colourfulsevens

Woop woop woop!

Apologies, the interview was with Martin Talbot, the Official Charts Company CEO.

Here's the interview. No spoilers as it was done on Wednesday. Will be updated when the number one is announced later today. https://metro.co.uk/2025/12/19/chart-boss-warns-kylie-minogue-giving-wham-a-run-money-25599513/

Unsure what the issue is with XMAS on Amazon, but RE: the playlisting situation, from what Martin Talbot said to me (see above), there's no way for the OCC to track whether someone has clicked on a song or simply let the song play. It's sneaky. He said labels and streamers probably have that information but don't give it out.

Have just spoken to OCC head guy Martin Talbot. I'm interviewing him for Metro.co.uk, an inside scoop on the reality of the race for Christmas number one this year - what it's like in the office, who he wants to get to number one this year, his favourite Christmas songs, what he thinks of old songs sticking around on the charts due to streaming. Piece should be going up Friday morning. The OCC obviously can't change anything, they just to display the data they receive, but it seems their fingers are crossed for Kylie.

Hey everyone. Hope this query is okay! Thought the experts of this forum would be best to ask. I was listening back to George Michael & Elton John's live @ Wembley rendition of Don't Let the Sun Go Down On Me, and a thought crossed my mind... Have any other live recordings reached number one in the UK singles chart? There must be some I've forgotten about but I couldn't bring any to mind!

Yeah this is probably the bigger issue. Current artists not pushing their Christmas songs enough, or not writing good enough Christmas songs, so labels don't push them and radios don't play them much. Means all the old songs are still at the top of the pile. There's been a few in the 21st century and a handful since about 2010 but since about 2004 it's just been: X Factor winner's song, a choir doing a song for charity, some YouTubers doing a song for charity, etc. Kinda become a mockery of itself. The last proper race was 2003 but that's cos The Darkness gave it a proper go, Gary Jules & Michael Andrews got some radio backing, and, much as it was shite, Bo Selecta put some effort in to make a novelty song. 2009 was just an X Factor winner vs. people who didn't like the X Factor anymore, hardly a proper race, exciting as it was.

They've gotta do something to stop this from happening again. Even if this'll be their first Christmas number one, Wham have been number 1 four times in three years. Mariah not far behind. It's barely its own chart anymore - more a reflection of how Spotify arrange their Christmas playlists.