{"id":202510,"date":"2025-12-26T09:10:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-26T09:10:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/202510\/"},"modified":"2025-12-26T09:10:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-26T09:10:13","slug":"ariana-grandes-christmas-chill-greatest-pop-stars-podcast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/202510\/","title":{"rendered":"Ariana Grande’s ‘Christmas & Chill’: Greatest Pop Stars Podcast"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tIn late 2015, Ariana Grande<\/a>\u2018s seemingly frictionless ascendance to all-consuming pop superstardom had finally hit a tiny bit of turbulence. \u201cDonutgate\u201d and other small-scale controversies<\/a> had put her in the media\u2019s crossfire for the first time, while \u201cFocus\u201d \u2014 the planned lead single off her upcoming third album, then to be titled Moonlight \u2014 had disappointed commercially and left fans a little cold. It was nothing she couldn\u2019t and wouldn\u2019t bounce back from, but in the meantime, she dropped a surprise release to celebrate the holiday season, and give both her sound and her career a little bit of a reset: the six-song EP Christmas & Chill. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tExplore\t\t<\/p>\n

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See latest videos, charts and news<\/p>\n

\n\tOn this week\u2019s Great Moments in Pop Star History episode of the Greatest Pop Stars podcast<\/a>, host Andrew Unterberger is joined by Billboard staff writer and longtime Arianator Kyle Denis to look back at 10 years of Christmas & Chill. We remember the Ariana Grande holiday releases that preceded it \u2014 including a song that\u2019s already well on its way to being an all-time seasonal standard \u2014 and then dive into why Chill has come to hold a particularly special place in the hearts of fans and of Grande herself, as well as how it ended up predicting a lot of the places she would go in her later secular releases. <\/p>\n

\n\tWhile doing so, we address all the most pressing questions around Grande\u2019s Christmas & Chill \u2014\u00a0how did an EP with no self-consciously big songs on it end up playing such a big part in her career? What are our favorite songs on the EP? How did she get away with a ukulele song in 2015? Do we care about the difference between the \u201cNaughty\u201d and nice versions of \u201cSanta Tell Me\u201d? Why has Grande never made much of an effort to actively revisit or repromote any of her holiday releases? And perhaps most importantly: Is there a world in which Grande eventually ends up being Mariah Carey\u2019s successor as the Queen of Christmas? <\/p>\n

\n\tCheck it out above\u00a0\u2014 along with a YouTube playlist of some of Ariana\u2019s most relevant holiday music moments, all of which are discussed in the podcast \u2014 and subscribe to the\u00a0Greatest Pop Stars podcast<\/a>\u00a0on\u00a0Apple Music<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0Spotify<\/a>\u00a0(or wherever you get your\u00a0podcasts<\/a>) for weekly discussions every Thursday about all things related to pop stardom!<\/p>\n

\n\tAlso check out Kyle\u2019s 2025 Year in R&B review<\/a>, as well as his recent Druski cover story<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd as we say in every one of these GPS podcast posts \u2014 if you have the time and money to spare, please consider donating to any of these causes in the fight for trans rights:<\/p>\n

\n\tTransgender Law Center<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tTrans Lifeline<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tDestination Tomorrow<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tGender-Affirming Care Fundraising on GoFundMe<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

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\n\tSign Up<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In late 2015, Ariana Grande\u2018s seemingly frictionless ascendance to all-consuming pop superstardom had finally hit a tiny bit…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":202511,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[156,119511,157,111,139,69,49],"class_list":{"0":"post-202510","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-greatest-pop-stars-podcast","10":"tag-music","11":"tag-new-zealand","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz","14":"tag-podcasts"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202510\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}