ONLY three more record-buying days to go before we learn who will claim the position of number one at Christmas in the UK charts on Friday. Are you downloading Ed Sheeran and Elton John’s duet Merry Christmas? Are you doing your bit for charity by streaming LadBaby’s Sausage Rolls for Everyone?
LadBaby? I think I’m a bit out of touch.
You’re not the only one. But LadBaby is a lifestyle blogger called Mark Hoyle who, with his family, has claimed the last three Christmas number one spots with sausage roll-themed parodies of familiar tunes, a feat only previously managed by The Beatles and The Spice Girls.
This year’s effort Sausage Rolls for Everyone is a parody of Ed Sheeran and Elton John’s new Christmas single Merry Christmas. It has taken an early lead in the race for the top.
Ed and Elton can’t be pleased at the thought of coming runner-up to a blogger doing a version of their own song.
Well, as they both actually sing on Sausage Rolls for Everyone too, they probably won’t mind too much.
That’s very generous of them.
It is. It also doubles their chances of getting to number one this Christmas, of course.
You cynic. Is there anyone else in the running?
A few old favourites are proving popular. Wham’s Last Christmas and Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas are both doing well when it comes to streaming which now counts towards chart placings.
George Ezra and the Pogues are also in the mix, as is punk band The K**** with a not-safe-for-children track which, let’s just say, is not particularly kind to the current Prime Minister.
Is the Christmas number one really a big deal anymore?
It’s fair to say that the biggest selling Christmas singles in UK chart history were notched up in the 20th century. Boney M, Queen, Wings, Human League, The Beatles and Whitney Houston are all among the top 10 best-selling Christmas singles, behind Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas? From 1984.
But Alexandra Burke, who won X Factor in 2008 with her cover of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah, is the 10th best-selling Christmas single ahead of Slade’s Merry Xmas Everybody.
Who’s going to win this year?
Well, if LadBaby do become the first act to notch up four Christmas number ones, then the winner will probably be the Trussell Trust which provides emergency food and support for people in crisis. Any money the single makes is to be donated to the Trust.
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