At the time of this writing, the war in Israel is raging with no end in sight. As the home of major world religions, all eyes are on this tiny country, especially as the holidays are approaching. To take our minds off the ongoing tragedies and to celebrate the holiday season, the following are some musical suggestions to get you into the spirit of the time.
While it’s true that iconic diva Cher is both timeless and ageless, she was not, in fact, present at the birth of Jesus. Proving that it’s never too late to do something unexpected, Cher pulls out all the stops for her first-ever holiday album, simply titled “Christmas” (Warner). She takes us to the (Christmas) club on the songs “DJ Play A Christmas Song” (co-written by Sarah Hudson, first cousin of Kate and Oliver), “Angels In the Snow” (featuring backing vocals by Cyndi Lauper), and the Tyga duet “Drop Top Sleigh Ride” (both co-written by Sarah Hudson and queer singer/songwriter Ferras).
Cher’s in good voice throughout “Christmas,” especially on the contemporary standards “Please Come Home For Christmas,” the rocking “Run Rudolph Run,” the Stevie Wonder duet “What Christmas Means To Me,” and “Santa Baby.” However, the real standout here is the uplifting Cyndi Lauper duet “Put A Little Holiday In Your Heart,” on which the women take us to church, and will have more than a few of us looking for a tambourine to shake along to the song.
More than 2,000 years since the birth of Jesus, and several hundred years since the first Christmas song was composed, the massive selection of tunes written for the holiday borders on overwhelming. For his first Christmas album, “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year” (georgeperris.com), gay, Greek tenor George Perris draws on the Great American Holiday Songbook (the title tune, “Sleigh Ride,” “The Christmas Song,” and “The Secret of Christmas”) and other resources. What Perris brings to the project is a kind of international holiday flair. We get “Silent Night” in English, as well as in French (“Douce Nuit”) and Spanish (“Noche De Paz”), “The Little Drummer Boy” in English, Spanish (“El Tamborilero”), and French (“L’enfant Au Tambour”).
