Entertainment
Christmas comes early for Ed Sheeran and Sir Elton John with festive number one
Sir Elton and Ed have dethroned Adele (Picture: PA)
Ed Sheeran and Sir Elton John’s festive collaboration Merry Christmas has gone straight to the top of the UK singles chart.
The track claimed 76,700 chart sales in its first week, including 7.6million streams, according to the Official Charts Company.
It marks Sheeran’s third number one single of 2021 and his 12th in total.
Sir Elton, meanwhile, notches up his second number one single this year – after Cold Heart with Dua Lipa (PNAU Remix) – and his ninth in total.
Sheeran now matches boy band Take That’s record of number ones and only five acts in UK chart history have more – Madonna (13), Sir Cliff Richard (14), Westlife (14), The Beatles (17) and Elvis Presley (21).
UK profits from the single, which features sleigh bells, festive lyrics and a music video with a cast of famous friends, will go to Sheeran’s Suffolk Music Foundation and the Elton John Aids Foundation.
Earlier on Friday, it was announced that the duo had also teamed up with social media star LadBaby to create a new version of that track called Sausage Rolls For Everyone, which is a pretty canny move on their part and offers two bites at the Christmas number one cherry.
The track was announced today, with pre-orders available now ahead of its release on December 17, and 100% of profits from the song will go to food bank charity the Trussell Trust to support their campaign to end food hunger in the UK.
If the track secures the Christmas number one, it will be LadBaby’s fourth consecutive time after 2018’s We Built This City, 2019’s I Love Sausage Rolls and 2020’s Don’t Stop Me Eatin’.
Speaking about the jingle, Ladbay – real name Mark Hoyle – and wife Roxanne said: ‘We always said we’d only go for a fourth number one if we could make it bigger and raise even more money for the Trussell Trust.
Ed and Sir Elton’s second Christmas effort sees them teaming up with social media sensation and Christmas number one connoisseur LadBaby (Picture: PA)
‘We approached Ed and Elton with an idea to do something that had never been done: to combine the music world with the social media world and join forces to make a difference to the people in the UK that need it most! Ed and Elton are pop royalty and they’ve both had huge success at Christmas, so we’re honoured and excited to be coming together to help families this Christmas and bring back some true Christmas spirit with the power of sausage rolls!
Meanwhile on this week’s charts behind Ed and Sir Elton’s first go at Christmas number one, Adele’s Easy On Me sits at number two, while Last Christmas by Wham! is at three and All I Want For Christmas Is You by Mariah Carey is at four.
More: Ed Sheeran
Fifth place goes to 17-year-old American singer Gayle with her song Abcdefu.
On the albums chart, Adele’s 30 holds at number one for a third week.
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