Leevi and The Leavings knock Wham off the top Christmas song spot

Leevi and The Leavings’ Jossain on kai vielä joulu beat Wham‘ s Last Christmas, which had previously topped the charts for several years with 656 plays. Leevi and The Leavings song was heard on commercial radio stations a total of 101 times on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day last year.

Jossain on kai vielä joulu was released in 1990 as a track on the album Varasteleva Joulupukki. On Spotify, the song has 858,688 plays, while the album’s second most popular track, Jouluksi mummolaan, has 397,950 plays.

Leevi and The Leavings’ Christmas music resonates with Finns with its honesty. Christmas was also important to the band’s front man Gösta Sundqvist. Jossain on kai vielä joulu is the work of Sundqvist, both in composition, lyrics and arrangement.

“Gösta, like all of us, is a “Christmas person.” We consider the Christmas season an important holiday,” says Niklas Nylund, the band’s drummer.

A rare domestic number one

The list was topped by 10 domestic and 10 foreign songs. However, a domestic song at number one is a rare occurrence.

“It’s great to have some domestic Christmas music! It’s been several years since a domestic song has been at the top of the most played list,” says Kari Niemelä of Gramex, who compiled the statistics.

In second place was Haloo Helsinki’s Joulun kanssas jaan with 644 plays. Chris Rea’s Driving Home For Christmas maintained third place from the previous year with 629 plays and Wham’s Last Christmas dropped to fourth place with 611 plays.

The song in fifth was Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas Is You with 563 plays and in sixth was Suvi Teräsniska’s song Hei mummo with 540 plays.

According to statistics, Christmas carols last for about a month on commercial radio stations. With the Christmas carol season starts from the end of November and continues until Boxing Day.

The statistics were compiled by the copyright organisation Gramex on the basis of playback data received from radio stations. Gramex represents both music performers and producers.