Jimmy Fallon is bringing on the Christmas season with Ariana Grande and Megan Thee Stallion on their new track “It Was a Masked Christmas,” accompanied by a music video directed by Dan Opsal.
“It Was a Masked Christmas” and the new video unsurprisingly lean into the experiences of the pandemic holiday seasons of the past two years. Fallon sings about covering noses and mouths and only getting Wi-Fi for Zoom calls from the laundry room, while Meg raps about putting Purell on everything from the Turkey to the egg nog and candy canes. Grande meanwhile, goes for a more typical theme of longing for someone during the winter months, singing of needing “someone to hold at night, because it’s gonna snow.”
Notably, vaccine booster shots were a prominent theme in much of the song. During the video, Grande and Fallon are shown standing in line waiting for their shots, while during the track’s chorus Fallon sings, “It’s Christmas time, we’ll be in line for a booster.”
“Y’all know what time it is, it’s time to get those boosters,” Meg says at the start of the video, accompanied with her signature “agh” ad-lib.
Otherwise, the video shows the three stars staying warm inside or dancing and skiing in the snow, along with shots of talking masks and one dancer covered head to toe in surgical masks.
Fallon is no stranger to jumping on a Christmas tune with a-list musicians; last year he performed a duet of “All I Want for Christmas Is You” with Dolly Parton, and in 2017, he did a rendition of Paul McCartney’s “Wonderful Christmastime” alongside McCartney and the Roots.
VIDEOS
106 & Park was a cultural moment celebrating the best, brightest stars of Hip-Hop and R&B.
Kicking things off in 2000, the show was hosted by personalities A.J. Calloway and Marie “Free” Wright, with the intent to recognize the most popular music and music videos at the time. And while the show added bits like Wild Out Wednesday, Throwback Thursday, and Freestyle Fridays, the true star of the show was the countdown, where fans enjoyed the art of the music video, all curated by them. Fans would vote for the chance to include their favorite artist’s latest releases on the coveted Top 10 Countdown.
Some videos were so beloved, that they wound up having to be placed on the 106 & Park Video Hall of Fame, where the music video would be “retired” after appearing on the countdown list 65 times—a true testament to the power of fandom and the impact that some of these visuals had on the culture. As BET issues yet another tease of a potential 106 & Park reboot for its 25th Anniversary, VIBE thought it would be great to walk you through the music videos that had the honor of being retired and placed into the show’s Hall of Fame. Watch the videos below.
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