Eylsia Nicolas provides us precisely what the world of the holiday music did not know it was lacking: the right to make Christmas whatever you please. Hot, Hot Christmas comes in with a smile and it is full of life and happiness, a song that brings tinsel and palm trees together as they should be.
Even in the very first notes it is warm, the sunlight streaming through the clouds warm. The instruments shine and jump brightening the sorrow of a gray winter afternoon. And then there is the voice of Eylsia : self-confident, jokingly, full of character as though she is bending over you to dare you to have a good time, to take off the boots and put in the flip-flops and leave the snow to the sand between the toes.
It is not that the sunny twist on tradition is what makes this song stick in your chest, it is the fact the song is so real. It is not a stunt or a new thing. Eylsia has established a setting in which there is no cocoa, but margaritas, no Christmas magic of beaches and ocean breezes, but it never seems that she is straining. She strikes fun and authenticity with a sense of effortlessness where the song is ready to be there all along.
The instrumental break is on the rise and draws you in and makes you want to turn up the volume, allow yourself to get carried away and forget about everything. Hanging behind the sunny, celebratory appearance, you can feel her path: tennis courts to the offices of music executives, to recovering her own voice as an artist. All the notes are loaded with that tough stuff--it is happiness, all right but it’s emotional is the kind.
Hot, Hot Christmas does not attempt to usurp the classics. It claims the season sunnily and mischievously of its own. This song makes you think that it is possible and impossible to resist trading snowflakes to waves.
.jpg)
