The holiday season is my favorite time of the year for many reasons. The decorations, the food, the way even the air feels different once November rolls around; but, by far, my favorite part of this season is the music. Once Halloween is over and the clock hits midnight, signaling the start of November, my playlist is flooded with Christmas music. My go-to holiday albums for the past few years have been Ariana Grande’s Christmas and Chill and Sabrina Carpenter’s fruitcake. To me, these are the perfect holiday EPs, filled with fun pop singles that make you get up and dance, all excited for the holiday season. However, these EP’s have been out for a long time, with Ariana releasing hers all the way back in 2015 while Sabrina released fruitcake in 2023 and performed the songs last year in her Netflix holiday special. I’m itching for a new holiday EP, and I already have three artists in mind who I think would do a fantastic job.
Rauw Alejandro
Rauw Alejandro is one of the most popular artists in Puerto Rico at the moment, and I think that a holiday album would be the perfect project for him to tackle next. Between 2024 and 2025, Rauw released his albums Cosa Nuestra and Cosa Nuestra: Capítulo 0. The second half of the Cosa Nuestra saga showed what Rauw could do with genres outside of reggaetón, like salsa, bachata, and bomba. Since Rauw seems to be incorporating different styles of Puerto Rican music into his albums, I think a holiday EP would be the perfect next step for him. An EP filled with traditional Puerto Rican “aguinaldos” and “villancicos” blended with his signature style is something I’d love to see. If he were to tackle this, he could potentially create the next classic holiday hymn that will be played at every holiday party.
Olivia Dean
Olivia Dean’s music has taken over my mind ever since she released her sophomore album The Art of Loving. Olivia’s voice and music has such a unique quality to it that blends pop and soul so beautifully and makes each song on the album a certified hit. The second I heard her sing, I thought that she’d do great on a holiday album. Her pop and neo-soul blend makes me think that she’d shine in tracks like the ones Michael Bublé or Burt Ives sing. Olivia’s lyrical ability is also one of the reasons why I think she should release a holiday album. She has a way of capturing emotions within her lyrics that make you feel everything so deeply. For example, in her newest album, The Art of Loving, she wrote one of the most beautiful love songs I’ve ever heard without mentioning the word love once in its entirety. While I went through her discography, I discovered that Olivia actually does have two holiday songs out: Merry Christmas Everyone and The Christmas Song. This fact gives me hope that maybe she’s open to recording a full album one day, instead of just a couple of singles. If that day ever does come, I’ll be the first to stream each song at least a thousand times.
Hozier
Last, but certainly not least, we have Hozier. For his appearance in last year’s Saturday Night Live holiday special, Hozier did a rendition of the song Fairytale of New York. Ever since then, I’ve been obsessed with the thought of him releasing a full holiday album. Hozier is known for his folk style and the way he mixes pieces of literature and culture into his music. His last album, Unreal/Unearth, was inspired by Dante’s Inferno, and each song is said to fall into one of the circles of Hell that the author mentions in his novel. A holiday album from Hozier would be full of folklore and mythology surrounding the holidays and its origins, told in the most poetic way with the most moving track to complete it. Out of the three artists on this list, Hozier’s the one who takes the longest time between albums as he’s released only three albums in the last ten years. However, I’ll still hold out hope that one day he’ll release a holiday EP or at least a holiday song.
These are just a few of my picks for artists who should release holiday albums. Even though they don’t have holiday music out right now, their discographies are still exceptional and I hope you’ll think about giving them a listen after reading this article. If one day any of them decide to release a project like this, I know I’ll be the first in line to listen.