All they want for Christmas is to ride shotgun. Superstar pop divas Lady Gaga, Dua Lipa and Chappell Roan sing an SUV Christmas song in “A Very Carpool Karaoke Christmas,” a holiday special that was surprise released Sunday night on Apple TV+ and Apple Music.

The hour-long episode of the Emmy Award-winning “Carpool Karaoke: The Series” made its surprise release on Apple’s platforms Sunday night at 9:00 PM PT/Midnight ET. It marks a return of the franchise after a fifth season that ended 18 months ago on Apple TV+.

Zane Lowe takes on the role of host for all three segments of the hour-long special and is introduced in a short prologue as a guest driver and duet partner. The prologue begins with James Corden, the franchise’s main protagonist, handing over the keys via a phone call from the UK.

Lowe’s supposed mission is to ferry Roan around her native Missouri, Lipa through Tokyo before a performance, and Gaga through Los Angeles on the way to a studio session. The final “ride” ends with Lowe joining Gaga’s band on electric guitar to record a cover of “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town” in the studio, which will also be released independently as an audio track.

The hour plays out like an ephemeral, modern version of an old-school Christmas variety special, with each of the guests encouraged to sing along loudly to both classic Christmas songs and their own greatest hits. In performance mode, all three pass the crucial “Carpool Karaoke” test, where their lung power, sense of movement and superior charisma feel unrestricted, whether strapped in or not.

The Christmas songs range from Lipa singing along to the Ronettes’ “Sleigh Ride” to Roan’s karaoke version of Wham’s “Last Christmas.” Gaga is the only one of the three to bring up an original Christmas song. She tells Lowe that her love of Christmas music is “something wholesome and sentimental…you know, a song that the whole family can get together and sing,” before launching into her deeply raunchy 2008 single “Christmas Tree,” which “Deck the Halls” fuses parts of this with cheeky assertions that “underneath the mistletoe everyone knows we’re going to get naked” and “my Christmas tree is delicious.”

Speaking of Gaga, the Chappell Roan segment begins with the singer leading Lowe around her parents’ farm and introducing him to a chicken named after Lady Gaga. They then get into the SUV with their parents Kara and Dwight. The entire truckload sings along to “Pink Pony Club” and the host asks Roan’s mother what she thinks about the fact that she was partly inspired by this signature song. “I was in tears just listening to her sing,” Kara says. “We love her so much and we are so proud of what she does, who she is and what she stands for. I love singing it with her at her shows and I love when you just see how people respond so much to that song. And even when we grow up, what our parents think about us is very important to us.”

“Yes,” Roan’s father adds with tears in his eyes, “I hope that she always knows that, that we love her so much and can never help but be proud of her.” I think about it a lot and try , not to get emotional. I already am… What she taught me as a father is respect for other people and all people, and that’s what I want people to understand. Everything about her is about loving everyone and that’s what she taught me.”

Roan talks about growing up “pretty religious,” which she found very oppressive. I know that for many people it is actually very liberating. For me it was almost the opposite, I felt like I couldn’t be myself, that what I was was a sin and I was going to hell no matter how good a person I was or how much I was God for his existence loved gay. And I just couldn’t stand being ashamed anymore.” Although Roan says she found liberation in moving to LA, she adds of Missouri, “I’m so grateful to be from here,” even though I “understand the fear in a conservative community and know where it comes from.” It’s scary when you don’t know or understand something. So it’s like one degree per conversation. Right? It’s one conversation at a time and it’s not just about giving up on people who helped you when you were in diapers. That’s just not how I personally approach things. The door must be open, otherwise there will be no learning.”

The conversation becomes more relaxed when Roan meets some high school friends at Andy’s Frozen Custard and orders a creation called the James Brownie Funky Jackhammer. “I would literally rather have an Andy’s Frozen Custard custom than the Grammy. I’m not kidding,” she says.

In Gaga’s segment, a fourth celebrity makes a cameo appearance in the special after Gaga released video footage of her late grandmother singing AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell.” “I brought you Brian Johnson for Christmas,” Lowe says, stopping to let the AC/DC singer into the car. “Do you want to hear something funny?” Gaga asks him. “I was in the ‘Stiff Upper Lip’ video (in 2000)…I was 17 and playing in the back…headbanging. And they said, “No head banging.” “We want it to be modern.” And I thought, ‘No, I can’t (stop).’ There’s only one step I can take.’”

In addition to covering part of Led Zeppelin’s “Black Dog,” Gaga also sings along to her recent global chart-topper “Die With a Smile” and talks about collaborating with Bruno Mars in between sessions for her own upcoming LG7 album. “It was crazy,” she tells Lowe. “I visited him at about 10 p.m. He played me the idea and then we wrote the second verse and then cut it at 2am. Bruno made me sing for four hours. He had a specific way he wanted to hear it and I wanted to give that to him.

In Tokyo, Lipa goes Christmas shopping with Lowe and sings part of “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” alongside the Whitney Houston original after telling the story of being a teenager with a few others on stage at a Katy Perry concert I ask the audience to take part in this cover. “I thought I wanted to be on this stage. I want to perform. I want to do spaces like this. I now play “Dance With Somebody” at the end of every one of my shows.”