In my house today, we’re hopefully finally getting our Christmas tree decorated, and hitting up the internet to buy a few more A Year of Good Black News 2022 calendars for our friends and family. And in the background, of course, we’ll absolutely need those holiday tunes.
Last holiday season, one of our most popular playlists was our “Ultimate Soul of the Season Christmas Soundtrack.“ The inspiration behind it was to capture the mood of those radio stations that take the month of December to turn all Christmas, all the time.
The playlist is comprised of best in soulful Christmas music, in addition to a variety of Black artists in other genres ranging from blues to jazz to pop vocals to country. If you didn’t get the chance to subscribe to it last year, this year we’ve upgraded and improved the playlist, with our special ‘Deluxe Edition’ version:
The playlist ranges from the 1940s to today, from obvious beloved faves (Donny Hathaway, The Temptations, Nat King Cole) to obscure gems that could have been hits.
Now, we’ve got more than 60 new songs woven into the mix, including veteran oldies that are new to Spotify, as well as great new 2020 and 2021 Christmas tracks from artists like Bryson Tiller, Black Pumas, Summer Walker, Ty Dolla $ign, John Legend, and Tamela Mann.
Promising newcomers include vocal coach Stevie Mackey, repped with multiple songs on our list. And Sabrina Claudio, whose recent Christmas collection managed to score duets with The Weeknd and Alicia Keys, both songs added to the list.
Of course, up near the top of the list, we’ve added Queen of Christmas Mariah Carey‘s lush new song with Khalid and Kirk Franklin, “Fall In Love At Christmas.”
So, get the fireplace going, the cookies baking, the presents wrapping, and the stockings hanging by the chimney with care – with some soulful tunes to make the whole month festive. Enjoy!