-Jay-

It keeps being moved down :cry: but at least it's there! ~ Should we even discuss the latest Christmas merch <_<

Wash your MOOF out, it's nice! ~ Will never quite understand the fanbase's overall dislike of 'We're Not Gonna Sleep Tonight (single version)' - for me it's a nice enough bop!! Should be well within her Top 40. :arrr:

Great! Also on Spotify Hot Hits UK, only 33rd though, but at least it’s there. Can this please become a hit by January once the Christmas songs are gone? :cry:

:cry: I wish his label would react by doing some price cuts, but I doubt they'll do it at this late stage!

Sadly not in the midweek Top 40 today but I suppose it's to be expected :cry: Too much of a struggle for it to compete with hugely streamed songs. Down to #3 on iTunes.

^ Here we go! I've ended up including a lot of older sales figures - it's interesting to see how they've grown over the years: Sound of the Underground 726,000 - 21st December 2017 (OCC article: data from 15th December 2017) 800,338 - 8th August 2019 (Shared on BuzzJack: data from 2nd August 2019) 874,000 - 3rd December 2020 (OCC article: data from 27th November 2020) 1,028,000 - 29th March 2023 (OCC article: data from 24th March 2023) 1,065,000 - 8th November 2023 (OCC article: data from 3rd November 2023) 1,100,000 - 28th April 2024 (MTV: cut off date unknown) 1,200,000 - 19th November 2024 (OCC article: data from 15th November 2024) The Promise 578,145 - 21st September 2017 (Shared on BuzzJack: data from 15th September 2020) 600,000 - 27th July 2018 (BPI Brit Certified: Platinum) 606,000 - 1st November 2018 (OCC tweet: data from 26th October 2018) 634,748 - 8th August 2019 712,140 - 28th October 2021 (OCC article: data from 22nd October 2021) 765,000 - 29th March 2023 783,000 - 8th November 2023 805,000 - 28th April 2024 860,000 - 19th November 2024 Love Machine 292,827 - 11th June 2018 (Shared on BuzzJack: data from 8th June 2018) 364,321 - 8th August 2019 372,000 - 19th September 2019 (OCC article: data from 13th September 2019) 400,000 - 7th February 2020 (BPI Brit Certified: Gold) 580,000 - 29th March 2023 600,000 - 15th September 2023 (BPI Brit Certified: Platinum 605,000 - 8th November 2023 625,000 - 28th April 2024 694,000 - 19th November 2024 Call the Shots 359,301 - 19th March 2018 (Shared on BuzzJack: data from 16th March 2018) 389,409 - 8th August 2019 400,000 - 14th February 2020 (BPI Brit Certified: Gold) 462,500 - 29th March 2023 475,000 - 8th November 2023 488,000 - 28th April 2024 520,000 - 19th November 2024 Jump 301,784 - 16th October 2018 (Shared on BuzzJack: data from 19th October 2018) ~ 327,322 - 8th August 2019 400,000 - 26th November 2021 (BPI Brit Certified: Gold) 446,000 - 29th March 2023 460,000 - 8th November 2023 472,000 - 28th April 2024 499,000 - 19th November 2024 The MTV data shared on 28th April 2024: it doesn't seem possible to pinpoint what the cut off date for the data is. These updates showed that their sales had been boosted since November 2023 (due to the reunion announcement), because all 5 singles were selling faster than they had done from March 2023 to November 2023. If we just say for the sake of argument that the data comes from Friday 26th April, and the new data is from Friday November, then their average weekly sales (over 29 weeks) have been: 3,448 - Sound of the Underground (but we can take this with a pinch of salt given the 1.1m/1.2m rounding up) 2,379 - Love Machine 1,896 - The Promise 1,103 - Call the Shots 931 - Jump Hopefully the airing of the tour has provided a nice boost again for their streaming! Presumably their weekly sales will decrease somewhat if they enter another period of inactivity, but if those average sales continued then... Sound of the Underground would certify 3xPlatinum (1.8m) in 2028 (presumably 2xPlatinum isn't too far off, whether it happens this year or in 2025) The Promise would pass 1 million in 2026, and certify 2xPlatinum (1.2m) in 2028 Love Machine would pass 1 million in 2027 and certify 2xPlatinum (1.2m) in 2028 Call the Shots would go Platinum (600k) in 2026 Jump would go Platinum (600k) in 2026 ... so I'd probably take these estimated years as "at the very earliest"!

WhatsOnStage - 4/5 The Stage - 4/5 All That Dazzles - 5/5 The Reviews Hub - 5/5 Behind The Arras - 4/5 Birmingham Mail - Positive :wub:

Looks set to miss the Top 20 in the US :cry: Predicted to be opening with 27k. His previous 4 studio albums all reached #1. Midweek #5 in the UK on Monday, I wonder whether he's done enough to stay Top 10 by Friday :thinking:

Great to have a Top 40 update and very interesting to see quite a few changes to the order! There was an update last November but the only change at that point was Every Now and Then overtaking Revolution in the Head. It bothers me that OCC are quite vague lately about sales that exceed 1 million ("1.2m" for Sound of the Underground, which is a rounded figure) even though they're accurate to the nearest 1k for sales below 1m. :drama: Make it make sense! I wonder how far off Sound of the Underground actually is from 2xPlatinum? Another thing that's frustrating is them only revealing the Top 5 sales each time they do this update. Even if they can't/won't reveal every sale in the Top 40, at least a few others would be interesting to know! Wow at Biology and Something New moving ahead of I'll Stand By You! Who'd have thought a song that went 2-14-30-out of the Top 40 would one day outsell a 2 week #1 which spent 6 weeks in the Top 10! But with I'll Stand By You (Sarah's Version) selling a few thousand copies, I wonder if it'll move back up their list? Untouchable and The Show moving ahead of Walk This Way is good to see - I wish we had an indication of how close to Silver the three of them are! Nice to know that Long Hot Summer is definitely over 100,000 sales now. Whole Lotta History finally moving ahead of See the Day - deserved! I hope both of these and Wake Me Up aren't too far off 100k+ if none of them are there already.

I'm so pleased for Steps and everyone involved that it's been a well received success! Such great news that there's a tour, and it's a very extensive one!! 2025 29/08 - 30/08: Aylesbury Waterside Theatre 02/09 - 13/09: Manchester Opera House 16/09 - 20/09: Glasgow King’s Theatre 23/09 - 04/10: Dublin Bord Gáis Energy Theatre 07/10 - 11/10: Southend Cliffs Pavilion 14/10 - 19/10: Woking New Victoria Theatre 21/10 - 26/10: Aberdeen His Majesty’s Theatre 28/10 - 02/11: Newcastle Theatre Royal 04/11 - 09/11: London New Wimbledon Theatre 11/11 - 16/11: Nottingham Theatre Royal 18/11 - 22/11: Sheffield Lyceum 25/11 - 29/11: Liverpool Empire Theatre 02/12 - 13/12: Theatre Royal Brighton 15/12 - 28/12: Stockton Globe 2026 20/01 - 24/01: Southampton Mayflower Theatre 27/01 - 31/01: Belfast Grand Opera House 03/02 - 07/02: Cardiff Wales Millennium Centre 10/02 - 15/02: York Grand Opera House 17/02 - 22/02: Oxford New Theatre 24/02 - 01/03: Edinburgh Playhouse 10/03 - 15/03: Wolverhampton Grand 24/03 - 28/03: Theatre Royal Plymouth 31/03 - 04/04: Milton Keynes Theatre 08/04 - 12/04: Blackpool Opera House 14/04 - 19/04: Norwich Theatre Royal 21/04 - 26/04: Hull New Theatre 28/04 - 03/05: Leicester Curve 05/05 - 10/05: Leeds Grand Theatre I think I'd like to do Leicester! Sooo long to wait (April/May 2026) but should be a nice time of year and it's quite local to me!

:wub: Just like the old days! Just noticed that I'll Stand By You (original 2004 version) is at #10 in Girls Aloud's Popular Top 10 songs list on Spotify - for a little while it was Can't Speak French, so it seems the recent Sarah's Version/the tour airing has helped the original!

I went with Buzz!

I've voted: Mariah - #2 Wham! - #1 Mariah 100k - no Wham! 100k - yes Wham! will overtake Mariah Mariah won't be Christmas #1 Wham! will be Christmas #1 Even though Mariah's off to a better start again, I still predict a shift to Wham! will occur... and also that their 40th anniversary is going to get more attention and physical sales than Mariah will get. My preference would be Mariah to do better for the whole festive season but I just don't see it! If she did somehow manage to snatch #1 in the week of her physicals though, that would be pleasing to me.

A thread comparing the chart runs (since 2007) week by week of Mariah Carey - All I Want for Christmas Is You and Wham! - Last Christmas! Green positions = the highest placed song, and Red positions = the lowest placed song. I've also included some prediction polls! Feel free to respond to the thread to say which choices you voted for. Re: the 100,000 sales question: that is the sales contributing to the weekly chart which will have the streaming sales halved due to ACR. Last year neither managed 100k+ - Last Christmas: 96,653 / All I Want for Christmas Is You: 83,175. ~~~~~~~~~~ Edited: 27th December 2024 (24/11/2007) | 78 46 23 08 04 06 20 | Mariah Carey (08/12/2007) | 00 00 50 23 14 16 40 | Wham! (22/11/2008) | 59 45 37 17 12 17 25 | Mariah Carey (06/12/2008) | 00 00 67 36 26 27 45 | Wham! (28/11/2009) | 77 51 29 19 21 18 | Mariah Carey (12/12/2009) | 00 00 53 39 41 34 | Wham! (27/11/2010) | 96 48 22 23 25 31 | Mariah Carey (11/12/2010) | 00 00 57 53 56 61 | Wham! (26/11/2011) | 100 64 27 12 11 17 | Mariah Carey (10/12/2011) | 000 00 55 26 28 34 | Wham! (24/11/2012) | 88 56 30 20 21 20 55 | Mariah Carey (08/12/2012) | 00 00 55 34 41 35 87 | Wham! (23/11/2013) | 98 68 47 14 12 13 30 | Mariah Carey (07/12/2013) | 00 00 91 44 40 36 68 | Wham! (29/11/2014) | 68 52 17 16 18 20 | Mariah Carey (06/12/2014) | 00 86 39 36 35 28 | Wham! (03/12/2015) | 94 35 13 12 11 37 | Mariah Carey (10/12/2015) | 00 65 27 24 18 54 | Wham! (01/12/2016) | 72 29 06 08 05 05 | Mariah Carey (08/12/2016) | 00 75 19 20 16 07 | Wham! (16/11/2017) | 89 88 34 22 05 02 04 04 | Mariah Carey (30/11/2017) | 00 00 81 29 06 03 03 02 | Wham! (29/11/2018) | 65 34 06 05 04 02 | Mariah Carey (06/12/2018) | 00 52 14 07 07 03 | Wham! (21/11/2019) | 77 59 34 08 06 08 02 | Mariah Carey (28/11/2019) | 00 80 43 13 07 05 03 | Wham! (19/11/2020) | 60 31 14 02 01 01 02 02 | Mariah Carey (19/11/2020) | 76 44 20 03 02 02 03 01 | Wham! (18/11/2021) | 69 44 24 03 04 04 04 03 | Mariah Carey (18/11/2021) | 85 54 28 04 03 03 03 02 | Wham! (17/11/2022) | 56 36 18 08 01 02 04 02 | Mariah Carey (17/11/2022) | 71 42 23 09 03 01 02 01 | Wham! (16/11/2023) | 40 28 16 06 02 03 03 03 00 | Mariah Carey (16/11/2023) | 37 26 14 05 01 01 01 01 83 | Wham! (14/11/2024) | 58 38 17 10 05 03 03 02 62 | Mariah Carey (14/11/2024) | 61 43 16 08 02 01 01 01 42 | Wham! ~~~~~~~~~~ 2010 - Interestingly the only year listed above (bar this year so far) that All I Want for Christmas Is You didn't make the Top 20, and the only year that Last Christmas didn't go Top 40 (not even Top 50)! What was up with this year? #scrooge 2017 - The year that Wham! moved ahead of Mariah for the first time in the digital era. This was the 1st anniversary of George Michael's death and there was a campaign to get the song to #1 (in fact, to be the Christmas chart #1), but it didn't happen. It managed #3 with 62,481 sales - considerably ahead of Mariah at #4 on 35,414. Wham! sold upwards of 32,000 downloads that week, whereas Mariah sold less than 5,000 downloads. The following week, Wham! moved up to #2 with their sales declining to 53,796 sales, while Mariah stayed at #4 but increased her sales to 50,124. 2019 - Last Christmas was higher in the chart than AIWFCIY for one week (#5 and #8, respectively) because it was helped along by the release of a 7" vinyl. Last Christmas sold 40,785 copies that week, 4,859 copies on vinyl (so that's 35,926 without the vinyl). Mariah sold 36,781 overall. Without the Last Christmas vinyl, Mariah would have been #7 and Wham! #9. #gino 2020 - The year that both All I Want for Christmas Is You and Last Christmas finally made it to #1! (Well, for Wham! it actually happened on Friday 1st January 2021, w/e 7th Jan!). In the week that Wham! were at #1, Mariah was at #2. The sales were very close between them that week: Last Christmas sold 40,149 and AIWFCIY sold 39,435. Mariah had started the week at midweek #1, and in the Friday chart she was actually marginally ahead in terms of streaming sales (with 38,674 units; Last Christmas was on 38,591). However Last Christmas sold more downloads - 1,556 sales; AIWFCIY sold 761. As chart fans we realised during that week just how close it was, so quite a few of us decided to download versions of Last Christmas. Even though this was a much more lowkey effort than the 2017 campaign, it actually succeeded this time! Little did we know then that Last Christmas would go on to spend a further 6 weeks at #1 across 2022 and 2023. 2023 - A year which stands out due to Last Christmas being ahead of AIWFCIY at every step of the way. Last Christmas spent 4 weeks at #1, which included its first occasion as the Christmas chart #1 - an achievement that still eludes Mariah, whose best Christmas week position is #2 in 1994 and 2020. 2024 - This year we're back to AIWFCIY having an early lead. Will Mariah maintain this lead or will Wham! overtake eventually? It's worth mentioning that both of these songs have new physical formats being released this year, to celebrate their anniversaries - the 30th anniversary of All I Want for Christmas Is You, and 40th anniversary of Last Christmas. Mariah's are released on 6th December (meaning they'll be included in the 13th December chart), while Wham!'s are released on 13th December (for the 20th December chart - which is the Christmas week chart).

An interesting case for both Mariah and Wham!, having too many new formats: Mariah Carey: - CD (3 tracks) - CD (6 tracks) [ineligible] - 7" Vinyl (2 tracks) - 12" Vinyl (3 tracks) - 12" Vinyl (7 tracks) [ineligible] - Cassette (2 tracks) [ineligible, not because of track listing but because of too many formats? Assuming the CD, 7" and 12" would take precedence over a cassette] Wham!: - CD - 12" Black Vinyl - 12" White Vinyl - 12" Zoetrope Picture Disc Vinyl - 12" Picture Disc Vinyl (HMV Exclusive) (Presumably the 2023 released CD and 7" will become ineligible, and this year it'll be the new CD + two of the 12"s) So it's ultimately a mix of the labels wanting chart sales, while acknowledging that some formats won't count towards the charts but will nevertheless be money makers.

That's about 280 sales a week on average since its total of 96,532 on 15th October, so if that continues then Tension would go Gold towards the end of January 2025! If its average slows down then later than that, but certainly in 2025. Off topic but I would love an update for Kiss Me Once, what with it being another album that is painfully close to Gold. I've got Tension II on 40.6k :cry: 1. 35,235 2. 2,864 3. Estimate: 1,544 4. Estimate: 1,012 Hopefully BMG do something to encourage sales for Black Friday and over Christmas! :drama: Fingers crossed the tour next year will boost it too. If it goes down to Tension's weekly sales average (or worse!) any time soon, then I think it could be a struggle for it to go Silver in 2025... but I don't think it should happen later than 2026. But I'll predict it'll do it in 2025.

Songs #1 I'll Stand By You (Sarah's Version) #80 The Promise #127 Biology #181 Something Kinda Ooooh #190 Something New Albums #6 Ten

Excellent :cheeseblock: Hopefully it's getting a lot of streams too!

Download it! I mean, stream it x Zkjy5_NHVw4 It's really hard to imagine the alternate reality where Sarah missed out on Girls Aloud. I lean towards thinking she'd have joined Chloe, Lynsey, Emma and Aimée to make up a 5 piece girl group (as Aly said, with a different name!). During Popstars The Rivals, a lot of the hype and praise was focused on Javine over pretty much any of the other girls (bar Nadine) - which I'd say is the main reason Javine went solo instead of choosing Clea. There was a narative that Javine was an obvious star. Comparatively, Sarah wasn't given the level of attention Javine had... so I'm not sure a solo career would have felt like a good option over getting to be in a girl group. All of the boys who didn't make it into One True Voice were in a band called Phixx, and from memory I don't think any of them were really lauded like Javine was. Thank goodness Sarah ended up making Girls Aloud. I always remember how sombre and awkward it was when Sarah was revealed over Javine, and how the energy of the rest of the programme was more to be shocked/disappointed at Javine not making it, rather than celebrating Sarah. I'd go as far as to say it was a cruel decision of the programme makers to put Sarah in the position of a "final two, which one makes it?". But of course, this is ancient history, and it became clear so quickly that Sarah was a vital choice. :wub: A somewhat rare moment of the British public getting it right!

^ *Manifests it climbing to #15 on Friday, because of my aforementioned desire for it to place at positions it hasn't achieved yet #chartnerd *:kink: I have to say it's nice to see All I Want for Christmas Is You outdoing Last Christmas so far this year! I love both songs, but Mariah's is the ultimate Christmas song for me, so I'm happy for it to be the one leading the way. I wonder if/when Last Christmas will surge ahead at some point this year? I've noticed that there's two versions of the forthcoming 12" vinyl and CD: £8.99 CD: 1. All I Want for Christmas Is You 2. All I Want for Christmas Is You (Feat. JD & Lil Bow Bow) [so So Def Remix] 3. Christmas Time Is in the Air Again (Magical Christmas Mix) 4. Christmas Wrapping (Feat. Roe) [live at Madison Square Garden] 5. Miss You Most (At Christmas Time) [video Version] 6. Joy to the World (Celebration Mix) £5.99 CD: 1. All I Want for Christmas Is You 2. Christmas Wrapping (Feat. Roe) [live at Madison Square Garden] 3. Miss You Most (At Christmas Time) [video Version] £15.99 12" Vinyl: 1. All I Want for Christmas Is You 2. Oh Santa! (Feat. Ariana Grande & Jennifer Hudson) 3. The Star 4. Christmas Wrapping (Feat. Roe) [live at Madison Square Garden] 5. Miss You Most (At Christmas Time) [video Version] 6. Fall in Love at Christmas (Feat. Khalid and Kirk Franklin) 7. Joy to the World (Celebration Mix) £10.99 12" Vinyl: 1. All I Want for Christmas Is You 2. Oh Santa! (Feat. Ariana Grande & Jennifer Hudson) 3. Miss You Most (At Christmas Time) [video Version] (HMV has track 2 as "Christmas Wrapping (Feat. Roe) [live at Madison Square Garden]" but her official store and Amazon have it as Oh Santa!, so I presume that's really what is track 2 for this 3-track 12") I'm guessing that the label realised that the sales of the longer track list physicals wouldn't be eligible for the UK charts... but it's kind of messy to be selling both! :lol: I'm a bit concerned that there'll be confusion and I end up being sent the shorter track list versions. :unsure:

Have you added any new Christmas songs to your playlists? Maybe we can make some recommendations in this thread! I've not actually listened to any of these yet, but I've saved them for when I start feeling more festive: Kesha - Holiday Road (Spotify Singles Holiday)

I can't say I'm surprised that this is the bottom 5! I like them all though - I dished out some 6s and 7s for these.

iTunes UK: Songs #1 I'll Stand By You (Sarah's Version) #85 The Promise #141 I'll Stand By You #147 Something New #152 Love Machine #165 Biology #168 Sound of the Underground #173 Something Kinda Ooooh Albums #9 Ten

Great to see it as high as #10 so far! Fingers crossed it can hold on to the Top 40. Now if only there were CD singles!!

Immensely enjoyed watching the show again :wub: Went straight into the extended version on ITVX (unfortunately missed the TV airing last night). Maybe their best filmed tour from a production and vocals point of view? *.*