Is “Let It Go” Even a Holiday Song?

YouTube just shared its list of the top 10 most listened to Christmas songs for 2018. In a press release, the streaming service revealed that number 1 is, of course, “All I Want For Christmas Is You,” the holiday queen, the bûche de noël at the musical table. Obviously! Everything is as it should be. Cool, nice.

But #2 is………………..”Let It Go” by Idina Menzel.

Do not mistake me. I think Idina Menzel, too, is a queen. Elsa, flaxen-haired protagonist of Frozen, is also, literally, a queen. Sweet Anna, too—queen-adjacent. But the song “Let It Go”? Is not a holiday song.

“Let It Go” is about finally being able to be who you truly are. “Let It Go” is about not hiding your emotions from a cruel world. “Let It Go” is a cathartic hymn to one’s sovereignty over the self. At very most, this is a song about winter, if you mean the winter of the soul. I acknowledge it contains several cold-weather metaphors.

But the lyrics are very clear on what it all really means:

The wind is howling like this swirling storm inside
Couldn’t keep it in, heaven knows I’ve tried
Don’t let them in, don’t let them see
Be the good girl you always have to be
Conceal, don’t feel, don’t let them know
Well, now they know

Is this about Jesus? Is this about other Biblical events leading up to or quickly following the birth of Christ? Is it about Hanukkah? Is it about Kwanzaa? Is this about Santa? Is this about giving thanks? Is this about bad weird crap you get in your stocking that just reminds you that your parents don’t, and have never understood you?? No no no. It is not. Do not put it on any holiday playlist.

Is Frozen even a holiday movie? It came out in November 2013, which, I grant you, is holiday time. But so did Oldboy! Eating a whole, still-alive octopus: holiday activity? I don’t think so!

If Frozen were a holiday movie, would there need to be a holiday special, Olaf’s Frozen Adventure? No, there wouldn’t!

According to YouTube, 4.7 million people listened to “Let It Go”—which we have now established is emphatically not a holiday song—on Christmas Eve in 2017. That’s, apparently, more than any time during the year. More people are probably traveling or eating pudding or realizing they don’t know how to tie a bow on Christmas Eve than any time of year, too. So what!

Here is YouTube’s full list of most-played “holiday” songs for 2018. All the other songs, you might notice, have something in common. They are about the holidays. “Let It Go” is about realizing one is a witch, that one is dangerous, and that one’s soul is spiraling in frozen fractals all around. It is not about the holidays! It is about humans ultimately being alone!

*Bangs gavel* I rest my case!!!!!!!!!

1. Mariah Carey—All I Want for Christmas Is You
2. Idina Menzel—Let It Go (From “Frozen”)
3. Gene Autry—Rudolph, The Red Nosed Reindeer
4. Pentatonix—Hallelujah
5. Brenda Lee—Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree
6. Pentatonix—Little Drummer Boy
7. Ariana Grande—Santa Tell Me
8. Wham!—Last Christmas
9. Bobby Helms—Jingle Bell Rock
10. Pentatonix—Mary, Did You Know? (feat. The String Mob)