Is the battle for Christmas number one a thing of the past?
Favourites including Jo Cox charity single and Matt Terry all fail to reach the top spot, prompting charts overhaul
THE UK’s historic Christmas No1 battle has been declared a thing of the past after the bookies' favourite – a charity single in honour of murdered MP Jo Cox – dropped out of the Top 40.
The demise of physical sales and digital downloads means Friends of Jo Cox’s cover of the Rolling Stones’ You Can’t Always Get What You Want has sunk to No59 after just three days on sale.
Instead the effect of streaming means British pop group Clean Bandit are likely to take the festive prize with their song Rockabye, which was released in October and has remained at No1 for six weeks since.
As of yesterday the Jo Cox tribute track had just 4,098 combined sales in comparison to Clean Bandit’s with 21,092.
Other favourite The Living Years by London Hospices Choir was only at No33, while X Factor winner
Matt Terry could only manage No5 with his single When Christmas Comes Around.
Yesterday the Official Charts Company announced changes to the way the charts are calculated in a bid to make them more competitive.
Currently 100 streams make up one ‘sale.’ From January 150 streams will equal one ‘sale.’
But music insiders believe the power of streaming has spelled the end of the iconic UK Christmas No1 battle.
A source said: “Streaming is now the big driver for the singles chart and reflects longer term popularity of a track.
“It means the days of a close and competitive Christmas No1 race are over.
“This year's Friends of Jo Cox single and London Hospices Choir songs were disadvantaged from the outset as they are much less likely to be frequently streamed.
“If the chart was based on sales alone last week, X Factor winner Matt Terry would have claimed the No1, but when streams were included it ended up at No3.
“It could still be possible for a novelty track to reach No1 – the NHS Lewisham single last year managed with a huge amount of publicity, with the help of support from Justin Bieber – but this year's challengers don't have the same momentum behind them.
“It looks most likely that Clean Bandit will secure a seventh week at No1. The track is being streamed 340,000 times a day in the UK, significantly ahead of any other songs."
Previous Christmas No1 battles have gone right to the wire.
In 1993 Take That were famously beaten to the festive top spot by novelty act Mr Blobby.
In 2009 a Facebook campaign helped US rockers Rage Against The Machine beat X Factor winner Joe McElderry to No1 with their 1992 track Killing In The Name Of.
Related Links
Earlier this year music industry figures called for urgent change to the charts after Drake’s One Dance spent 15 weeks at No1 as a result of streaming.
Only 11 songs have reached No1 this year in contrast to 26 in 2015 and 42 in 2014.
Announcing the changes to the chart formula yesterday, charts boss Martin Talbot said: “It is testament to the rapidly changing nature of music consumption in the UK – and the huge shift we are seeing towards streaming – that we are updating the way we measure the contribution of streams to the make-up of the official charts as quickly as we are.
“Streaming is growing exponentially and the weighting we use to reflect its impact will inevitably keep evolving with it.”