Boom!, This year’s Christmas number one is up for grabs, with Sam Ryder and Mariah Carey competing in one of the most open festive chart fights in memory.
Before Friday’s release of the Christmas chart, streaming and sales are only counted until Thursday.
The number one song is Wham!’s 1984 hit Last Christmas, followed closely by Ryder’s You’re Christmas To Me, the top new release.
The YouTubers LadBaby, who have been the top Christmas performer for the last five years, have chosen not to compete in 2023.
Thanks to streaming, Mariah Carey (with Santa) makes an annual comeback on the charts.
Martin Talbot, CEO of the Official Charts Company, said that the Christmas chart race “feels much more exciting than it has done for a few years”.
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There is “a much more open field” this year, according to Talbot.
“I believe that by the time LadBaby achieved its sixth Christmas number one last year, people were eager to see something a little bit new and different after it had dominated for the previous five years.
“We’ve obviously got the classics that are coming back into the charts, we’ve got the usual run of charity records driven by ordinary people who just want to raise some money for for good causes, and we’ve also got one or two really interesting releases as well, like Sam Ryder.”
The contenders:
- In an effort to promote its popularity, Wham!’s “Last Christmas” has been reissued on green vinyl. The song is the favorite; it peaked at number two in 1984 and has been at the top twice in the last three years, but not during Christmas week.Sam Ryder’s You’re Christmas To Me is an Amazon exclusive that the corporation is actively promoting, both on its Christmas music playlists and the soundtrack to its movie Your Christmas Or Mine 2Like Last Christmas, Mariah Carey’s song All I Want For Christmas Is You peaked at number two in 1994, but LadBaby has since dethroned her as the holiday number one.
Following the passing of Pogues singer Shane MacGowan last month, The Pogues’ “Fairytale of New York,” featuring Kirsty MacColl, has gained support. Ed Sheeran and Sir Elton John’s “Merry Christmas,” released in 2021, peaked both before and after Christmas, but LadBaby, you guessed it, prevented it from becoming the official Christmas number one that year.
The sales and streams from the week ending at Thursday night at midnight are combined to create the chart.
While Ryder’s single is only available on CD, the Wham! and Pogues songs have been reissued on vinyl. Physical sales are taken into account in the chart methodology more than streaming.
Ryder and Sheeran/Sir Elton have a better chance of competing with traditional holiday songs because streams of more recent songs also have more weight.
Since Shane MacGowan passed away, there has been a drive to place The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl at the top of the charts.
Additionally, a song’s placement in Christmas playlists on streaming sites can have an impact. Thus, even if Ryder’s song isn’t available on Apple Music and Spotify, it will probably appear for Amazon customers who ask Alexa to play holiday music.
“Playlists have a big part to play and they are influential in terms of the chart when it comes to Christmas,” Talbot states.
“That said, particularly with a Christmas number one race, the key is not to rely on streaming – it’s to it’s to generate sales, whether they be downloads or physical releases.”
