Jason Kelce's Christmas duet with Stevie Nicks knocks Mariah Carey from iTunes top spot
Jason Kelce is taking the Christmas music genre to new heights.
The former Philadelphia Eagles center’s new song with Stevie Nicks “Maybe This Christmas” dethroned Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You" from the top of the iTunes holiday chart.
“Jason, how does it feel to be the new Queen of Christmas?” Travis asked his brother on their New Heights podcast Wednesday, Nov. 13.
"You know, I've fought my whole life to be the Queen of Christmas,” Jason joked back, “and the fact that we're finally there is just really special."
Don't fret for Mariah ― the official Queen of Christmas' hit has sat on the top of Billboard's Hot Holidays Chart for 60 weeks.
Since 2022, Kelce has been releasing annual Christmas albums with The Philly Specials, which also includes Eagles stars Jordan Mailata and Lane Johnson. This year's album will drop on Nov. 22 and is titled "A Philly Special Christmas Party," following last year's "A Philly Special Christmas Special" and 2022's "A Philly Special Christmas." All profits from the album will benefit local Philadelphia charities.
In "Maybe This Christmas," which hit streaming services on Friday, Kelce and Nicks go back and forth singing about their hopes that this holiday season will be filled with love and forgiveness.
"Maybe this Christmas will mean something more / Maybe this year love will appear deeper than ever before," Kelce sings.
"And maybe forgiveness will ask us to call / Someone we love, someone we've lost / for reasons we can't quite recall," Nicks sings.
"Maybe they'll be an open door / Maybe the star that shone before will shine once more," they both sing together.
Kelce revealed he would be collaborating with Nicks last month in a post on the Instagram page for "New Heights," the podcast he hosts with brother Travis Kelce.
"The crossover we didn't know we needed," said the caption of a post which showed the NFL star and the Fleetwood Mac singer together. "Coming soon to a Christmas album near you."
In an episode of "New Heights" last month, Kelce said it was "pretty crazy" to get to sing with Nicks, a "legend," and noted they recorded in the studio together. "Absolutely unreal," he said. "Probably the most legendary female singer, especially of her generation."
He added that Nicks is "one of the nicest people I've ever talked to" and that he will cherish the memory of working with her "for the rest of my lifetime."
The release of the song came days after Kelce apologized for a heated encounter with a fan at the Ohio State-Penn State who hurled an anti-LGBTQ slur at him regarding his brother Travis. Kelce was seen throwing the person's phone to the ground and repeating an anti-gay slur. He later apologized.
"Everybody's seen on social media everything that took place this week," Kelce said on ESPN's "Monday Night Countdown." "Listen, I'm not happy with anything that took place. I'm not proud of it. In a heated moment, I chose to greet hate with hate, and I just don't think that that's a productive thing."
Contributing: Jordan Mendoza