While it’s not quite time to crack open the eggnog, John Legend and Kelly Clarkson are already starting to spread the Christmas spirit with their festive new duet: a revamped take on “Baby, It’s Cold Outside.”

Last year the Oscar-winning holiday classic — written in 1944 by Frank Loesser and sung by the likes of Dean Martin, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald and countless others — was banned from some radio station playlists after its lyrics were deemed “no longer appropriate,” as Cleveland’s Star 102 employee Glenn Anderson put it. The song features a male voice urging his female date to stick around and get “closer” despite her protests that she “really can’t stay.” While she sings “I ought to say no, no, no,” he responds, “What’s the sense in hurting my pride?”

The lack of consent implied has proved problematic in the #MeToo era, prompting Legend to team up with Insecure actress and writer Natasha Rothwell on tweaking the lyrics to give the female protagonist more agency and control. Her date is also more passive and less pushy.

John Legend and Kelly Clarkson have given "Baby, It's Cold Outside" a modern makeover. (Photo: REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni) More

Set to appear on Legend’s forthcoming Christmas album, A Legendary Christmas: The Deluxe Edition, the song now includes less threatening lines like “I really can’t stay (Baby it’s cold outside)/ I’ve gotta go away (I can call you a ride)/ This evening has been (so glad that you dropped in)/ So very nice (time spent with you is paradise)/ My mother will start to worry (I’ll call a car and tell ‘em to hurry).”

The Oscar-winning singer’s Voice co-star, Clarkson, lent her vocals for the female role. Elsewhere in the song, she asks what her friends will think if she stays for another drink, to which Legend responds, “It’s your body, and your choice.”

If you had a song with @kellyclarkson you'd want to promote your Christmas album in October too! Signed copies of the deluxe edition of #ALegendaryChristmas are available for pre-order now! https://t.co/wVDuOWgii6 pic.twitter.com/NWLWUfWhFS — John Legend (@johnlegend) October 28, 2019

While enthusiasm for a Legend and Clarkson collaboration is high, many aren’t so sure about the song choice or its woke update. On one end of the idealogical spectrum are conservative critics who call it pandering to “snowflakes”; on the other, those who say the song and its date rape image are beyond saving.

Holiday songs aren't sacred, and "Baby It's Cold Outside" isn't worth the time we put into criticizing or revising it. — Beth of the Elder Ones (@BethElderkin) October 28, 2019

I thought nothing could be worse than the annual Baby It’s Cold Outsode Is Problematic discourse, but then I read the lyrics to John Legend’s Baby It’s Cold Outside remix https://t.co/ymgNIlSEMN pic.twitter.com/94q4eIWLu8 — Tom Gara (@tomgara) October 29, 2019

Just let it die! — 👻 big tough crying ghoul who never cried before (@thrillout) October 29, 2019

Thanks for destroying “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” just so you can cash-in on the snowflakes of the world. — Ian Rushforth (@rushdoo_ian) October 29, 2019

PLEASE don’t do it @johnlegend & @kellyclarkson !! 🙏 You are ruining a beautiful & classic song!! 😠😔

People, get over it! It does NOT need to be modernized to pander to people sensitivities.@GayleKing, you were spot on this a.m.!👌https://t.co/BraZf5vuoN#BabyItsColdOutside — Two Cents To Give (@2Cents2Give) October 29, 2019

Sounds like he is bowing to the perpetually offended. Screw em. They can change the station. — rock247 (@rock2473) October 29, 2019