Mariah Carey Replaces Herself at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top R&B Albums Chart

Mariah Carey is making history…

The 48-year-old Half-Venezuelan American singer has become the first artist to replace herself at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top R&B Albums chart since its inception in 2012.

Mariah Carey

The diva’s Merry Christmas leaps 4-1 on the ranking dated December 8 and deposes her own LP, Caution, which slips 1-8 in its second week.

Merry Christmas, released in 1994, earned 24,000 equivalent album units in the week ending November 29, according to Nielsen Music, while Caution netted 14,000 units sold.

As MerryChristmas ascends, Carey collects her third leader on the chart, following Me. I Am Mariah…The Elusive Chanteuse, a one-week champ in 2014 and Caution.

In addition to its Top R&B Albums coronation, Merry Christmas also rallies 24-9 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart and 50-19 on the Billboard 200.

Nearly 25 years after its debut, Merry Christmas consistently remains one of the top performing holiday albums each year, with its success largely traceable to “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” virtually a modern standard in the holiday catalog.

“All I Want for Christmas Is You” also makes its annual return to several Billboard charts, including a 29-14 surge on the Billboard Hot 100 and a 30-8 roar on Streaming Songs. The tune also inaugurates this year’s first edition of the seasonal Holiday 100 chart in a familiar spot — No. 1 — for its 31st week overall.

Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” Returns to No. 1 on Billboard’s Holiday 100

Mariah Carey is the Queen of Christmas…

The 44-year-old half-Venezuelan actress has dashed her way back to the No. 1 spot on Billboard‘s Holiday 100 songs chart with her modern classic “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” which moves up from 2-1.

Mariah Carey

Since the Holiday 100 launched in December 2011, “Christmas” is the only song that has reigned in each season.

It tallies its 14th week at the summit, of 18 total weeks that the chart has been tabulated.

“Christmas” reclaims the Holiday 100 summit despite not leading any of the chart’s main component rankings. It places at No. 2 on Holiday Digital Songs, with 37,000 downloads sold (down 3 percent), according to Nielsen Music; No. 3 on Holiday Airplay (25.3 million in radio audience, up 18 percent); and No. 4 on Holiday Streaming Songs (2.1 million U.S. streams, up 19 percent).

Still, its balanced points spread is enough to dethrone Pentatonix‘s “Mary, Did You Know?” after two weeks atop the Holiday 100. (The only songs to lead the list other than “Christmas” and “Mary”: Pentatonix’s “Little Drummer Boy,” on December 21, 2013, and Justin Bieber‘s “Mistletoe,” on January 7, 2012.)

“To me, it’s kind of a cosmic occurrence that happens once every five billion years,” Walter Afanasieff, who co-wrote “Christmas” with Carey in 1994, told Billboard in October of the song’s perennial success. “We feel lucky, because it was the last major song to enter that Christmas canon. Then the door slammed shut. [Although] I’m sure there’s going to be another one; there has to be.”

“Christmas,” says Afanasieff, “just keeps growing and growing. I believe [it] will be the most successful, popular Christmas song of all time.”

Maldonado’s Pentatonix Makes History on the Billboard Holiday Charts

Kirstie Maldonado is making holiday history while spreading Christmas cheer…

The half-Mexican American/part-Spanish singer and her fellow Pentatonix group members, who earned their first-ever Grammy nomination on Friday, have become the first act to top both of Billboard’s seasonal charts simultaneously.

Pentatonix

Pentatonix’s “Mary, Did You Know?” tops the Billboard Holiday 100 chart this week. The Christmas song actually earned top debut honors on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Meanwhile, the group – the winners of NBC’s The Sing-Off – command the Billboard Top Holiday Albums chart for a sixth week with That’s Christmas to Me (227,000 sold, up 129 percent, according to Nielsen Music). It’s led the chart since its November 8 debut.

Additionally, That’s Christmas to Me is the first album by a group to notch as many as six straight weeks at No. 1 on Top Holiday Albums since Hanson‘s Snowed In likewise blanketed the list for six weeks in 1997-98.

“Mary” marks Pentatonix’s second Holiday 100 No. 1: “Little Drummer Boy” topped the Dec. 21, 2013, chart.