Ed Sheeran and Elton John announce details of new single Merry Christmas - can it claim the 2021 Official Christmas Number 1?
Ed Sheeran and Elton John have announced the title and release date of their highly anticipated Christmas duet.
Merry Christmas will be released on Friday, December 3 - exactly three weeks before the race for the Official Christmas Number 1 kicks off.
All UK proceeds from this year's Christmas period will go to the Ed Sheeran Suffolk Music Foundation.
MORE: New Christmas songs for 2021 - how do they compare to the classics?
In a Love Actually-inspired post on his social media channels, Ed said: "Last Christmas I received a call from my mate Elton John and he told me we should do a Christmas song, and I replied 'Yeah maybe in 2022', but I actually wrote the chorus that day and here we are.
"Our Christmas song Merry Christmas is out this Friday (December 3). It has sleigh bells... a lot of them."
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Ed & Elton are one of the leading contenders for this year's Official Christmas Number 1 - others include Adele, ABBA and George Ezra.
The 2021 Official Christmas Number 1 race kicks off at 12.01am on December 17, until 11.59pm December 23. Top 100 Official Christmas Singles Chart and Albums Chart will be published on OfficialCharts.com from 5.45pm.
This year, Official Charts, in partnership with Nine Eight books, have released the The Official Christmas No.1 Singles Book - a definitive guide to every festive chart-topper. The book is priced at RRP £12.99 and is available via the Official Charts online store, on Amazon, Waterstones, WHSmith and more*.
*Official Charts may earn a small affiliate commission fee from some of these book retailers.
Article image: Zakary Walters
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Alfred Lock
We'll see if Ladbaby goes for an unprecedented 4 Xmas no.1 on a row first..This should have been released on Xmas week to give a real showdown..
BleeUK
The Run Up to Christmas Charts is From Christmas Eve (or Branded Christmas Charts by Media) kicks off at 00:01 GMT On December 17, until Thursday 23:59 GMT December 23. But The Real Christmas Weekly Charts is From 00:01 on Christmas Eve to 23:59 On Thursday 30th December 2021, Top 100 Christmas Weekly online from Friday 31st December From 17:45 GMT (Based on the real time Sales & Streams)
🧡 oliviasnoodles 🍜
ed sheeran has had a horrible year (tbh he always does but this is a new low for him), so when i heard the news about him working on a christmas song with elton i was like "oh please f*ck off", knowing well this was gonna block mariah.
this morning, i checked my instagram page and this popped up. i watched the video announcing it (ed didn't say anything, the paper did the talking), and the music playing in the background was so christmassy. plus the snippet he gave on radio 2 was kinda decent...
i hate myself for saying this but... could ed FINALLY release a good song???
crunch2k
How has he had a horrible year? Bad Habits and Shivers have both been huge successes.
Anyway I am looking forward to a (hopefully) good modern xmas song
🧡 oliviasnoodles 🍜
i didn’t mean it in that instance, he was on a chart topping spree! i just mean that his songs have all been mediocre at best, though this christmas song sounds decent.
BleeUK
Well we will see the Christmas Weekly Data is from Friday 31st December 2021 (Based on Real Time Christmas Week Sales & Streams From Christmas Eve to 30th December 2021)
CM
Christian Martin
I doubt his christmas song is decent. Hopefully it doesn't reach No. 1.
crunch2k
Ahh ok fair enough. I’ve liked some of his songs this year but each to their own :)
crunch2k
How can you hope it doesn’t get to number when you haven’t even heard it yet? lol
🧡 oliviasnoodles 🍜
mhm, even if it’s actually above average i hope it’s not number 1 cause i think we’re all sick and tired of seeing ed’s name at the top
🧡 oliviasnoodles 🍜
yeah, but the christmas number 1 will be revealed on christmas eve