Mariah Carey Jingles Away with Top 5 Debut

Mariah Carey received an early Christmas present. The festive diva’s second holiday album in 16 years, Merry Christmas II You, makes a top 5 debut this week on the charts.


Led by the cheery single “Oh Santa!,” the new collection of holiday recordings entered at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 and No. 1 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart with 55,000 copies sold in its first week. This marks Mimi’s 16th album to bow in the top 10, putting her only behind Barbra Streisand (30) and Madonna (19) to have as many albums enter the territory in their first week out.

With a little more than a month to go until Christmas, the expectant mom bests the first week of her 1994 seasonal release Merry Christmas, which debuted at No. 30 with 45,000 units sold. The album went on to sell 12 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling X-mas CDs of all time.

Meanwhile, Taylor Swift maintains the No. 1 spot with another 320,000 copies sold of her latest Speak Now, while Lil Wayne’s I Am Not a Human Being dips to No. 5 and Eminem’s Recovery drops to No. 7.

On the Holiday Singles chart, Mariah holds down the top two spots with “Oh Santa!” and her classic “All I Want for Christmas Is You.”