From now until Christmas Day we will feature the countdown of 10 of the most popular versions of the beloved Christmas carol, “Oh Holy Night.” To compare apples to apples, we chose 10 soloists, all female. Our staff members ranked the videos, and here are the results – from 10 to 1. Some comments from the judges are included (including my own two cents). How did we do? Please let us know – and, most of all, enjoy!

Faith Hill rounds out the country segment, finishing behind Carrie Underwood and Martina McBride, and in seventh place overall – the reason, consistently, an aversion to a pop or country feel to a sacred song.

I ranked her last among the 10, but neither because of a pop/country aversion, nor because I think there is anything wrong with her voice. Rather, because her voice is ideal for a faster beat, but wholly inappropriate for the excruciatingly slow tempo that she chose. And if that sounds like not much of a reason to rank her last, it speaks to the quality of all ten performers – so that even the least among them (least in our subjective opinion, of course) is worthy of listening to.

What do you think?