Merry Christmas – wait, what? Liam Payne decided he didn’t want to wait for December to release his new holiday song, which Dixie D’Amelio joined for her first song since making her music debut with ‘Be Happy.’
While Liam Payne’s enthusiasm for Christmas is to be commemorated, the timing of “Naughty List” is a bit suspect. Arriving on Oct. 29 – that’s two days before Halloween – Liam, 27, seems to have gotten his holidays mixed up. But, as “Naughty List” shows, Liam isn’t afraid to do the kind of things that gets him on Santa’s bad side. And that wasn’t the One Direction alum’s only surprise: TikTok star Dixie D’Amelio, 19, joined the track, marking this her second song ever!
Liam announced the new holiday song on Oct. 27 and he gave his fans on TikTok an exclusive sneak peek at the song. “I’ve got a new single,” a feathered haired Liam said – well, wrote – while sitting in front of a giant CGI snowflake. “It’s called ‘Naughty List.’ And it’s a Christmas song…” During the preview, even Liam seemed a big befuddled himself at the whole endeavor. The snippet of the song details about how Liam and an unknown lover got on the naughty list. “Must have been the way we kissed / Santa saw the things we did / and put us on the naughty list.” This, of course, raises questions about Kris Kringle’s voyeuristic tendencies and a possible North Pole surveillance state. The snippet also raised speculation that the female voice on the track belonged to Dixie (which turned out to be spot-on).
Eagle-eyed fans searched “naughty list liam payne” on Apple Music, and the results listed Liam and Dixie as artists, per Just Jared. Dixie is best known for being one of the biggest names on TikTok. She’s currently the 8th most-followed individual on the platform with 41.7 million followers. Her sister, Charli D’Amelio, sits at No. 1 with 95.1 million. Dixie joining Liam wouldn’t be out of the ordinary. She, like many social media stars before her, made the jump into music in June 2020. She released her first song, “Be Happy.” As of the last week of October, it has over 51 million streams on Spotify.
After fans figured out the mystery vocalist, Liam took to Twitter and wrote, “Well… I had this whole grand plan about announcing who was featuring on my new song #NaughtyList on Friday but you did it again and found out! You’re all detectives! I’m so excited to have @dixiedamelio join, so say hello, give her a warm welcome like I know you guys can!”
It sounds like Liam and Dixie have more plans in store for fans. In a follow-up tweet, Liam wrote, “I have fallen in love with TikTok and I’m excited to have some fun leading up to the holidays with Dixie and her family… As we approach Halloween and Christmas during such a whirlwind year it’s important everyone looks out for each other, so please join in the fun with us.” Liam then announced he’ll unveil their “plans for the next few weeks” during a TikTok Live on Halloween, Oct. 31st at 10 p.m. GT.
This is not the first Christmas song from the former One Direction member. In 2019, Liam released “All I Want (For Christmas),” an original song that he included on his LP1 album. He also recorded a version of the Dean Martin classic, “Let It Snow,” for Spotify Singles: Christmas Collection. “I think it’s acceptable to listen to holiday music whenever you like, really,” he said when answering a few questions for Spotify. “Whenever you are feeling festive, is what I would say.”