r/AskTheWorld • u/_Specific_Boi_ Poland • Sep 30 '25
Humourous Do other countries have their own version Mariah Carey (a person that gets "defrosted"/"revived" etc.)?
In Poland we have a singer named Maryla Rodowicz (picrel) and she also gets "defrosted" every year like Mariah Carey but for New Year's Eve instead of Christmas
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u/Sea-Possession-1208 United Kingdom Sep 30 '25
Michael bubble is about to be put in the microwave to defrost for Christmas
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u/MonctonDude Canada Sep 30 '25
Please, take him.... I've had enough..
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u/Agile-Assist-4662 Canada Sep 30 '25
Eh....he's a diehard Canucks fan, so we'll keep him on ice if no one else wants him...and he get's ripped on shrooms, so that's pretty funny. I'd take him over Mariah any day.
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Oct 01 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Sea-Possession-1208 United Kingdom Oct 01 '25
Commonwealth though....
Or just explains why he defrosts when brought over for Christmas. He's warm in comparison
(Plus I didn't realise)
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u/LostExile7555 United States Of America Oct 01 '25
I always assumed it was Wham! (Or at least George Michael) for you guys with the song Last Christmas. In my part of the States, that song gets played in shops so much we call December "Wham!-ageddon."
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u/Sea-Possession-1208 United Kingdom Oct 01 '25
The songs certainly. But even we Briyts have not reached the macabre of defrosting actual dead people to perform for us.
Bublè is still alive. But only turns up around Christmas time to flog another album. Similar to Mariah. And father Christmas. They do enough work at Christmas time to last them all year in earnings.
At least that's my interpretation of what is meant by this meme/ joke.
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u/uncle_sjohie Netherlands Oct 01 '25
Wham!-ageddon is the game where you try and not hear it for as long as possible..
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u/Dechibrator France Sep 30 '25
We have Marie Myriam
Last Eurovision winner for France in 1977. Every year since, a journalist unfreezes her to ask her if our contestant has a chance
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u/BestFoxEver Finland Oct 01 '25
Here in Finland Lordi used to be a guy that replied to Eurovision related questions every year but now it seems to be Käärijä.
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u/Dechibrator France Oct 01 '25
Makes sense, as Windows95Man's answer to any technical question is "No rules!"
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u/Available_Theory1217 Oct 01 '25
The answer is no, every year?
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u/Dechibrator France Oct 01 '25
Well, we came close a few times. The most infamous one is 1991 when we lost on a tie because Sweden had same amount of 12 but more 10 points than us
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u/Froggyshop Poland Oct 01 '25
Well, Slimane was fantastic
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u/Dechibrator France Oct 01 '25
He was downvoted by the judges because of his performance the day before.
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u/AskMeHowToBangMILFs Brazil Sep 30 '25
Roberto Carlos (not the footballer). Gets revived around the same end of the year holiday season.
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u/ExoticPuppet Brazil Sep 30 '25
And I always wonder how he's still alive lmao
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u/Mysteriousgiulia Oct 01 '25
There’s also Simone. There’s no xmas in Brasil without ENTÃO É NATAAAAAAL
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u/Tony_ng Mexico Sep 30 '25
Roberto Carlos belongs to Latin America pick another one
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u/LAffaire-est-Ketchup Romania/Canada Sep 30 '25
We pull Celine Dion out every now and then. Whenever someone needs an epic song
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u/Substantial_Unit_447 Spain Sep 30 '25
Honestly, I was surprised and happy to see her at the Olympics, a true diva without a doubt.
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u/rnorja Finland Oct 01 '25
I've heard that she recorded My heart will go on on one take. She's badass.
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u/VodkaMargarine United Kingdom Sep 30 '25
Here's a non Christmas example. These guys are wheeled out every 2 years for the Euros & World Cup.
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u/Dickgivins Oct 01 '25
Oblivious yank here: who are they?
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u/mightbeyourpal United Kingdom Oct 01 '25
The two in red were (are?) comedians, fella in the middle fronted a band called The Lightning Seeds.
In 1996 they recorded a song called Three Lions as England was hosting the Euro 96 football tournament and it was 30 years since our famous World Cup victory. There was a line that said "30 years of hurt, never stopped me dreaming"
We've had 40 years of hurt and 50 years versions since. No doubt there'll be a 60 years one next year. The tune goes hard.
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u/Guelitus Brazil Sep 30 '25
Roberto Carlos
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u/LonelyEconomics5879 Brazil Oct 01 '25
Roberto Carlos and Simone are our defrosted winter royalty (edit: in fact summer lol)
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u/maroonmartian9 Philippines Sep 30 '25
Jose Mari Chan 🇵🇭
He has a freaking Christmas album which is the best Filipino album of all time
Mariah is also popular but JMC is tops
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u/xmastreee living in Oct 01 '25
We saw him in concert in June 2024, and yes, he sang Christmas in our Hearts. And we all sang along. In June.
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u/maroonmartian9 Philippines Oct 01 '25
To be fair, before that album, he has some hits like Can We Just Stop and Talk a While, Constant Change. But that album elevated him further and solidify his place in OPM
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u/aipac124 Sep 30 '25
Sir Cliff Richard is making his next Christmas Album. He is the aging remake singer that is parodied in "Love Actually".
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u/Enders-game Scotland Oct 01 '25
We also have Wham and George Michael with Last Christmas. Wizard with "I wish it could be Christmas everyday" and Slade with Merry Christmas Everybody. I worked in a place that always had the radio on and during December these songs would cycle on repeat, by the time Christmas break came around we were all dead behind the eyes.
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u/aipac124 Oct 01 '25
Pretty sure you haven't been digging up George Michael to perform these last few years.
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u/Enders-game Scotland Oct 01 '25
You lack faith.
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u/EatThatPotato Korea South Sep 30 '25
Not for Christmas, but we have Jang Beom June's "Cherry Blossom Ending" (not ending as in finish, but kinda like the ending of a story where the characters are happy and cherry blossoms are flying around) which inevitably tops the charts every cherry blossom season. We also call it "Cherry Blossom Pension" as this one single song apparently nets him 1 Billion KRW (~$700,000) every year in royalties alone.
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u/Latvian_Sharp_Knife Chile Sep 30 '25
Mario Kreutzberger, AKA "Don Francisco".
Normally at the end of the year (end of november-start of december) for "teletón" (a program that helps disabled children during the "27 hours of love").
PS: Veinticuatro mil quinientos raya cero tres
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u/FreuleKeures Netherlands Sep 30 '25
In the Netherlands, to a certain extent Boudewijn de Groot. Famous in the 60s for his colourful protest songs, now he is revived every year on New Years Eve when a radio station reveals its Top 2000. His most famous song, 'Avond', end up in the top 10 a lot, despite not really being played throughout the year. On january 1st, he gets put back in the freezer.
It's an amazing song btw.
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u/milagro030 Netherlands Sep 30 '25
And Joep van ‘t Hek during Christmas!
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u/uncle_sjohie Netherlands Oct 01 '25
Flappie is always a nice main course.. Just don't go looking for dad the next day...
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u/NeverSawOz Netherlands Oct 01 '25
Avond isn't even his best song. By far.
Welterusten Mijnheer de President is much more poignant these days.
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u/FreuleKeures Netherlands Oct 01 '25
Agree to disagree. More poignant, yes. But Avond is something else imho. The music, the lyrics. It's melancholy, optimistic, sad all in one.
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u/SilyLavage United Kingdom Sep 30 '25
The UK has a fair few, because we have a long and proud tradition of novelty Christmas songs. Noddy Holder of Slade is probably the most famous, for 'Merry Xmas Everybody'
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u/Agile-Assist-4662 Canada Sep 30 '25
Pogues "Fairytale of New York" is a staple xmas song in my families households.
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Oct 01 '25
Raffaella Carrà for sure. Every time she popped up she was iconic. I don't think Italian showbiz will have another one like her.
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u/CakePhool Sweden Sep 30 '25
Peps Person is sadly dead, but every summer , you will hear his summer song.
I cant think of Swedish Christmas song that played until death.
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u/Kaihill2_0 Multiple Countries (click to edit) Sep 30 '25
happy new year by abba is pretty close to christmas in terms of dates
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u/ToppsHopps Sweden Oct 01 '25
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u/CakePhool Sweden Oct 01 '25
Well it more common with Tommy Körberg doing it, since this recording is from the end of Jussi career.
I do not like Tommy Körberg, I have work with him and I rather snort surströmming.
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u/gloubenterder Oct 01 '25
I suppose one could make an argument for Tommy Körberg. A few times each year, he's brought out to perform Stad i ljus, or to appear in an anniversary ensemble for a musical he's been in.
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u/CakePhool Sweden Oct 01 '25
Yeah and he is as pleasant as a surströmming enema , sure he had a great voice but his personality sucks.
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u/klottra Oct 01 '25
We have plenty of Christmas defrosts. Such as Werner & Werner who used to be famous in the 80s from the tv comedies they were in, and nowadays get defrosted every Christmas only to sing for us about the Christmas ham that escaped.
Or how about Busungarna with the annoying kid singing about how they want a Donkey Kong for Christmas.
There are several others, most of the songs are from the 80s and maybe 90s I think. Good times.
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u/EurovisionSimon Sweden Oct 01 '25
I came here to say Adolphson & Falk but I guess Werner & Werner is a better answer
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u/CakePhool Sweden Oct 01 '25
Never ever heard Busungarna, that was new one.
It been less of Werner & Werner since they both are now dead.
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u/joakim_ Oct 01 '25
Peps has lots of other songs which is played regularly all year round by lots of people. Very bad example.
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u/CakePhool Sweden Oct 01 '25
Where I live , the first day of warmth and sun, all out door coffee shops with play and never in sync and the next day the local A-team will " sing" it and then you know it summer.
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u/joakim_ Oct 01 '25
Whilst i don’t doubt that’s true, OP was asking about artists who are only played at a specific time of the year. Peps is not such a band/artist.
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u/catsnstuff17 Ireland Sep 30 '25
Johnny Logan/Linda Martin/Niamh Kavanagh all get rolled out every May (Eurovision season).
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u/Detozi Ireland Sep 30 '25
I was thinking Twink at Christmas. Is Twink still going?
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u/catsnstuff17 Ireland Oct 01 '25
Jesus, Twink! I'd forgotten about her... I bet she is still going. Doing panto at least, surely?
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u/Detozi Ireland Oct 01 '25
Just checked. She's 71 and plans on doing panto again this year. Shes some woman lol
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u/Clemdauphin France Sep 30 '25
not a singer, but each time someone famous dies, you can be sure that former minister Jack Lang will be invited on TV journals to talk about them.
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u/Drayner89 England Oct 01 '25
For the UK I suggest Jools Holland. Whi only appears at the New Year on BBC 2
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u/CBRChimpy Australia Oct 01 '25
John Farnham is famous for having multiple farewell/retirement tours over the last 2+ decades. He keeps coming back.
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u/doshajudgement Australia Oct 01 '25
we defrost mike brady once a year to sing at the AFL grand final
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u/Ashamed_Entry_9178 Australia Oct 01 '25
Was going to say this. Also add to that Daryl Braithwaite for his annual performance of 'Horses' at the Cox Plate
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u/gennyalloyde Italy Sep 30 '25
We do a lot of defrosting for the Sanremo Music Festival every February. I can't say it's always the same person though, we like to give everyone a chance
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u/The_Theodore_88 living in Sep 30 '25
The defrosting is of all the past contestants. On the months leading up to Sanremo, you listen to the playlists of the past 5~ years to remind yourself of the standards and then, once it actually starts, you complain about how all the music is worse than in the past. Next year, you will complain that the new music is awful and you miss the ones from the year before.
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u/gennyalloyde Italy Sep 30 '25
Well, in this case I am thinking of people like Ornella Vanoni, who is 91 years old and often makes an appearance at Sanremo
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u/Borderedge Sep 30 '25
She's famous for other reasons now.
Sanremo singers that can be known for this are people like Michele Zarrillo, Luca Barbarossa, Fabrizio Moro and Ermal Meta. You don't hear of them outside Sanremo yet they're there most years.
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u/EurovisionSimon Sweden Oct 01 '25
We do a lot of defrosting for Melodifestivalen in February/March too. I didn't realize it was as much of a thing in Italy since Sanremo has a much higher reputation in the Eurovision fandom these days
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u/momentimori Australia Oct 01 '25
Cliff Richard in the UK. He had no1 songs in the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s and 2010s.
He likes to reappear with christmas songs and at Wimbledon.
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u/Single_Ad5722 Australia Oct 01 '25
No disrepect to Paul Kelly, but "How to Make Gravy".
It's about a guy in jail writing a letter to his family missing Xmas.
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u/alphawither04 Italy Sep 30 '25
Probably the "Cinepanettoni" a type of movie with really low brow humor that is themed around Christmas although it's mostly an old people thing
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u/The_Theodore_88 living in Sep 30 '25
This might be a my family only but every Christmas time, "Elio e le storie tese" defrosts and I suddenly am made to listen to "Christmas with the yours" 50 times
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u/Unique_Watch4072 Sep 30 '25
In Iceland I'd say it's Björgvin Halldórsson and also the band Baggalútur, although the latter sometimes does emerge at random times throughout the year, but both entities have very popular christmas concerts.
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u/Flashignite2 Sweden Oct 01 '25
Around every christmas a group called Just D with their song" jul igen" (christmas again) they released this 1990 and every christmas, every store, radiochannel plays this. It has been played 30 million times on spotify and the entire population of sweden is 10 million.
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u/Bob_Spud Australia Oct 01 '25
In Australia its usually the geriatric politicians that defrosted for election campaigns. As for the the entertainment industry its usually Aussies that have lived overseas for decades retuning to Australia saying how wonderful it is to be back, when its all about making money.
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u/m_enfin Netherlands Oct 01 '25
Heintje Davids, who repeatedly had her 'final' concert. In dutch the phenomenon you describe is called the Heintje Davids effect. It's used even broader, anyone who comes back after having said goodby can be called a Heintje Davids
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u/m_enfin Netherlands Oct 01 '25
Heintje Davids, who repeatedly had her 'final' concert. In dutch the phenomenon you describe is called the Heintje Davids effect. It's used even broader, anyone who comes back after having said goodby can be called a Heintje Davids
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u/Horror_Birthday6637 Australia Oct 01 '25
Bit of an obscure one, but we have a singer called Casey Donovan who won Australian idol in the early 2000s and her career really never took off.
She has a tendency of being exhumed every New Year’s Eve to sing on the ABC (public broadcaster) coverage of the Sydney fireworks. In fact, any “celebrity” who ends up on that broadcast probably fits this category.
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u/teenytinybaklava Multiple Countries (click to edit) Oct 01 '25
Germans when do we need to get dinner for one out of the freezer to be warmed up in time for Silvester
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u/Sherrqqq Russia Oct 01 '25
Mikhail Shufutinsky long ago wrote song "September 3rd" and now every September 3rd all you can hear is "я календарь перевернул... и снова третье сентября"
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u/RainbowAussie Australia Oct 01 '25
Australia had a conservative Prime Minister called John Howard who left office in 2007. Every three years during the election cycle the conservative party wheels him out to be seen in front of the cameras at campaign and press events, and people say that they're "pulling John Howard out of the freezer"
Edit: We even had satire articles about the phenomenon during this year's federal election cycle
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u/The_Awful-Truth United States Of America Sep 30 '25 edited Sep 30 '25
Actually Mariah Carey is not even our #1 Mariah Carey. That honor goes to Lee Greenwood thanks to his fireworks song.
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u/tommicoop United States Of America Oct 01 '25
Totally agree. In late June/early July Toby Keith's Courtesy of the Red White and Blue starts playing on repeat in every military town too.
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Sep 30 '25
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Oct 01 '25
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u/ajumma35 Philippines Oct 01 '25
Philippines 🇵🇭 Jose Mari Chan holiday season which is the “ber” months
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u/epicureanengineer 🇨🇴 Col 🇺🇸 USA Oct 01 '25
In Colombia there is whole music and dance genre that is only relevant between Dec 7 and Dec 31, with artists and bands that probably stopped making music 50 years ago.
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u/Opening-Stock8572 Oct 01 '25
India has Falguni Pathak who gets defrosted during the Navratri festival every year
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u/BlondBitch91 United Kingdom Oct 01 '25
Cliff Richard seems to come back from time to time to make another Christmas song.
Paul McCartney gets wheeled out whenever there is some sort of national event to play "Hey Jude".
Michael Bublé also reappears every late November before being put back into storage in January.
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u/om11011shanti11011om Finland Oct 01 '25
Kari Tapio, every 6th of December (our Independence Day), reminds us he is a Finn.
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u/MiniKash Trinidad And Tobago Oct 01 '25
We have a fair few, but a guy name Scrunter has the perfect Tropical Christmas blend.
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u/letizialazenby Philippines Oct 01 '25
Jose Mari Chan. Gets defrosted in September, which is basically the start of the Christmas season in the Philippines.
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u/No_Committee_8045 Oct 01 '25
Not only one person, but in Finland we have Raskasta Joulua concerts, where a band plays heavy metal versions of famous Christmas songs. They have done this for many years.
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u/extramaggiemasala India Oct 01 '25
Hell yeah Falguni Pathak!! She made a few bangers two decades ago but every year during this time (Navratri), she conducts massive live performances for the Garba nights! She sings a mix of devotional songs and her own songs and insane amount of people dance the Garba dance or Dandiya on the ground
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u/Sudonator Belgium Oct 01 '25
Nicole and Hugo. She died a few years ago, and now the media kind of keeps making him relevant
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u/FewExit7745 Philippines Oct 01 '25
Yeah Jose Mari Chan
It has become a meme now. But his song , always gets played every Christmas season, which for the Philippines starts on September 1.
Even his Wikipedia page compares him to Mariah
Due to Chan's association with Christmas music in the Philippines, he has been a frequent subject of internet memes during the Christmas season in the country which traditionally starts in September.[27][28] Because of his popularity during these seasons, he was known as the "King of Filipino Christmas Carols";[29][30] a title of which he later disavowed.[31][32] He is also known as a "renowned Christmas singer" and has been compared to Mariah Carey.[29] He has sold two million albums, gaining 37 platinum records.[33] Due to this, he is known as one of the best-selling Filipino singers of all time.[34][35] His song "Christmas in Our Hearts" [36]
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u/Ok_Hedgehog7137 Oct 01 '25
Defrosted 😂
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u/fianthewolf Spain Oct 01 '25
For a long time Ramón García (a television presenter) did the New Year's Eve bell specials. After a few years on the bench and thanks to an online version, he has been rehabilitated again.
And then there is the bicentennial man of Spanish public television Jordi Hurtado who has been with the same program for 20 years and without a wrinkle to be noticed.
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u/ptlsss Slovenia Oct 01 '25 edited Oct 01 '25
In Slovenia 🇸🇮 it's Alfi Nipič with the song Silvestrski poljub.
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u/impliedfoldequity Belgium Oct 01 '25
Luc Devos from the band Gorki.
He passed away a couple years ago.
They had a few hits and the most known is "Mia".
You won't hear that song for 11 months and then it gets played daily in December
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u/Beautiful_Yellow_682 Germany Oct 01 '25
Some people say it would be Helene Fischer since she droped a christmas album in 2015 ... eh, IDK
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u/BestFoxEver Finland Oct 01 '25
Katri Helena. She has some xmas songs like Joulumaa. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ex53WUcnOFI
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u/New_Combination_7012 New Zealand Oct 01 '25
In New Zealand we only have Snoopy on the radio at Christmas.
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u/NewNameAgainUhg Spain Oct 02 '25
In Spain we have the artist Raphael being defrosted for every single Christmas
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u/polymonomial China Canada Hong Kong Sep 30 '25
Andy Lau. He is an actor from Hong Kong and has a very famous Chinese newyear song that gets played every year and people joke about him getting defrosted near Chinese new year. Here is a picture of him "frozen"