the race. “Last Christmas” scored a combined 3.1 million streams over Oct. 8-9, according to early data provided by Luminate, which is 7% more than the 2.9 million “All I Want” notched over the same timespan. And of the three heaviest-hitters, “Last Christmas” is the only one that is significantly up year-over-year from 2025 — with its Nov. 1-7 tally up 17% from the same period last year. (“Last Christmas” has a couple timing-related boosts on its side this year, with the George Michael: The Faith Tour concert documentary celebrating the Wham! singer’s biggest solo tour coming to theaters in December, and the 10th anniversary of Michael’s 2016 death — on Christmas day, no less — also coming this year.)
As the race heats up on the Billboard Hot 100 — with both songs returning to the chart this week (dated Nov. 14), and “Last Christmas” leading “All I Want for Christmas Is You” No. 37 to No. 39 — all eyes will be on Mariah and Wham! to see who mounts the star atop the Billboard Christmas tree. Will “Last Christmas” finally secure its first-ever week at No. 1, or will Carey dominate the season again, as she has the great majority of Christmases since 2019? Stay tuned to Billboard for the rest of the 2026 calendar. — ANDREW UNTERBERGER
You might’ve missed it among the countless headlines declaring the many victories for democrats in the 2026 midterm elections — even those specifically about the state of Texas — but among the dems elected to office in the Lone Star State this month was congressman Bobby Pulido . If that name feels familiar from a Billboard perspective, it’s because before launching his campaign in 2025, Pulido enjoyed a decades-spanning career as a successful Tejano musician, charting on Top Latin Albums and Hot Latin Songs during his ’90s heyday.
Listeners were certainly reminded of Pulido’s career in the aftermath of his election to the House of Representatives (from Texas’ 15th Congressional District) earlier this month. In the three-day period (Nov. 4-6) following the Nov. 3 elections, Pulido’s catalog amassed 3.7 million official on-demand U.S. streams, up 211% from the three-day period before the election (Oct. 31-Nov. 2). The biggest gains were claimed by Pulido’s 1996 hit “Desvelado” — already an enduring streaming hit, pulling in a couple million streams a week — which racked up 2.1 million streams on its own over that same post-election period, up 181% from the same pre-election period.
Meanwhile, “Choosin’ Texas” remains No. 1 for a 27th week on the Hot 100 — further demonstrating which state the Billboard charts reside deep in the heart of this November. — AU
Post-hardcore band Nova Charisma is yet to hit the Billboard charts, but the trio is well on its way thanks to its TikTok-viral “Stolen from Each Other.”
According to Luminate, “Stolen” earned 1.54 million official on-demand U.S. streams during the period of Oct. 30-Nov. 5, marking an incredible 1,921% jump from the 76,000 streams it pulled three weeks prior during Oct. 9-15.
Most of the “Stolen” streaming growth is due to its popularity over the past month on TikTok, where the song currently ranks at No. 1 on the platform’s Top 50 chart with uses in over 2.3 million posts. The main trend driving this popularity is a baby picture trend , which finds users pairing vintage childhood photos with the nostalgia-inducing intro of “Stolen.” Notably, the most popular snippet of the song includes the opening line “Whenever I drive through your hometown, I close my eyes,” but cuts out right before the next words: “and hope to crash.”
“Stolen” appears on the band’s 2024 debut full-length studio album, Metropolitan , which arrived via Equal Vision Records. — KYLE DENIS
JT may have been a frequent topic during former City Girls member Yung Miami’s rollout of her debut solo album Watch Dis — and fans have funneled that attention to streaming love for a City Cinderella deep cut.
Over the past three weeks, “DOD” has leapt 73% in streaming activity, collecting over 388,000 official on-demand U.S. streams during the period of Oct. 30-Nov. 5, according to Luminate. That improves upon the 224,000 official streams the song pulled during the period of Oct. 9-15, already a 280% gain from the numbers it pulled three weeks prior (59,000 streams across Sept. 18-24).
While City Cinderella , JT ’s debut solo mixtape, managed a No. 5 debut on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums in 2024, the big hit from that project was “Okay,” which reached No. 72 on the Hot 100. “DOD” is a similarly club-ready cut that’s earned a TikTok-driven resurgence thanks to viral dance trends from users @/7wayslasher ( launched on Oct. 15) and @/daydayrob444 ( launched on Oct. 28). On TikTok, the official “DOD” audio plays in over 39,000 posts, while select unofficial sounds containing bits of the song play in over 76,000 clips.
“DOD” definitely caters to the ladies, but the guys on TikTok have adjusted the choreography to fit their comfort — with one user even recording an unofficial remix flipping the entire song to a male point of view with the title “Dance Inna Coochie.” JT actually responded to that remix with a video captioned, “Leave my s—t alone frfr,” garnering 1.1 million likes and her fifth-most-viewed TikTok of all time (5.6 million).
JT may still be perfecting Club Cheetah , her forthcoming debut solo album, but it’s clear that the streets are ready whenever she is. — KD