Jose Mari Chan and Mariah Carey, the Christmas royalty

Here in the Philippines, the No. 1 Filipino song of Christmas 2022 is doubtless Christmas in our Hearts by Jose Mari Chan. What again? Well, there is really no stopping this annual merry-go-round.

Credit that to JMC’s commercial endorsements, performances, those user generated cover versions and memes online, the constant playing from your neighbors’ player and other sources all helped to make the 32-year-old song once again a top Yuletide seller.

It also helped that the hitmaking American a cappella group Pentatonix came up with its own version of Christmas in our Hearts, featuring no less than our very own Tony winning Broadway and West End star Lea Salonga. A lot of the feedback I got says that the original recording is still what most listeners prefer. But I say, who cares?

What our music industry needs is global exposure. With this recording, every PTX fan who listened to the album, Holidays Around the World, also got to listen to Christmas in our Hearts and maybe liked it. Who knows, now that it is on the world’s stage, other artists might also want to include Christmas in our Hearts in their own Holiday albums. Another cover by a major foreign act will surely open a lot of doors for Filipino talents. We would really like that very much.

Elsewhere the queen of Christmas Mariah Carey has once again set a new record for her Holiday ditty, All I Want for Christmas is You. The song, which was released in 1994, is now the longest-running Christmas song in the hit charts. It was streamed over 21 million times on Spotify last Christmas Eve and last week once more made No. 1 in the Hot 100.

Mariah has once again set a new record for All I Want for Christmas is You, which is now the longest-running Christmas song in the hit charts. It was streamed over 21 million times on Spotify last Christmas Eve and last week once more made No. 1 in the Hot 100.

Why so? I think this is because All I Want for Christmas is You is a combination of no fail ingredients. It is a love song. It is a Christmas tune. And that something that a lot of Holiday carols lack, it is danceable. So, until another one comes along, Mariah will stay at No. 1 come Christmastime.

By the way, I noticed that because of the massive success of All I want for Christmas is You, Americans have also taken to timing their Yuletide celebration with the return of Mariah’s song to the airlanes.  This year, Mariah came out online in a video the day after Halloween. She was seen breaking two pumpkins in a declaration that Halloween is over and the Christmas celebration has officially begun. In a way, that is what we do with JMC, who returns from “hibernation” every year to declare that the Christmas season is now open.

Here now are the sounds of our 2022 Christmas as tabulated by the Philippine Music Charts:

All I Want for Christmas is You by Mariah Carey; Santa Tell Me by Ariana Grande; Mistletoe by Justin Bieber; It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas by Michael Bublé; Last Christmas by Wham; Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree by Brenda Lee; Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow by Dean Martin; Jingle Bell Rock by Bobby Helms; Underneath the Tree by Kelly Clarkson; Christmas in our Hearts by Jose Mari Chan.

It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year by Andy Williams; Christmas Tree by V; Snowman by SZA; It’s a Holly Jolly Christmas, also by Bublé; Only Wish by Britney Spears; I’ll Be Home for Christmas by Tate McRae; Make It to Christmas by Alessia Cara; Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree again, but this time by Justin Bieber; You Make It Feel Like Christmas by Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton; and Merry Christmas by Ed Sheeran.