Christmas (Michael Bublé album)


Christmas is the seventh studio album and first Christmas album released by Canadian singer Michael Bublé. The album was released on October 21, 2011, in Ireland, on October 24, 2011, in the United Kingdom, and on October 25, 2011, in the United States. Receiving generally positive reviews from critics, Christmas is Bublé's most successful album with more than 16 million copies worldwide as of January 2022, making it one of the best-selling albums of the 21st century and one of the best-selling Christmas albums worldwide.
On the week ending December 10, 2011, Christmas rose to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 album sales chart, becoming Bublé's third chart-topper following 2007's Call Me Irresponsible and 2009's Crazy Love, and spent five weeks at No. 1. Over the years, the album has reached number one in twenty international charts, including Australia, Germany, Italy and United Kingdom. The album also won a Juno Award for Album of the Year, making it the first holiday album to win the award.
The album was re-released on November 26, 2012, containing four additional tracks, including a new recording of "The Christmas Song". Bublé also released a reworked version of "White Christmas", this time featuring Shania Twain, as a single. This version premiered on Bublé's NBC television special, Home for the Holidays, on December 10, 2012.

Background

The album is Bublé's second Christmas-themed release after he released a five-track extended play, titled Let It Snow in 2003. Some of the songs from Let It Snow have been re-recorded for inclusion on Christmas, making Christmas his first full-length holiday release. For the album, Bublé teamed up with several well-known artists to record duets. His duet version of "White Christmas" with country music singer Shania Twain was based on an early arrangement by The Drifters, while his recording of "Jingle Bells" with the Puppini Sisters was based on the 1943 recording of Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters. He also teamed up with Latin star Thalía for a recording of "Feliz Navidad". Bublé also recorded covers of Mariah Carey's "All I Want for [Christmas Is You]", and "Blue Christmas", and a brand new track, "Cold December Night", written with his longtime co-writer Alan Chang and producer Bob Rock.

Promotion

The album's track listing was unveiled by Bublé on September 27, 2011. Bublé filmed several music videos in order to promote the album, including videos for the tracks "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town", the lead single "All I Want for Christmas Is You", "Holly Jolly Christmas", "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)", "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas", and "Jingle Bells". Bublé also appeared to perform during the final of the eighth series of The X Factor in the United Kingdom on December 11, 2011. Bublé's recording of "All I Want for Christmas Is You" was also featured in a montage on ABC-TV's General Hospital that aired on December 23, 2011.

Specials

On December 6, 2011, Bublé promoted the album in the United States with the broadcast of an NBC television special, A Michael Bublé Christmas, a show produced by Ben Silverman. The special was viewed by more than 7.07 million viewers, receiving a 1.5 rating and 4% share among adults between the ages of 18 and 49. In Canada, the special was viewed by 1.533 million viewers, ranking the seventeenth most watched programme overall for the week. Zap2it reviewed the special, and claimed it to be "one of the year's television guilty pleasures". On December 18, 2011, Bublé promoted the album in the United Kingdom with the broadcast of an ITV1 television special, Michael Bublé: Home for Christmas. The special featured guest appearances from comedian Dawn French, duet performances with both Kelly Rowland and Gary Barlow, and a cooking tutorial with Gino D'Acampo. The special pulled in 5.7 million viewers, and was the third most-watched ITV Christmas special of the season.
Bublé later announced that he was to film another NBC special, titled Michael Bublé: Home for the Holidays, featuring guest appearances from Rod Stewart, Blake Shelton, and Carly Rae Jepsen. The special aired on December 10, 2012; and was watched by 5.66 million American viewers, receiving a 1.4/4 18-49 rating/share.
On October 18, 2013, it was announced that Bublé would feature in a third Christmas special on December 18, 2013, via NBC. Guest stars featuring in the special included Mariah Carey, Mary J. Blige and Cookie Monster.

Reception

Christmas received generally positive reviews from critics. Mike Diver of BBC News, although he found the album "a predictable programme", prised that Bublé "does the classics to an accomplished standard and everything is professionally packaged" and described the vocals "smooth and steady, his lines wrap around these familiar pieces like fine ribbon around a promisingly shaped gift".
Sal Cinquemani, on his list of "The 21 Best Christmas Albums of the 21st Century" for Billboard, ranked the album as the 20th, writing that the album "become one of his generation’s most popular holiday crooners".Entertainment Weekly ranked the album 18th on its list of the "Best Christmas Albums of all Time", writing that the album express "Bublé at his best" because he "recall singers from another time while establishing him as one of the present pinnacles of the holiday".

Controversy

Years after the album's release, Bublé has been widely criticized for his choice to change the pronouns of love interests in songs written about men so as to reinforce his heterosexual identity, most notably in his cover of “Santa Baby”, which one critic calls “particularly irritating…because he changes the lyrics to make sure everyone knows he is not attracted to Santa. just leads to unbelievably awkward phrases like ‘Santa buddy,’ ‘Santa pally,’ and the truly awful ‘I'll wait up for you, dude.’”

Commercial performance

On November 5, 2011, Christmas debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 charts in the United States, with first-week sales of 141,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan. In its fifth week on the chart, the album climbed to No. 1, and held the top spot for the following four weeks, becoming Bublé's biggest selling chart-topper yet by beating the two-week reign of his previous album, Crazy Love. Christmas also sold 479,000 copies in the album's third week at No. 1, which marked Bublé's best sales week ever. On the album's tenth week on the album charts, and with Christmas having passed, the album fell to No. 24 on January 14, 2012. As of January 2017 it shares the sixth-largest drop from #1 with Blue Slide Park by Mac Miller.
For the year, Christmas sold 2,452,000 copies in the United States, according to SoundScan, and was the second best-selling album of the year, just behind Adele's blockbuster album 21. In 2012, Christmas sold an additional 622,000 copies in the U.S. according to SoundScan, and was the second best-selling holiday album of the year. By December 4, 2017, the album had sold 4,129,000 copies in the United States, making it his best selling album in the country. As of December 2022, the album had sold 4,500,000 copies in United States.
In Canada, the album debuted at No. 2 on the Canadian Albums Chart, selling 37,000 copies in its first week. In its third week of release, the album climbed to No. 1, selling an additional 32,000 copies. As of December 14, 2011, the album has sold 444,000 copies in Canada.
Christmas also debuted at number 2 in Australia on October 31, 2011. The album has since been certified double Diamond by the Australian Recording Industry Association for shipments of over 910,000 copies. It hit number 1 in December 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014. It reached number 2 in 2015, being held off from the top spot by Adele's 25. In 2016, the album peaked at number 2 in December, then hit number 1 for the fifth time in the week of January 2, 2017. During the Christmas season of 2017, it peaked at number 4 in early December. In December 2019, it hit number 1 in Australia for the sixth time, becoming the first album to top the ARIA albums chart at six separate times in different years. Christmas was listed as the second best selling album of the 2010s in Australia.
Despite competition from Snow Patrol's album Fallen Empires, Christmas peaked at No. 1 on the UK Albums Chart. It sold 1,292,000 copies in the UK in 2011, making it the second best-selling album of 2011. It is the first seasonal album to chart within the top 10 three years in a row, as it charted at number one in 2011, at number two in 2012, and at number seven in 2013. As of December 2021, the album is the best-selling holiday album in the UK, selling over 3 million copies. The album returned to No. 1 for a fourth non-consecutive week on 1 January 2021, nine years after its initial three-week run at the top in 2011 and became the first album to disappear from the No. 1 spot on the UK albums chart on 8 January 2021.

Track listing

Information is based on the album's liner notes.
;Notes
  • The Subliminal 9 are Caco Cocci, Steve Hartley, Paul Kirzner, Carsten Love, Lanny McVeigh, Derek Nyrose, Brad Openshaw, Ron Toigo and Rob Ubles.

Personnel

Information is based on the album's liner notes.
;Production
  • David Foster – producer
  • Bob Rock – producer ; audio mixing
  • Humberto Gatica – producer, recording engineer, audio mixing
  • Al Schmitt – recording engineer, audio mixing
  • Nicholas Essig – assistant recording engineer
  • Steve Genewick – assistant recording engineer
  • Eric Helmkamp – recording engineer, audio mixing
  • Chris Lord-Alge – audio mixing
  • Eric Mosher – assistant recording engineer
  • Cristian Robles – recording engineer
  • Paul Smith – assistant recording engineer
  • Jorge Vivo – recording engineer
  • Brian Warwick – additional recording engineer