Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager Are Recording a Second Christmas Song, Penned by Meghan Trainor
The holiday tune will follow last year's "A Carefree Christmas," which the duo recorded with vocal teacher Cheryl Porter
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From Left: Hoda Kotb, Jenna Bush Hager and Meghan Trainor in February 2020Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager are out to prove they're not one-hit wonders!
The Today with Hoda and Jenna co-hosts surprised audiences last year when they dropped "A Carefree Christmas," their first-ever holiday song. Recorded with Cheryl Porter, the song became a staple on the NBC morning show, and even landed on the iTunes charts. So it shouldn't come as a shock that they're here to do it again.
On Tuesday, Sept. 17, Kotb , 60, dropped the news that she and Bush Hager, 42, were going back into the recording studio. "We actually are at work on our second Christmas song," she told Savannah Guthrie, Sheinelle Jones and Dylan Dreyer during the 8 a.m. hour of the Today show. "We’re going to have another song. We’re going to drop our second single."
She went on to reveal that the tune has been written by Grammy winner Meghan Trainor, who also penned Today with Hoda and Jenna's newest theme song. "We’re considering" it," Kotb teased of the track.
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From Left: Hoda Kotb, Cheryl Porter and Jenna Bush Hager sing "A Carefree Christmas" in December 2023Later, on Today with Hoda and Jenna, Bush Hager ribbed Kotb for "dropping a secret of ours," adding that she felt "deceived."
"You and I have been developing something. We don’t know [if it's coming out]. We’ve been working on it in the studio and trying to formulate it," she went on. "Do we have something or do we not?"
But Kotb stood her ground, explaining that she was inspired to reveal the news after hearing Justin Timberlake and Jimmy Fallon's new holiday tune. "I did not like to hear about other people having a Christmas song and I wanted them to know that we too were working on one," she said. "I couldn’t help it. Sorry!"
Related: Jenna Bush Hager FaceTimes Dad George W. Bush Live on Today to Get Feedback on Her New Holiday Song
"A Carefree Christmas" was born out of a collaboration Porter, a trained opera singer with more than 20 years of experience, per her official website.
After premiering the music video for the song in November 2023, Kotb and Bush Hager praised Porter for helping them harmonize. "We love Cheryl so much. Without Cheryl, our song would sound a lot worse. Not only did she help us, but she sang a lot of it," Bush Hager during the Today segment, which aired on Nov. 29.
"Cheryl is a person who can teach anyone to sing," Kotb said on Nov. 25, when the song was first announced. "She has her own technique. She's amazing. She is like joy personified. She ran us through the paces, had us try to learn."
The three later came together for a live performance of "A Carefree Christmas" on Dec. 6, 2023.
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