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Military Wives march ahead in the race for Official Christmas Number 1

21/12/2011

Official Singles Chart Update: Military Wives march ahead in the race for Official Christmas Number 1

Gareth Malone’s choir of Military Wives began the race for Official Christmas Number 1 yesterday in pole position, and today the Official Charts Company can confirm that they continue to push ahead with impressive sales of 319,000 copies, based on units sold up to midnight last night.

The Military Wives are looking on course to become the 60th Official Christmas Number 1 this Sunday - and win the first ever Official Singles Chart Number 1 Award. Click here for details: http://bit.ly/uqLMfG

The Military Wives are currently leading the charge ahead of X Factor winners Little Mix by a ratio of 6:1. See video here of the moment when the choir and choir leader Gareth Malone learnt they were on their way to Christmas Number 1, includes interview with Gareth Malone

Watch Gareth Malone video interview: http://bit.ly/tALzeR

Little Mix's ‘Cannonball’, which sold 210,000 across the whole of last week are in second place on today’s Official Singles Chart Update, with sales of 55,000.

The People Power chart

The power of the people puts its festive stamp on today’s Official Chart Update, as the Top 10 is filled with a string of hits by acts without the support of a traditional record label.

Lou Monte’s Dominick The Donkey (3) – a track which has been championed by BBC Radio 1’s Chris Moyles Breakfast Show, has come from nowhere to clip-clop all the way into the Top 5. The track is being bought by fans from a digital compilation album.

Originally released in 1960, the song has never before charted in the UK, in fact, the last known donkey to chart according to the Official Charts Company Archive (yes, we looked into this one while it’s Christmas!) appears to be Muffin The Mule who made a cameo appearance in Peter Kay’s All Star Band as part of a BBC Children In Need Medley in November 2009, charting at Number 1.

Chris Moyles commented 'We've been playing Dominick the Donkey on our show every Christmas for years - our listeners love it! I'm so excited that it's made it in to the charts - consider it my Christmas present to the nation! But don't blame me if you hear it every Christmas from now on...'

Alex Day (4) is a You Tube musician and blogging phenomenon who, though unsigned, has managed to build a fan base to the tune of half a million You Tube subscribers, and has notched up an astonishing 70 million video views on You Tube to date.

Currently achieving more hits per day than Lady Gaga, Alex has now chosen to release his own single, Forever Yours. Marketing it to his fan base , Alex has watched the sales rack up to over 35,000 already this week. The video for the single has scored nearly 2.5m hits already, all without the backing of a record label.

Alex popped into Official Charts Company HQ to introduce himself and tell us what it means to him to be in this year’s Christmas Number 1 race.

Watch video: http://bit.ly/vMPStm

Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit (6) – A Facebook-driven attempt to repeat the Rage Against the Machine success of 2009. The campaign is in support of children’s charity Rhythmix and is even receiving the backing of the Rage Against The Machine campaign orchestrator Jon Morter.

Commenting on this week’s ‘People Power’ chart, Official Charts Company managing director Martin Talbot says, “In the week that the Military Wives are dominating the festive market, people power is really driving through. Aside from the wives, who have truly captured the imagination of the public in their own way, Alex Day’s Forever Yours, Lou Monte’s Dominick The Donkey and Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit all demonstrate the power of the public in pushing their favourite records to the top of the Official Chart – the chart that is based on sales, and sales alone.

“All these campaign records demonstrate comprehensively, at the start of its 60th year, that it is not hype, marketing or promotion which decides what records will hit the Official Singles Chart – but the choices of the great British public.”

Official Albums Update: Michael Buble’s maintains lead in the albums race

It’s looking like another strong week of sales for Canadian crooner Michael Buble on the Official Albums Chart Update. After shifting a staggering 269,000 copies last week to score the biggest weekly sales of any album this year, it appears Christmas shoppers have been out in force yet again this week to scoop up another 115,000 albums already this week.

Elsewhere, the rest of the Top 5 remains unchanged with the late Amy Winehouse’s posthumous release, Lioness, holding strong in second place.

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