Brett Eldredge On Being ‘Mr. Christmas,’ Getting Kelly Clarkson’s Attention

Brett Eldredge has the country music title "Mr. Christmas." He feels so good about the title he named his 2021 Christmas album Mr. Christmas. His first Christmas album, Glow, in 2016, got rave reviews and forever cemented him as "Mr. Christmas." As an annual Christmas-time tradition, Brett's "Glow LIVE" has been rolling with back-to-back shows in New York City, Boston, and Chicago. Eldredge began the tour in Nashville with two sellout shows at Nashville Ryman Auditorium a few weeks back.

Brett recently chatted with Apple and shared what inspired him to do his first-holiday album in 2016, "I grew up being the kid that would crank up Christmas music at 7:00 AM when everybody else is asleep, waking everybody up with Bing Crosby and Nat King Cole like, 'it's time to do this thing.' I would be the guy that would listen really early, decorate the tree with the family, kind of all the classic Christmas things. I just loved every part of it. Where some of my friends gave me crap or made fun of me for it, I was like, 'I'm all Christmas.'"

He added, "I've just always loved it. It just reminds me of being a kid as an adult. And when I was a kid, I just felt the magic. And so yeah, I got to Nashville, did what I did, and then my career started to take off, and I had that going for a while, and then I was like, 'Man, a huge part of who I am is this big band music.' And I was talking to John Esposito at the record label, and he loves big band music too. And he's like, 'If we do this, I want to make it exactly how I love big band music.' This is a big part of who I am is this big band music. Full on, straight at it. Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Dean Martin, Nat King Cole, Ray Charles, all these people that I loved their Christmas music and just their music period growing up."

His Christmas music is so prevalent in all genres of music that it got the attention of another singer who loves Christmas: Kelly Clarkson.

Brett recalled when he first saw Kelly and experienced her music saying, "I remember seeing her do the tour after she had won [American Idol], and just thinking how incredible and captivating her voice was, and I was in high school, and I've just always loved just the person that she is and everything. And so two years ago, or whatever it was, she reached out and said, 'I'd love for you to be a part of this song 'Under the Mistletoe.' And so I was just blown away by the opportunity. So I found a studio as quickly as I could and went and recorded my part of her song. And I hadn't actually, still hadn't met her at this point, which was wild. …So we recorded it, she wrote the song, and it just had a great energy." He added, "It kind of fit perfectly in what I do as well. And the first time we met was when we sang it together live…Which was really cool. And then I've sung with her several times now since then. And it was just; it's really cool to experience that."

GLOW LIVE TOUR 2022 DATES:

Fri Dec 9 – New York, NY – Beacon Theatre
Sat Dec 10 – New York, NY – Beacon Theatre
Tue Dec 13 – Dallas, TX – Texas Trust CU Theatre
Thu Dec 15 – Chicago, IL – Chicago Theater
Thu Dec 16 – Chicago, IL – Chicago Theater
Thu Dec 20 – Boston, MA – Orpheum Theatre
Thu Dec 21 – Boston, MA – Orpheum Theatre

There are so many country music Christmas songs, both original and classic, that have been done throughout the years. It seems impossible to pick five of the best country Christmas songs ever. Still, we did just that in our list of Top Five Country Christmas songs over the last several decades.

There are too many honorable mentions to mention, but we just loved Taylor Swift's 2007 "Last Christmas." Also, there are several Christmas albums Martina McBride has released over the years. Reba also has four Christmas albums already under her belt. Johnny Cash had some fantastic Christmas songs in his career. George Strait, Tim McGraw and Garth Brooks  also brought the Christmas cheer. Additionally, there's the amazing Christmas work from Brett Eldredge, who has made a career out of his annual Christmas "Glow" tour. Other artists include Luke Bryan, Darius Rucker, Kenny Rogers, Lady A, Kacey Musgraves, and even Miranda Lambert's Pistol Annies.

In 2023, Jon Pardi released a new Christmas album not long after he was made a member of the Grand Ole Opry. He told us, "I’ve always wanted to make a Christmas record. It just sounded fun! It’s been many years of hearing Christmas music, and being like, ‘I still haven’t made a [Christmas] record!’ Eventually, I was just like, ‘Alright, we’re doing a Christmas record!'"

Kane Brown also released a new Christmas song this year. He released a cover of Elvis Presley’s classic “Blue Christmas.” Elvis’ voice starts off the familiar song, and Kane’s voice comes in on the second verse. Kane told us, “I chose to cover ‘Blue Christmas’ because it was probably one of my favorite Christmas songs. I don’t have a lot. I used to sing it all the time whenever I was first coming up in the music scene, just while I was warming up and just playing around on stage, so when I got asked to do a Christmas song, of course, I’d have picked that one. And to reimagine it with Elvis is amazing.”

While we know everyone will have their own list of country Christmas favorites, we give you our list of the Top Five Country Christmas Songs to date:

With a cameo by her young son Isaiah singing adorably on this classic remake, it is no wonder this has quickly become a holiday favorite and makes his famous mom proud.

Underwood is playing shows and has added Christmas song to her Las Vegas residency which she wraps up next week (12/16).

Carrie told us recently about decorating early for Christmas this year (2023), "There’s nothing sadder than a Christmas tree up with no presents underneath it, so I don’t really think that you want to get your Christmas tree up too early, but this year, I was a little earlier than normal because we had Thanksgiving and then head out to Vegas for my Reflection shows, and I had to get everything up before I left.”

A wonderful song that puts you right into the holiday spirit. Gwen and Blake do this song beautifully together and seem to have fun with every word they sing.

On the footnote version of the title song’s music video, Stefani said, “The idea of getting to be a part of people’s holidays through music is one of the greatest gifts. Christmas music lives forever.”

She also noted in the video footnotes that the video idea was inspired by the 1960s TV show Bewitched, a show both of them loved as kids. Gwen and Blake co-wrote the song “You Make It Feel Like Christmas.”

This is an excellent take on the 1960s original Christmas song by country music icon Buck Owens. Brad does this to perfection honoring his late friend. Garth Brooks also covered this song on his first Christmas album, Beyond The Season.

Not initially known as or written as a Christmas song, this song comes from the soundtrack of Dolly Parton's 1982 movie Best Little Whorehouse In Texas. The song has become a classic and has been covered by many after Dolly, including her friend Reba.

Possibly one of the best holiday songs in any genre; not a year goes by that we don't spin this record on repeat. In 2023, sixty-five years after its first release to radio, the song topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart for the first time ever.

By hitting the No.1 spot, Brenda Lee breaks several records. Many of those records were held by Mariah Carey and “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” which Lee beat out for the top spot.