This Friday, we are bringing you a festive music extravaganza! We’re talking all things Christmas music: the classics, the duds, the Cher album, and how the genre is changing. What are the best and worst Christmas songs? Why are old songs suddenly charting? And the eternal question: how soon is too soon to pull out the playlists? Lilah is joined by pop music critic Ludo Hunter-Tilney, and Taylor Nicole Rogers, the FT’s Labour and Equality correspondent.

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We love hearing from you! Write us. You can email us at lifeandart@ft.com or message Lilah on Instagram @lilahrap.

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Links (all FT links get you past the paywall):

– Look out for Ludo’s Christmas round up, out next weekend. In the meantime, here’s his roundup of the best pop albums of 2023, including Lana Del Rey and The Chemical Brothers: https://on.ft.com/3RKPtdm

– Ludo is on X at @ludohunter. Taylor is at @TaylorNRogers

We have compiled a Spotify Christmas playlist for you, with all of the songs we talked about! Listen to it here.

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Special FT subscription offers for Life and Art podcast listeners, from 50% off a digital subscription to a $1/£1/€1 trial, are here: http://ft.com/lifeandart

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Original music by Metaphor Music. Mixing and sound design by Breen Turner. Clips courtesy of Sony Legacy, Fervent, A&M, Republic Records, Island Records, and Motown.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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Culture chat: a Christmas music special

Life and Art from FT Weekend