This year's Christmas Number One: Your very quick guide

Christmas Number One: 2022

Christmas Number Ones aren't like other songs: they stick around year after year, sung by everyone young and old. But how did the tradition start, who's in the running this year, and is it going to be another rock and (sausage) roll Christmas?

This year’s Christmas Number One is announced on Friday, 23 December

You can hear the official result on BBC Radio 1’s Official Chart Show with Jack Saunders from 4pm.

YouTubers are competing for 2022’s Christmas Number One

YouTubers LadBaby are the ones to beat. They have had four sausage-roll themed Christmas Number Ones in a row, and a win for ‘Food Aid’ would see them pass the Beatles’ record for Christmas chart toppers. Also in the running are year-round chart mainstays like Lewis Capaldi and Taylor Swift.

The Christmas Number One is not the most popular song of the year

It’s just the biggest song in the week leading up to Christmas - this year that’s from 16 December to 22 December. While it used to just be based on how many physical records were sold in shops, now the Official Charts Company makes a calculation based on sales, streaming, music videos and more.

The first official Christmas Number One was Here In My Heart by Al Martino in 1952

Since then, bands including the Beatles and Spice Girls have claimed it a few times. Despite her claim to being the ‘Queen of Christmas’, Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas Is You first reached UK Number One in December 2020, 26 years after release. It has never actually been Christmas Number One.

Christmas Number Ones aren’t always Christmassy - some are pretty weird

The Power of Love by Frankie Goes To Hollywood doesn’t mention Christmas, and neither does Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen. Others got there through social media campaigns (like Killing in the Name by Rage Against the Machine in 2009); the nation coming together (The Military Wives Choir in 2011); or sheer novelty (Mr Blobby by Mr Blobby, 1993).

The Christmas Number One is still important

Families might not gather round to listen to the result like we used to, but a big Christmas song is still a big deal for an artist. Last year, LadBaby made over over 136,000 chart sales, with proceeds going to the anti food poverty charity The Trussell Trust. However, White Christmas by Bing Crosby, which has sold more than 100 million copies and holds the Guinness World Record for a Christmas single, has never actually been a UK number one.

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