LadBaby takes early lead ahead of Stormzy, Wham! and Ellie Goulding for Christmas Number 1

After 48 hours, YouTuber and reigning Christmas Number 1 champion LadBaby, takes early lead in the biggest chart battle of the year.
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After 48 hours, YouTuber and reigning Christmas Number 1 champion LadBaby, takes an early lead again in the biggest chart battle of the year – the race to be crowned Official Christmas Number 1 2019.

Fresh from last year’s victory as 2018's Christmas Number 1 and throwing his hat into the festive ring for a second time, LadBaby’s I Love Sausage Rolls, a playful twist on Joan Jett classic I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll, raising money for foodbank charity The Trussell Trust, goes head to head with Stormzy ft. Ed Sheeran & Burna Boy’s Own It (2), plus Christmas classic Wham!’s Last Christmas (3) and Ellie Goulding’s River (4).

Two days in to the chart week and LadBaby takes a strong lead on downloads, the sheer streaming power of his closest rivals however means the gap could close significantly throughout the week.

With less than 2,000 copies separating Stormzy, Wham! and Ellie Goulding, things could shuffle around as the week progresses. It is well and truly all to play for over the coming days ahead of Friday’s final whistle.

If LadBaby does maintain his lead, he will be the first artist to score consecutive Christmas Number 1s in over 20 years, since the Spice Girls, who famously triumphed three years on the bounce in 1996 to 1998 with 2 Become 1, Too Much, and Goodbye.

Martin Talbot, Chief Executive, Official Charts Company comments “As we enter the biggest week of the year, the race for Official Christmas Number 1 is underway - and it looks as though it could well be a sausage roll Christmas once again. LadBaby’s latest sausage song is a genuine banger and is already looking like the track to beat - with Stormzy, Ellie Goulding and Wham! all in his wake.”

Own It is one of three tracks from Stormzy’s new Heavy Is The Head album on course for Top 20 entries – Own It (2), Audacity (8) and Lessons (13).

In its 25th anniversary year, Mariah Carey’s festive classic All I Want For Christmas Is You proves its enduring appeal - though it's never been Christmas Number 1, it is the UK's most streamed track of the week so far, riding high in sixth place after two days. Could it climb even higher before the week is out? Take a look at our Official Chart Flashback, remembering the chart battle that saw All I Want For You kept off Number 1 by East 17.

An ode to XFM presenter Chris Moyles, is hoping to follow in the footsteps of Dominick The Donkey - the track that the then Radio 1 Breakfast DJ championed all the way to Number 3 during Christmas 2011. This time around, ‘Merry ChrisMoyles Everyone’ an original song by Matt Hulbert opens in the Top 40 at Number 37.

The Christmas Number 1 race runs from Friday 13 December through to 11.59pm Thursday 19 December. The Top 40 will be counted down exclusively on BBC Radio 1’s The Official Chart with Scott Mills from 4pm Friday 20 December, crowning the winner of the Official Christmas Number 1 2019. The full Christmas Official Singles Chart and Official Albums Chart will be published on OfficialCharts.com from 5.45pm.

The Official Chart First Look Top 20 - Christmas Number 1 2019

POSITION TITLE ARTIST
1 I LOVE SAUSAGE ROLLS LADBABY
2 OWN IT STORMZY/ED SHEERAN/BURNA BOY
3 LAST CHRISTMAS WHAM
4 RIVER ELLIE GOULDING
5 DON'T START NOW DUA LIPA
6 ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS IS YOU MARIAH CAREY
7 BEFORE YOU GO LEWIS CAPALDI
8 AUDACITY STORMZY FT HEADIE ONE
9 DANCE MONKEY TONES & I
10 ROXANNE ARIZONA ZERVAS
11 ADORE YOU HARRY STYLES
12 FAIRYTALE OF NEW YORK POGUES FT KIRSTY MACCOLL
13 LESSONS STORMZY
14 MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE SHAKIN' STEVENS
15 DO THEY KNOW IT'S CHRISTMAS BAND AID
16 EVERYTHING I WANTED BILLIE EILISH
17 HAPPY CHRISTMAS (WAR IS OVER) JOHN LEGEND
18 STEP INTO CHRISTMAS ELTON JOHN
19 BRUISES LEWIS CAPALDI
20 I WISH IT COULD BE CHRISTMAS EVERYDAY WIZZARD

(c) Official Charts Company 2019

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KR

Katie Roseberry

0

Everyone who is saying that ladbaby shouldn’t be Christmas No1 should be ashamed of themselves! It is for a cause that gives food parcels for people who need it! If that’s not celebrated at Christmas then I don’t know what kind of a world we live in! I’m sure the likes of Stormzy will have many number 1’s and have plenty of cash to see him okay at number 2! As far as I’m concerned Ladbaby could be singing about Brussel sprouts and I’d still support their cause! Let Christmas be about giving back to the country and not about the haters who are bothered about where a song is on the charts! I’m sure they won’t care so let’s give these guys our support!!!

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Amie

2

Mariah finally makes history this year reach #1 in US but please hope Mariah score #1 in UK too.

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Sandra

0

Why so much hate for ladbaby? He is awesome, his family is awesome and he is doing a great thing... I forgot to say that he is just a regular guy, so think about that for a moment. Go ladbaby!!!

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Andrew J Green

0

If Wham! get to number one, then it will no longer be the best selling song never to hit the top of the charts. Anyone know the second best selling song never to get to number one?

SH

Scott Harris

1

I don't like either of the top two songs in this update, so I really could care less. LadBaby's music is just one big gimmick and I don't like Stormzy's music in general, especially 'Own It', I'm done with dancehall music, period.

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thierry henon

2

Please do not get Ladbaby to number 1 please!! Last year was enough!! What is happening to MARIAH? Stuck at number 6!! She climbed the chart so fast this year and now she won't even make it to the Top 5!! Please get WHAM then to number 1...NOT ED SHEERAN either!! We need a XMAS SONG at number 1!!

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Rob Parkinson

1

I think Mariah will be higher come Friday, it's only first look, lad baby will probably be down to #2 on update today and most likely fall rest of the week. Think close battle between stormzy, Mariah and wham come fridays actual chart especially with the 2 xmas classics having huge campaigns to get them to xmas no.1 but acr effects them and stormzy just has ed Sheeran and album pushing his track so see what happens

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BleeUK

2

I'll still be listening as always, but next year in 2020 is more special for the Christmas charts, as that will be nearly close to Christmas day Sales, right up to Christmas Eve sales to Christmas day broadcast, due to radio 1 and calendar rules, so a big year for christmas charts next time, it follows 1994, 2005, 2011 and 2015 with the only times of up to christmas eve sales, (2020 and 2026 are due for next Christmas eve sales) others are really days out up to 6 days behind! so quite misleading for Christmas charts

MA

michael anthony

0

Cmon Britain. Show the world that you care about GOOD AND TIMELESS MUSIC. Ladbaby is a joke and the more jokes that do well, the more nutters next year. The Christmas #1 will become a joke.

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akyovbashiev

0

Not that I like the LadBaby track at all, don't get me wrong, but I don't quite understand what you mean by "good and timeless music"?

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Mark Willmott

1

One downside if Stormzy gets it is Ed Sheeran would be classed as having another number one.

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Brian Quinn

1

Good. I hope LadBaby gets to No.1 for Christmas.

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AdrenalineRush1996

0

I hope not.

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Laura Kinsley

0

I hope LadBaby gets to number 1 too! Why

does it need to be a typical 'Christmas song' every year?? Why can't it be a random song about sausage rolls that raises money for charity... At least they put the profits to good use unlike the likes of Stormzy or Mariah Carey...

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Piran

4

Eh, for as much as I appreciate that it's for charity, LadBaby's sausage roll tribute last year was really unexpected & hilarious, but this time, it's just a re-attempt at something already done better 12 months ago unfortunately.

It's downloads could be enough to carry it all the way though, but streaming is definitely on 'Own It's side for now, so that's probably the only other song still in the race right now!

I'm very surprised that WHAM! are actually ahead of Mariah in the new chart update, but no complaints about that either! Looks like 2019 might be the year that 'Last Christmas' goes to the top after all... :)

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akyovbashiev

4

As awful as it sounds, hearing LadBaby is at #1, we should take this current result with a grain of salt - after all, today's data is lacking Saturday streams altogether, plus it's very possible Ladbaby is incredibly preloaded and doesn't actually manage to increase sales, like he did last year. I'd still say Stormzy has got this in the bag. As when all of the streaming data comes in on Friday, it's going to be on his side, as you said, rather than Ladbaby's.

Please Britain, don't make me lose faith in you... keep the sausage guy well out of the running for #1, please... if he gets to the top again, it's going to be at least another year of sausage songs every Christmas...

As for Wham!, don't quote me on this, but apparently they have new physical editions out this week for 'Last Christmas', which could be why they're ahead. I imagine with the release of Mariah's own ones next week she should be good for #1.

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Piran

2

So it only counted streams for Friday? In which case, no wonder LadBaby would be #1!

See, this is why I never agreed with "First Look" being moved to Sundays, because you're using two days of tracking for your update instead of three, so I honestly pay a lot more attention to tomorrow's update.

Honestly, if 'I Love Sausage Rolls' does become Christmas #1, then it would completely kill the uniqueness of last year's leader, which would be a bit of a shame to be honest. If it keeps happening, then the festive chart battles will just get boring going into the new decade!

Like I said to Coolocelot in my other replies, it all depends on whether or not LadBaby can maintain the sales that he's getting now, since only WHAM! would probably be able to increase their Spotify numbers considerably among the streaming contenders from now until Friday.

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akyovbashiev

1

Yeah, it's actually standard for streaming numbers to not be complete in First Look charts - it's also the case for all other midweek updates, as far as I'm aware. Having that kind of advantage, LadBaby was always going to be #1 - it's how he maintains his sales further down the road that is of any significance.

I wasn't following the charts as much last year, but apparently Ladbaby did a lot of promotion during the week, which heavily impacted his sales - which is quite logical, considering he wasn't as big of a name last year, but I'm not sure he's gonna manage that this year. With streaming numbers significantly up and download numbers significantly down, he'll have a difficult time getting #1 - but without the full streaming numbers counting towards the updates up till Friday, we really can't know for sure.

It would absolutely kill the uniqueness factor it had last year, and be a horrifying trendsetter for the future - he could cement himself as a Christmas tradition, just like all the other festive tracks, and we'd be getting sausage songs every Christmas - if it seems boring now, it's only gonna get worse!

I honestly don't think Wham! stand a chance for this week, unfortunately, as it's possible their numbers are heavily frontloaded as well, due to lots of physical sales counting in. Ellie is also gonna drop throughout the week, so I imagine the true competition is just between Stormzy and LadBaby. And what a competition it is, indeed.

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Piran

1

As far as I'm aware, 'I Love Sausage Rolls' is just exclusive to sales, which would make sense given that it's a charity song, but it's a lot harder to get a #1 with absolutely no streaming outside of YouTube. I guess that's why I like charity singles being Christmas #1 a lot, but this is almost an exception, since LadBaby got there last year with the exact same idea!

Again, I respect him for what he's doing, but being totally honest, if all proceeds from buying 'I Love Sausage Rolls' didn't go to The Trussell Trust, would it really be getting anywhere near as many sales as it currently is?

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akyovbashiev

1

I was pretty sure that it is on streaming actually, and I just checked, it is in fact on Spotify and Apple Music, with it actually being #664 on Apple Music, and it has 91k streams total on Spotify - whatever that's worth, I imagine it's very little.

It's great indeed that there's charity singles being able to do as much good as they do, but I wish he had done something just a bit different so that it was still interesting. And, yeah, I'm pretty sure this would be doing absolutely nothing if it wasn't a charity single - I get that's the whole point of this, but it only goes to show how uninnovative this is.

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Sergej Dordij

1

Can't wait for the christmas chart!
As much as I wanted it to be "Own It", I got a feeling that LadBaby will be #1 on Friday.

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Piran

1

Okay, so it's not exclusive to sales, but they're really almost 100% of where 'I Love Sausage Rolls' chart units are coming from.

That said, remember that after three days of tracking last year, 'We Built This City' was at #2 in the Radio 1 update (behind 'Sweet But Psycho' by Ava Max), then it got a second wind on downloads, causing it to go to #1!

'I Love Sausage Rolls' is so similar in the sense that it's for charity, it's getting the same kind of promotion & reception, heck, it's about exactly the same thing too! So, if that's #1 now, I'd definitely at least be keeping an eye on it over the next few days.

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Piran

1

Same! :D

The #1 on other hand, I'm really not sure at the moment! It all comes down to whether or not LadBaby can maintain his current sales numbers for most of the tracking week, since sales vary a lot more throughout the tracking week than streaming does.

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BleeUK

1

unfortunately, a lot of classic Christmas songs is struggling all the time for higher charts positions for radio 1 charts rules with streaming and fix sales units as older than a few years plus gets into ACR mode means each total unit get split to nearly half, which means it would be higher than radio 1 and single placed, Mariah got #2 last year on singles with ACR mode (so was really #1 with all i want for christmas is you) and made history with he biggest streamed unit of all time at the time with over 14 million plays streaming plays in UK in a single week (so it shifted from #1-2) we need more downloads we need something like 100K downloads or 100k physical to make it more better chance of getting a classic song for #1

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akyovbashiev

1

Yeah, it will be interesting to see if he will be able to get those next waves of sales increases, as he did last year, I kind of doubt it honestly, but anything is possible! Plus, this year he is coming in as an already established name, more press coverage and more general hype around him. In any case, this is going to be really close.

With the new one, Ladbaby is following an already established formula, which in theory should work, and it's exactly why I'm so disapproving of this - he could have easily done something different, but he chose to go safe.

Usually, formulaic follow-up singles never do as well - off the top of my head, 'Lose Control', largely similar to 'Piece of Your Heart', hasn't done as well yet, and likely won't; and 'So Am I', which was also pretty similar to 'Sweet but Psycho', was big, but not to the same extent. I can only hope the same will apply to Ladbaby, though he's a largely different case - he's pushing a charity single, which people will buy solely to support a cause - and that's how we got here. Allegedly, according to initial sales, he's about 20k ahead of Stormzy, which is a scary lead, and could mean he could actually pull through. Let's hope not!

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Rob Parkinson

1

I doubt it will last the week, I doubt when the chart updates today lad baby will most likely fall. Think Mariah and wham both be up there on Friday just depends how much acr effects both tracks as to whether they beat stormzy. Crazy as both of these Christmas songs will undoubtedly be exceeding the amount of streams that stormzy gets by loads in reality

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Piran

0

It seems like LadBaby is still out on front on the update that happened about 15 minutes ago, although OCC did mention that Stormzy is catching up fast in a separate article released today.

They mentioned that Stormzy is getting around a 3:1 streaming lead over LadBaby, but I honestly thought it'd be a lot more than that, while LadBaby is beating Stormzy by about 5:1 on downloads currently! :O

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Piran

1

Have you seen the latest update?

OCC reported that Stormzy has closed the gap between hum & LadBaby today, although he's "only" leading by a 3:1 ratio in streaming, which might not be enough given that 'I Love Sausage Rolls' has a much greater sales dominance than that over 'Own It'.

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Piran

0

Yeah, I just don't understand why the 25% gain exemption rule around ACR doesn't apply to songs older than three years old... :/

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akyovbashiev

1

I've seen the update, but at this point, the race seems to be over - Ladbaby's released another version of the sausage song, plus a new YT video, and the new one is doing half of what the original is doing. I don't think Stormzy has any chance anymore - he's even endorsing the Ladbaby song on his Twitter!

DL

David Laing

0

Think I'll play devil's advocate here and point out my colleagues are obsessed with ladbaby with Stormzy barely getting a mention

I think older ppl (30s and 40s, though streaming happens amongst that generation too) are more likely to purchase while younger (teens and 20s) exclusively stream. The youngsters are going to be more behind Stormzy. I think the older ones are coming out in force for ladbaby. I think it could go either way

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Piran

0

Oh yeah, with the release of the swing version, LadBaby has essentially locked the top spot with one day of tracking left!

Apparently, Stormzy might not even get the #1 album either (although he's looking a lot more likely to top that chart).

Meanwhile, I'll be announcing my Christmas chart tomorrow night! :)