Olivia Rodrigo releases her first Christmas single, 18 years after writing 'the bels' at five
Olivia Rodrigo's first Christmas single, take me home (4 christmas), is out now. It is not her first Christmas song: at five she wrote one called 'the bels', which she posted on Christmas Eve 2021 and Jimmy Fallon played back to her in 2023.
By Riffiter
Olivia Rodrigo released her first Christmas single this week. It is called "take me home (4 christmas)", it came out on 5 November at 5pm Pacific through Interscope, and it is not the first Christmas song she ever wrote. That one came when she was five years old.
The bels, with one L
On Christmas Eve 2021 Rodrigo posted a short clip to Instagram. "In honor of Christmas Eve, may I present to you my very first Christmas song 'the bels' written by five-year-old me lol," she wrote, as Digital Noise and The Line of Best Fit reported at the time. The recording is a child singing over a programmed beat and plucked synth strings. The chorus is a string of "ho, ho, ho"s and a plea to wait for the bells on Santa's sleigh. The homemade cover has the title handwritten above a photo of her under a Christmas tree in a Santa hat, with "Olivia" written underneath.
A year later, in December 2022, she shared the full song with fans on her Discord server and in her newsletter, according to NME and American Songwriter.
Jimmy Fallon plays the tape
On 7 December 2023 Jimmy Fallon asked her about it on The Tonight Show. She said she knew what he meant but did not remember writing it. Fallon then held up the homemade cover and played a snippet he said came from her mom. Rodrigo laughed through most of it. "You wrote a jam at five years old," Fallon told her.
Eighteen years later
Rodrigo is 23 now. SOUR, GUTS and you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love all reached No. 1 in the UK, and Official Charts counts four UK No. 1 singles: "drivers license", "good 4 u", "vampire" and "drop dead".
"take me home (4 christmas)" was written by Rodrigo with Dan Nigro and Amy Allen, and Nigro produced it, Spin and Official Charts report. The video stars Rodrigo with Cynthia Nixon from Sex and the City and Ben Marshall from Saturday Night Live. There is a limited seven-inch vinyl and a cassette. In the release photos she is wearing a Santa hat again.
Music Week points out that a new song has an edge over the catalogue favourites under UK chart rules, which puts her in the race for the Christmas No. 1.
Five-year-old Olivia or 23-year-old Olivia: whose Christmas song wins? Rate the new one on Riffiter.