"A Christmas Duel" is a special Christmas duet recorded by the Swedish rock band The Hives

The Hives

The Hives are a Swedish garage rock band that first garnered attention in the early 2000s as a prominent group of the garage rock revival. Their mainstream success came with the release of the "greatest hits" album Your New Favourite Band, featuring their most well-known song "Hate to Say I Told...

 and American

Music of the United States

The music of the United States reflects the country's multi-ethnic population through a diverse array of styles. Among the country's most internationally-renowned genres are hip hop, blues, country, rhythm and blues, jazz, barbershop, pop, techno, and rock and roll. The United States has the...

 singer-songwriter

Singer-songwriter

Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...

 Cyndi Lauper

Cyndi Lauper

Cynthia Ann Stephanie "Cyndi" Lauper is an American singer, songwriter, actress and LGBT rights activist. She achieved success in the mid-1980s with the release of the album She's So Unusual and became the first female singer to have four top-five singles released from one album...

. It was available as a single on November 19, 2008. It debuted at #6 on the Swedish Singles Charts published on December 28, and has since reached a peak at #4. It was released as a vinyl one-sided 7", a CD 5" single, and as download - all in Sweden only.

The song juxtaposes sweet music with nasty lyrics. As for how the collaboration took place,

"We came up with the song and we figured it was a duet, and we'd always hoped to do a duet with Cyndi Lauper."

"A Christmas Duel" also appears on NO HO HO: Alternative Christmas Holiday Anthems released on November 10, 2009.