That time Ricky Martin & Rosie O’Donnell teamed up for a closeted gay Christmas collab

Thanksgiving is over, which means the holiday season has officially begun, which means it’s time to deck the halls, which means it’s time to break out the Christmas music!

In 1999, during the height of The Rosie O’Donnell Show, the beloved daytime talk show host released her first-ever Christmas album, A Rosie Christmas.

The CD featured 14 holiday standards with some of the biggest music icons of the ’80s and ’90s, including Cher, Billy Joel, Celine Dion, Gloria Estefan, Elton John, and Elmo, just to name a few.

In 2000, she released a follow-up album called Another Rosie Christmas featuring 14 more collabs with some of music’s hottest up-and-comers at the time, including Jessica Simpson, The Dixie Chicks, Jewel, and Macy Gray, plus a veterans like Donna Summer and Barry Manilow.

Among the roster of new talent was Latin heartthrob Ricky Martin, who had just made history one year earlier as the first male Latin act to debut at number one on Billboard 200 with his self-titled English crossover album.

At the time, both O’Donnell and Martin weren’t publicly out, though rumors about each of them had been swirling for some time.

The song “Ay, Ay, Ay It’s Christmas” is a salsa-infused Spanglish holiday track about a man begging his girlfriend for forgiveness after he forgets to buy her a present.

It was co-written by Robi Rosa, one of Martin’s former Menudo bandmates, and Desmond Child, who also penned Martin’s signature song “Livin’ la Vida Loca”.

Initially recorded by Martin in 1999 during the sessions for his self-titled album, “Ay, Ay, Ay It’s Christmas” was packaged as a b-side on the single “Shake Your Bon-Bon” in Australia.

“Ay, ay, ay, it’s Christmas and I don’t know what to do,” he sings in the chorus, “Ay, ay, ay, it’s Christmas and I don’t have a gift for you!”

He then asks if he can give his girlfriend some, um, “ay, ay, ay” instead. What he means by that, however, is open to interpretation.

“I can give you ay, ay, ay/All you need is ay, ay, ay/Un poquito ay, ay, ay/On this Christmas night.”

Though it was never officially released in the U.S., O’Donnell still heard the track and liked it, so she asked Martin if she could add her own backup vocals and use it on her holiday album.

He agreed and “Ay, Ay, Ay It’s Christmas” was featured as the sixth track on Another Rosie Christmas, without Martin or O’Donnell ever stepping foot in the studio together.

Another Rosie Christmas was released on October 31, 2000 and peaked at number 45 on the US Billboard 200 and number three on the US Top Holiday Albums. In total, it sold over 500,000 copies, earning O’Donnell a nice chunk of change to spend on holiday gifts.

Many of the singers featured Another Rosie Christmas went on to have huge careers of their own. And three of them–Martin, Manilow, and O’Donnell herself–have since come out publicly as gay.

Both A Rosie Christmas and Another Rosie Christmas are available to stream on Spotify and continue to bring cheer to listeners more than 20 years since their release.

Before you go, check out this video of O’Donnell and Celine Dion performing “The Magic of Christmas Day” together on The Rosie O’Donnell Show in 1999.