UK OCC Charts Midweeks Thread: 2021

[Ewokguy15]

Yeah but that's the equivalent of a big name releasing music.

For example, Olivia Rodrigo having the #1 song for 7-8 weeks was a given. Same with Adele etc etc.

How do we contend with what people personally think is boring when everyone thinks different things are boring? The charts should be an objective measure outside of how people feel.

It’s the equivalent to Good 4 U topping the chart every year, not a new fresh single.

The chart companies will do what they want but I personally would love to see them move Christmas song older than 3 years to a separate chart.

They will still get the same high streams, it would just be nice to go back to a time when the Christmas #1 wasn’t either Wham or Mariah which it would be for the foreseeable future.

[bm08]

I think it’s because it makes the charts are now boring for 2 months of the year. Having the same 10 songs in the top 10 every year isn’t exciting in any way, especially when pretty much all of them are from the deceased

Yeah but that's the equivalent of a big name releasing music.

For example, Olivia Rodrigo having the #1 song for 7-8 weeks was a given. Same with Adele etc etc.

How do we contend with what people personally think is boring when everyone thinks different things are boring? The charts should be an objective measure outside of how people feel.

[Ewokguy15]

Honestly dont see the issue with Christmas songs topping the charts when it is currently the most consumed songs of the month. It literally is just 5-6weeks per year.

I dislike a lot of “junk” that is regularly on the chart but I dont think they should be removed or separated, as the chart is simply reflecting that “junk” is what people are consuming. Just because people dislike certain songs doing well doesnt mean those disliked songs should be penalised.

The charts will have no credibility.

I think it’s because it makes the charts are now boring for 2 months of the year. Having the same 10 songs in the top 10 every year isn’t exciting in any way, especially when pretty much all of them are from the deceased

[bm08]

Honestly dont see the issue with Christmas songs topping the charts when it is currently the most consumed songs of the month. It literally is just 5-6weeks per year.

I dislike a lot of “junk” that is regularly on the chart but I dont think they should be removed or separated, as the chart is simply reflecting that “junk” is what people are consuming. Just because people dislike certain songs doing well doesnt mean those disliked songs should be penalised.

The charts will have no credibility.

[ShayLaB]

Separate Christmas chart incoming that only gets compiled and announced in December but gets promotion via the OCC.

A bit like the album compilation chart.

It's not the same issue but it's close...a barage of junk clogging up the chart.

Credibility went out the window with ACR.

There is no right answer here...just a decision

[braindeadpj]

They should only be counting songs selected by the listener, otherwise it's the same as counting radio plays which the chart compilers have always shied away from (rightly so). Passive listening should never be counted as it's not real listening and so not an indication of whether a song is popular or not. Choosing not to turn something off/ skip a track is not the same as wanting to listen to a track.
Many people do primarily listen to christmas songs at christmas time so the charts should reflect this, however much it may create a distorted picture for the 3-5 weeks around christmas....

[Robbie]

I think the OCC just don't know what to do with Christmas songs. They could permanently bar tracks older than 3 years from charting but while it would remove the problem in one way it would also cause problems in another way, namely killing off any credibility the charts still have if most of the big songs of the week are excluded from the chart.

The only other way is to exclude or at least downweight songs played from Spotify etc curated playlists but I don't know if this would even be possible.

[SholasBoy]

I feel like it's only a matter of time before the OCC step in.

[Blondini]

that chart run for Gayle is gong to look very odd - out of the top 20 then back up to (probably) number one in the new year!

[Blondini]

https://www.officialcharts.com/chart...istmas__34600/

05 December 2021
Ed Sheeran & Elton John heading for Number 1 with Merry Christmas

Could the A-List pair dethrone Adele's Easy On Me?
By Helen Ainsley
Ed Sheeran & Elton John are heading straight for Number 1 on the Official Singles Chart with their brand new single, Merry Christmas.

With more than double the chart sales of its closest competition – reigning Number 1, Easy On Me by Adele – the pair are sleigh-riding into success on the Official Chart: First Look. If the song can hold on, it will mark Ed Sheeran’s 12^th total Number 1 single, and third this year, and Elton John’s 9^th and second this year.





14 total Christmas songs are currently sitting in the Top 20 after 48 hours, including George Ezra’s Come On Home For Christmas, soaring 31 places to Number 5. If he holds on, it will mark George’s first Top 5 single since his 2018 Number 1 smash Shotgun.

Other festive hits set to rise into the Top 10 this week include The Pogues & Kirsty MacColl’s Fairytale Of New York (6), Shakin’ Stevens’ Merry Christmas Everyone (7), Michael Buble’s It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas (8) and Brenda Lee’s Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree (9).
MORE: Vote for the UK's favourite Christmas Number 1


British singer Olivia Dean could land her first Top 20 hit, and indeed her first Top 40, with her Amazon Originals cover of Nat King Cole’s classic The Christmas Song. The track has already rocketed 29 places so far this week to Number 17.

The remaining hits jingling their way into the First Look are: Band Aid – Do They Know It’s Christmas? (11), Elton John – Step Into Christmas (12), Kelly Clarkson – Underneath The Tree (14), Ariana Grande – Santa Tell Me (16) and Andy Williams – It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year (19).

The Official Singles Chart Top 100 is revealed on OfficialCharts.com every Friday at 5.45pm. Follow the Top 40 countdown live on BBC Radio 1’s Official Chart show with Scott Mills.
Official Chart: First Look Top 20 - December 5, 2021

LW	CURRENT	TITLE	ARTIST
NE	1	MERRY CHRISTMAS	ED SHEERAN & ELTON JOHN
1	2	EASY ON ME	ADELE
4	3	LAST CHRISTMAS	WHAM
3	4	ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS IS YOU	MARIAH CAREY
36	5	COME ON HOME FOR CHRISTMAS	GEORGE EZRA
16	6	FAIRYTALE OF NEW YORK	POGUES FT KIRSTY MACCOLL
17	7	MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE	SHAKIN' STEVENS
20	8	IT'S BEGINNING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE	MICHAEL BUBLE
22	9	ROCKIN' AROUND THE CHRISTMAS TREE	BRENDA LEE
2	10	ABCDEFU	GAYLE
23	11	DO THEY KNOW IT'S CHRISTMAS	BAND AID
30	12	STEP INTO CHRISTMAS	ELTON JOHN
9	13	OVERPASS GRAFFITI	ED SHEERAN
29	14	UNDERNEATH THE TREE	KELLY CLARKSON
15	15	COLD HEART	ELTON JOHN & DUA LIPA
31	16	SANTA TELL ME	ARIANA GRANDE
46	17	THE CHRISTMAS SONG	OLIVIA DEAN
7	18	FLOWERS (SAY MY NAME)	ARRDEE
38	19	IT'S THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR	ANDY WILLIAMS
11	20	COMING FOR YOU	SWITCHOTR FT A1 & J1

©2021 Official Charts Company. All rights reserved.

[Robbie]

Gayle's track has performed better as the week goes on. It will be interesting to find out where she is later today as the algorithm used by the OCC to estimate Thursday streams sometimes seems to favour tracks that were doing better in the first few days.

[Blondini]

Thursday Top 40 Update
Missing Data: Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify and YouTube (all for Wednesday)

Singles

1 Adele - Easy On Me (51.2k)
2 Gayle - ABCDEFU (22.8k)
3 Adele - I Drink Wine (22.0k)
4 Adele - Oh My God (21.7k)
5 ArrDee - Flowers (Say My Name) (21.3k)

6-10
6 Mariah Carey - All I Want For Christmas Is You
7 Wham! - Last Christmas
8 Sam Fender - Seventeen Going Under
9 Ed Sheeran - Overpass Graffiti

11-20
18 Shakin' Stevens - Merry Christmas Everyone ^
19 The Pogues feat. Kirsty MacColl - Fairytale Of New York ^

21-30
21 Michael Bublé - It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas ^
24 Brenda Lee - Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree ^
27 Band Aid - Do They Know It's Christmas? ^
29 Kelly Clarkson - Underneath The Tree ^
30 Elton John - Step Into Christmas ^

31-40
31 Ariana Grande - Santa Tell Me ^
32 Wizzard - I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday ^
34 Imagine Dragons feat. JID - Enemy
37 Chris Rea - Driving Home For Christmas ^
40 George Ezra - Come On Home For Christmas *

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Albums

1 Adele - 30 (87.9k)
2 Westlife - Wild Dreams (36.6k) *
3 Ed Sheeran - = (30.7k)
4 ABBA - Voyage (23.9k)
5 Gary Barlow - The Dream Of Christmas (17.9k) *

6-10
6 Rod Stewart - The Tears Of Hercules
7 Michael Bublé - Christmas
8 Elton John - The Lockdown Sessions

11-20
14 Coldplay - Music Of The Spheres
16 Sam Fender - Seventeen Going Under
18 Queen - Greatest Hits
19 Olivia Rodrigo - Sour
20 David Bowie - Brilliant Adventure (1992-2001) [box set] *

21-30
22 Deep Purple - Turning To Crime *
24 Gregory Porter - Still Rising - The Collection ^
25 The Beatles - Let It Be ^
29 Fleetwood Mac - Rumours

31-40
32 Harry Styles - Fine Line
36 Arctic Monkeys - AM ^
37 Ronan Keating - Songs from Home ^
39 The Temperance Movement - Covers & Rarities *
40 The Beatles - 1 ^

[MadNuno]

Nice to see that Physical units in UK are higher this year than the all time historical low of 2020 (Covid Pandemic closing most shops during almost 6 months didn't help for 2020 physical sales).

[Blondini]

Wednesday Top 40 Update
Source: Music Week
Missing Data: unknown

Singles

1 Adele - Easy On Me (43,880)
2 Adele - I Drink Wine (18,626)
3 Mariah Carey - All I Want For Christmas Is You (18,566)
4 Adele - Oh My God (18,316)
5 Gayle - ABCDEFU (18,278)

6-10
3 Wham! - Last Christmas
8 Sam Fender - Seventeen Going Under
9 Ed Sheeran - Overpass Graffiti

11-20
18 Shakin' Stevens - Merry Christmas Everyone ^
19 The Pogues feat. Kirsty MacColl - Fairytale Of New York ^
20 Michael Bublé - It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas ^

21-30
22 Brenda Lee - Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree ^
27 Band Aid - Do They Know It's Christmas? ^
28 Kelly Clarkson - Underneath The Tree ^
29 Elton John - Step Into Christmas ^
30 Ariana Grande - Santa Tell Me ^

31-40
31 Wizzard - I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday ^
32 George Ezra - Come On Home For Christmas *
35 Chris Rea - Driving Home For Christmas ^
37 Andy Williams - It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year ^
40 Olivia Dean - The Christmas Song *

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Albums

1 Adele - 30 (75,199) [58,096 physical, 12,379 streaming, 4,724 downloads]
2 Westlife - Wild Dreams (35,005) [more than 31,000 physical] *
3 Ed Sheeran - = (26,348)
4 ABBA - Voyage (19,829)
5 Gary Barlow - The Dream Of Christmas (16,665) *

6-10
6 Rod Stewart - The Tears Of Hercules
7 Michael Bublé - Christmas
8 Elton John - The Lockdown Sessions

11-20
14 Coldplay - Music Of The Spheres
16 Sam Fender - Seventeen Going Under
17 David Bowie - Brilliant Adventure (1992-2001) [box set] *
19 Deep Purple - Turning To Crime *
20 Queen - Greatest Hits

21-30
22 Gregory Porter - Still Rising - The Collection ^
27 The Beatles - Let It Be ^
29 Fleetwood Mac - Rumours

31-40
32 Harry Styles - Fine Line
33 The Temperance Movement - Covers & Rarities *
37 Ronan Keating - Songs From Home ^
38 Arctic Monkeys - AM ^
40 The Beatles - 1 ^

[Blondini]

Is George Ezra one of those bloody Amazon releases?

yes, along with Olivia Dean, Camila Cabello, Alessia Cara in the midweek 100. As well as a new Amazon only version of Taylor's Christmas Tree Farm.

[jszmiles]

Is George Ezra one of those bloody Amazon releases?

I read on BJ that indeed it is

[SholasBoy]

Is George Ezra one of those bloody Amazon releases?

[Lemo]

Not a bad drop for Adele. Expect another 100k week.

Also expect the Adele, ABBA, Ed domination to happen for several weeks. They ain’t gonna move

[Blondini]

Tuesday Top 40 Update
Missing Data: Apple Music, Spotify and YouTube (all for Monday)

Singles

1 Adele - Easy On Me (34.7k)
2 Mariah Carey - All I Want For Christmas Is You (15.0k)
3 Wham! - Last Christmas (14.7k)
4 Adele - I Drink Wine (14.5k)
5 Adele - Oh My God (14.3k)

6-10
6 ArrDee - Flowers (Say My Name)
7 Gayle - ABCDEFU
8 Ed Sheeran - Overpass Graffiti

11-20
17 Shakin' Stevens - Merry Christmas Everyone ^
18 The Pogues feat. Kirsty MacColl - Fairytale Of New York ^
20 Michael Bublé - It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas ^

21-30
21 Brenda Lee - Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree ^
24 Band Aid - Do They Know It's Christmas? ^
28 George Ezra - Come On Home For Christmas *
29 Kelly Clarkson - Underneath The Tree ^
30 Elton John - Step Into Christmas ^

31-40
31 Wizzard - I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday ^
32 Ariana Grande - Santa Tell Me ^
33 Chris Rea - Driving Home For Christmas ^
35 Olivia Dean - The Christmas Song *
37 Andy Williams - It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year ^

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Albums

1 Adele - 30 (61.1k)
2 Westlife - Wild Dreams (33.0k) *
3 Ed Sheeran - = (21.2k)
4 ABBA - Voyage (15.6k)
5 Gary Barlow - The Dream Of Christmas (15.4k) *

6-10
6 Michael Bublé - Christmas
7 Rod Stewart - The Tears Of Hercules
8 Elton John - The Lockdown Sessions

11-20
13 Coldplay - Music Of The Spheres
15 David Bowie - Brilliant Adventure (1992-2001) [box set] *
17 Deep Purple - Turning To Crime *
18 Sam Fender - Seventeen Going Under
20 Queen - Greatest Hits

21-30
21 Gregory Porter - Still Rising - The Collection ^
27 The Temperance Movement - Covers & Rarities *
28 The Beatles - Let It Be ^
30 Fleetwood Mac - Rumours

31-40
33 Harry Styles - Fine Line
36 Ronan Keating - Songs From Home ^
38 Arctic Monkeys - AM ^

[Gambo]

Interesting comparison of Spotify streams of Christmas songs, but it's definitely true that 2020 is likely to have seen a long-term record set in this regard given the pent-up disappointment of the past ten months of the pandemic and the uncertainty it continued (and alas still is continuing) to impose upon our capacity to enjoy the seasonal holiday fully.

Moreover, as I recall, on Sun 29th Nov '20, we were all still in the second national lockdown in the UK, which was instituted quite suddenly on Thu 5th Nov and wasn't set to lift until Wed 2nd Dec at the earliest. So at-home streaming born of boredom and lack of practical variety in daily activities was at a high. Happily the lockdown did cease as planned, only to have tentative hopes of a vaguely-normal Christmas to be dashed as they deemed it necessary yet-again to effectively preclude permissible socialisation over the crucial period through very severe regionalised restrictions, followed of course by a third full-blown lockdown from early Jan. With that backdrop it's little wonder the Xmas hits all soared to new levels of listening last Nov/Dec.

Let us dearly hope there is no need for a repeat of last year in the coming weeks. The more down streaming numbers are shown to be on 12 months ago, the easier this potential new wave will've been on people.

[MadNuno]

Don't the Christmas songs do better at the weekend and thenm fade a bit during the week (until Christmas week itself)?

Monday Spotify UK numbers are in and I guess you are right.
Adele remains over 500k streams while both Wham! and Mariah dropped bellow 300k streams.

[Thriller]

I think because of the nature of last year everyone was desperate to get into the Christmas spirit earlier.

[SholasBoy]

Sometimes songs become more prominent different years depending which are being used on Christmas adverts, I assume Nat King Cole is on an advert this year?

[Charter2000]

So Mariah is basically number 1 already (if it wasn't on ACR) and it's not even December.
Maybe the weather has helped get people in the mood, too. Arwen aside, it does look like Christmas.

Christmas songs are actually performing worse than last year. The comparable day for Sunday (2 days ago) would be Sunday, November 29 2020: https://spotifycharts.com/regional/gb/daily/2020-11-29

In comparison, streams of AIWFCIY went down 26% compared to last year, "Last Christmas" streams are down 25%. Here's a comparison of the Top 20 christmas songs on Spotify:

Artist - Track	Streams 2021	Streams 2020
Mariah Carey - All I Want for Christmas Is You	442.665	596.678	-26%
Wham! - Last Christmas	431.815	575.199	-25%
Michael Bublé - It's Beginning to Look a Lot like Christmas	329.506	455.312	-28%
Brenda Lee - Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree	299.427	440.742	-32%
Shakin' Stevens - Merry Christmas Everyone	275.861	235.758	+17%
The Pogues - Fairytale of New York (feat. Kirsty MacColl)	263.826	313.934	-16%
Ariana Grande - Santa Tell Me	247.633	421.028	-41%
Band Aid - Do They Know It's Christmas? - 1984 Version	240.803	319.822	-25%
Bobby Helms - Jingle Bell Rock	236.863	345.906	-32%
Chris Rea - Driving Home for Christmas - 2019 Remaster	234.264	281.183	-17%
Andy Williams - It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year	234.054	351.178	-33%
Elton John - Step Into Christmas	233.561	229.620	+2%
Kelly Clarkson - Underneath the Tree	226.619	360.678	-37%
Wizzard - I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday	206.808	201.502	+3%
Michael Bublé - Holly Jolly Christmas	191.335	268.024	-29%
The Ronettes - Sleigh Ride	181.946	285.929	-36%
John Lennon - Happy Xmas (War Is Over) - Remastered 2010	181.609	179.572	+1%
Justin Bieber - Mistletoe	179.058	225.328	-21%
Nat King Cole - The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas To You)	169.006	96.035	+76%
Dean Martin - Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!	163.166	276.638	-41%

[MadNuno]

Don't the Christmas songs do better at the weekend and thenm fade a bit during the week (until Christmas week itself)?

Not sure... doesn't look that way. Looking at UK Spotify chart the Christmas songs have been increasing streams everyday so tomorrow we will verify if they keep increasing after the weekend as today numbers are Sunday..

Yesterday Adele song had 510k streams on Spotify UK to be #01, Mariah was at 442k and WHAM! had 431k at 2nd and 3rd.

On the previous day both Mariah and Wham! had less than 400k streams and on the day before both had less than 300k streams and were not even TOP 10 most streamed songs.

https://spotifycharts.com/regional/gb/daily/2021-11-28