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Winners of the Official Christmas Number 1 race to receive prestigious new Official Singles Chart Number 1 Award
19/12/2011
Launch caps all-time record year for booming UK singles market in 2011
Award backed by BBC Radio 1, Olly Murs, The Wanted, Professor Green & Emeli Sande
The winners of this year’s Official Christmas Number 1 race will become the first recipients of a prestigious new award when the result is announced on Christmas Day.
The Official Charts Company is launching the Official Singles Chart Number 1 Award to mark the 60th anniversary of the UK’s Official Singles Chart in 2012.
The award launch caps a record year for singles, with 2011 already established as the biggest year for singles sales in the history of the UK music industry.
The first lucky recipients will be the winners of 2011’s Official Christmas Number 1 race, which is expected to see the Military Wives & Gareth Malone in a head to head with X Factor winners Little Mix.
New award
The Official Singles Chart Number 1 Award will be presented to recognise every new Official Number 1 single from Sunday 25th December onwards, and will be handed over by the Official Charts Company in partnership with BBC Radio 1’s Official Chart Show - which is broadcast from 4pm to 7pm every Sunday afternoon, hosted by Reggie Yates.
The unique trophy is cast from industrial brushed metal and shaped to reflect the Official Charts Company icon, which combines two arrows which overlap to create a number 1 – the most important position in the charts.
Reaching Number 1 in the Official Singles Chart continues to be one of the greatest achievements for a modern day artist. Three of this year’s Number 1 artists have told the Official Charts Company what a Number 1 means to them.
Artist backing
Last week’s Number 1 artist Olly Murs, who has scored three Official Number 1 singles and one Number 1 album to date, two of those singles in what has been a fantastic 2011 for the Essex-born music star and Xtra Factor presenter, (with last week’s chart-topper Dance With Me Tonight and Heart Skips A Beat with Rizzle Kicks in November), has given the award his full backing.
See video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gDsP7IQUYM
Although he will have to secure another Official Number 1 single to get his hands on his own award, Olly says, “It means everything for an artist to get a Number 1 single,” said Olly Murs. “When you release a record, to have people love it and buy into it, and see it at the top of the tree is the best feeling in the world. And now for there to be an award for it - even better!” [Olly is pictured showing off the award which he will be battling to win in 2012].
Jay McGuinness of boyband The Wanted, who spent two weeks at Number 1 in the summer with Glad You Came, adds, “The feeling of getting a Number 1 single is almost indescribable. It’s awesome, amazing and like a dream come true. The first time we were Number 1 [with 2010’s ‘All Time Low’] we were on top of Rihanna, and that feeling is genuinely unbelievable.”
Professor Green, whose single Read All About It with Scottish singer/songwriter Emeli Sande was Number 1 in November, adds, “To have a project go to Number 1 is one of the biggest achievements for an artist. It still hasn’t sunk in [being Number 1 with Read All About It], and to have a Number 1 with a track which was so personal to me was really important.”
Official Charts Company managing director Martin Talbot says, “For all artists, reaching Number 1 in the Official Singles Chart continues to be the pinnacle of success in the UK. But, until now, they have never had a tangible reminder of this achievement. That is what the Official Singles Chart Number 1 Award is all about.
“We are delighted to be working with Radio 1 to make sure that every week’s Official Number 1 announcement from now on is extra special.”
BBC Radio 1’s Head of Music George Ergatoudis says, ''Being Number 1 on The UK’s Official Singles Chart is still one of the ultimate goals for any self-respecting pop star and the chart remains hugely popular with Radio 1's young audience.
“With the launch of the Official Singles Chart Number 1 Award, artists will finally have something physical to recognise their achievement and Reggie Yates and Greg James are looking forward to handing them over.''
UK singles market surge
The launch of the new award comes at a time of surging interest in singles – with 2011 set to be the biggest year on record for single sales, according to latest Official Charts Company data.
Over the past seven years, the singles market has been redefined and re-energised by the explosion of legitimate downloads. Since 2004, sales of singles have increased by more than five times, from 32m in 2004, to 48m in 2005, 67m in 2006, 87m in 2007, 115m in 2008, 153m in 2009 and 162m in 2010.
With three of the traditionally biggest weeks of the year still left to go, UK music fans have bought more than 164m singles in 2011 to date – already ahead of last year’s all-time record of 161.8m.
Talbot adds, “In these challenging economic times, it is extraordinary that singles sales continue to surge – all evidence of the easy access and fantastic value offered by downloads at this time.”
The Official Singles Chart is compiled purely based on sales achieved (not airplay or ‘buzz’), the Official Charts Company counts sales daily from over 6000 retailers covering 99% of the singles market, from HMV to iTunes and Amazon, supermarkets and independent record stores. This produces the UK’s only official music chart.
Official Christmas Number 1 contenders
As the race for the Official Christmas Number 1 kicks off this week, the various contenders will be looking to replace Little Mix at the summit. The all-girl four-piece, whose debut single Cannonball was released last Sunday after their victory in the X factor final, were on course to comfortably top the Official Singles Chart today (Sunday December 18).
The quartet’s closest competitor will be bookies’ favourites Military Wives With Gareth Malone. The single, Wherever You Are, (which is in aid of The Royal British Legion and the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen Families Association) is performed by a choir made up from women whose loved ones are deployed in Afghanistan which was put together by Gareth Malone for the fourth series of BBC2’s The Choir.
The song combines a poem compiled from letters to and from servicemen and their wives, with music composed by Royal Wedding composer Paul Mealor. The song was performed by the Military Wives at the Royal British Legion’s Festival Of Remembrance earlier this autumn.
Other releases battling for the coveted Official Christmas Number 1 title are two covers of Wham!’s Last Christmas, by The Only Way Is Essex and Joe McElderry, Stacey Solomon’s rendition of Driving Home For Christmas (as featured in the Iceland TV ad campaign). In addition, The Wombles’ A Wombling Merry Christmas is being released, while a Facebook campaign is also aiming to push Nirvana’s Smells like Teen Spirit to the summit – in an attempted echo of the Rage Against The Machine campaign of 2009.
If the Military Wives do reach the top this week, they will become only the second act to keep X Factor from the top of the Christmas rankings in seven years.
As well as being the 60th Christmas Number 1 of all time, this year’s Christmas chart-topper will also be only the first to be announced on Christmas Day in six years (since Shayne Ward’s That’s My Goal in 2005) and only the third of all time. The first was East 17’s Stay Another Day in 1994.
UK Singles market surge
The launch of the new award comes at a time of surging interest in singles – with 2011 set to be the biggest year on record for single sales, according to latest Official Charts Company data.
Over the past seven years, the singles market has been redefined and re-energised by the explosion of legitimate downloads. Since 2004, sales of singles have increased by more than five times, from 32m in 2004, to 48m in 2005, 67m in 2006, 87m in 2007, 115m in 2008, 153m in 2009 and 162m in 2010.
With three of the traditionally biggest weeks of the year still left to go, UK music fans have bought more than 164m singles in 2011 to date – already ahead of last year’s all-time record of 161.8m.
Talbot adds, “In these challenging economic times, it is extraordinary that singles sales continue to surge – all evidence of the easy access and fantastic value offered by downloads at this time.”
The Official Singles Chart is compiled purely based on sales achieved (not airplay or ‘buzz’), and counts sales daily from over 6000 retailers covering 99% of the singles market, from HMV to iTunes and Amazon, supermarkets and independent record stores. Hence, being the UK’s only official chart.
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