Cher makes a merry move to No. 1 on Billboard’s Adult Contemporary radio airplay chart (dated Dec. 9) with “DJ Play a Christmas Song.”
The single surged by 31% in plays in the Nov. 24-30 tracking week, according to Luminate.
The carol is the 29th holiday No. 1 on the AC chart since 2000, around the time that most stations in the format began playing seasonal songs heavily, or 24/7, between Thanksgiving and Christmas each year. NewSong’s “The Christmas Shoes” became the first such leader, while Backstreet Boys’ cover of Wham!’s “Last Christmas” reigned for five weeks last holiday season.
“DJ Play a Christmas Song” also makes history for Cher, as it’s her first AC No. 1 since “If I Could Turn Back Time,” which led for a week in September 1989. She ends the longest break between No. 1s in the chart’s 62-year history: 34 years and two weeks. She surpasses Elton John, who went 23 years, 11 months and one week between “Something About the Way You Look Tonight” in 1997-98 and his own latest holiday hit, “Merry Christmas” with Ed Sheeran two Yuletide seasons ago.
A week earlier, “DJ Play a Christmas Song” topped the Dance/Electronic Digital Song Sales chart, granting Cher visits to No. 1 on Billboard song surveys in every decade since the 1960s, including her run as half of Sonny & Cher.
Cher adds her third AC No. 1 as a soloist, as she first led in April-May 1989 with “After All,” with Peter Cetera. Sonny & Cher notched one No. 1 on the chart: “All I Ever Need Is You,” for five weeks in 1971.
Cher’s new leader is from first holiday LP, Christmas, which jingled in at No. 1 on the Nov. 4-dated Top Holiday Albums chart.
All charts dated Dec. 9, including AC, Top Holiday Albums and the Holiday 100, will update on Billboard.com Tuesday (Dec. 5).
