Christmas has come early: John Legend to release a holiday album
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- Hannah-Rose Yee
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Because what the world needs now is to hear the singer serenade us with his jazzy version of The Christmas Song.
Warm up the eggnog and get that ugly jumper out from the back of your wardrobe! John Legend is releasing an album of Christmas songs.
The singer is in the processes of putting the finishing touches on a record dedicated to jazzy, soulful spins on some of the most iconic holiday songs of all time including The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire), Silver Bells and Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.
Stevie Wonder will appear as a guest artist on one track, there are a bunch of original festive season tunes penned by Legend himself, and the whole thing will be released at the end of October, followed by the requisite holiday season tour.
But we haven’t even told you the best bit! Guess what the album is going to be called? A Legendary Christmas. (What else?)
This winter, get ready for A Legendary Christmas! I have a brand new Christmas album coming out accompanied by #ALegendaryChristmas Tour! Sign up for pre-sale TODAY only and pre-sale begins tomorrow at 10AM local time. Full dates & sign up for pre-sale on https://t.co/MZfQeI5fx4 pic.twitter.com/WUtaF9eoyd
— John Legend (@johnlegend) October 1, 2018
It’s a pretty savvy decision from Legend, whose warm, honey-smooth voice could not be more suited to easy-listening Christmas fare. The whole thing is going to sound just perfect blasted from your phone as you prepare the ham or boil a pudding or, you know, make mulled wine come Christmas eve.
Only time will tell whether or not A Legendary Christmas will enter the pantheon of great Christmas albums right alongside Mariah Carey’s Merry Christmas, Kylie Minogue’s Kylie Christmas, SIA’s Everyday Is Christmas and Wham’s Five Songs of Christmas.
The gold standard, though, is Canadian crooner Michael Buble’s festive season record, imaginatively titled Christmas. When it was released in 2011 it spent three weeks at number one in the UK charts, and every year since has returned to the top 10 in the lead up to 25 December. In total, it has sold more than 2.6 million copies and is the 21st highest selling album of the 2000s in the UK.
Let’s see if John Legend can top that.
Images: Getty