# Mariah Carey, WHAM! or Brenda Lee: Who’s Off to the Early Lead in the Christmas Streaming Race?

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/mariah-carey-wham-or-brenda-lee-whos-off-to-the-early-lead-in-the-christmas-streaming-race/
- Published: 2026-11-11T20:43:44+00:00
- Updated: 2026-11-11T21:25:59+00:00
- Original publisher: Billboard
- Original article: https://www.billboard.com/music/chart-beat/mariah-carey-wham-christmas-streaming-race-1236379567/
- Topics: Culture, Entertainment, Travel, Trending, TV, Weird & Viral

## Key points

- Carey narrowly led the opening week of Christmas streaming.
- Wham! moved ahead in early November figures.
- Brenda Lee trailed with 7.38 million streams.

## Summary

Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” narrowly led US Christmas song streaming in the first week of November, just ahead of Wham!’s “Last Christmas”. The close race matters because both songs returned to the Billboard Hot 100, with Wham! gaining ground as the holiday season began.

From 1 to 7 November, Carey’s song drew nearly 9.99 million on-demand US streams, compared with almost 9.98 million for “Last Christmas”; Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” had 7.38 million. Early figures for 8 and 9 November put Wham! ahead, with 3.1 million streams to Carey’s 2.9 million. “Last Christmas” was also up 17% year on year for the first week of November, while Carey’s total was down 4%; a George Michael concert film and the 10th anniversary of his death fall in December.

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Summarised by TalkFuse (https://talkfuse.com/). Quote the original publisher for the reporting and link this page for the summary and discussion.