It has been confirmed that “Merry Christmas” by Sir Elton John and Ed Sheeran is this week’s number one single within the UK singles charts. This week marks the single’s third week at the top spot, the track’s chart placement also makes “Merry Christmas” the last number-one single of 2021. The release has beat out many festive favourites to the top spot including last week’s number one single “Sausage Rolls For Everyone”. Last week’s charts saw LadBaby’s new track bump “Merry Christmas” to number two to win the festive crown. OfficialCharts took to Instagram to post the full list of this week’s official UK top 10 singles.
This year saw LadBaby release their fourth annual comical charity track, “Sausage Rolls For Everyone” was released on 17th December 2021 and debuted at number one. This year the YouTube artists chose to record a parody of Sir John and Sheeran’s Christmas single and promised the track’s proceeds to The Trussell Trust. The two singles went head-to-head for Christmas number one despite holding a close relationship, Sir John and Sheeran made cameos in the parody version’s music video. Despite the record-breaking sales and streams incurred, “Sausage Rolls For Everyone” has dropped to number 29 within the charts this week.
Along with this week’s number one single, Sheeran has also claimed this week’s number one album with Equals. Due to both successes, Sheeran has been awarded the Official UK Chart double. The accolade is an impressive prize only rewarded to artists with considerable chart success within the singles and albums charts. OfficialCharts took to Instagram to announce the good news and congratulate Sheeran on his success.
This is not the first time Sheeran has received the award, in 2017 the singer achieved great chart success with the number one album Divide which sired the singles “Perfect” and “Shape Of You”. Other artists who have reached this feat include Adele for “Easy On Me” and number one album 30 and Sam Smith for his album In The Lonely Hour and the single “Lay Me Down”.
Elsewhere within the chart, the festive theme has remained apparent. The remaining tracks placed within the top 5 are all Christmas classics and consistent chart re-entries within the festive season. “Last Christmas” by Wham has placed at number two, and is often included in lists of most played Christmas songs and was originally released in 1985. At number three is “All I Want For Christmas Is You” by Mariah Carey, which has remained a classic holiday party track since its initial release in 1994.
One of the season’s more alternative classics has also placed within the top 5. “Fairytale of New York” by Pogues featuring Kirsty Maccoll has placed at number four, the Irish- folk-inspired ballad was released on 23rd November 1987 and regularly re-enters the charts during the festive period. Closing off the top 5 is one of the season’s more canonised tracks, “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree” by Brenda Lee has charted at number 5. The track was written by Johnny Marks and recorded by Lee in 1958 and has sold over 25 million copies worldwide.
