AcerBen

I think you could just do it based on data. E.g. any song older than 3 years that has an X% increase in plays at Christmas is a Christmas song, so would include stuff like Stay Another Day, 2 Become 1 etc.

They're definitely not prints. I think it's perfectly plausible that they would spend a few hours over a few days signing a few thousand. Ed reckons he's signed tens of thousands which sounds ridiculous, especially as he doesn't exactly need to do it. But on balance I still believe him. I just think most artists would have more integrity than to cheat their fans in that way. And if the truth got out it would be really damaging.

Also surprised to see Rod not top 4 but he'll be far less front-loaded than your average album I reckon.

Expecting Rod to do really well with this album, probably will stay in the top 10 till Christmas. Radio 2 have been hammering the single, which is a real earworm. He was on Graham Norton on Friday too.

Hah, Sarah Connor coming for her belated third top 20 hit!

I heard it's an 8 month wait from order to production on vinyl at the minute!

Oh yeah. I was going by its certification (9x platinum = 5.4 million). I guess it would've been sold in a some places that didn't report to CIN.

So it's now inevitable that Shape Of You will soon overtake Candle In The Wind. Bonkers.

I wouldn't be against LadBaby going for it for one final time, just so they can hold the record outright. It's for a good cause, they're nice people, and they're always genuinely thrilled to get to #1, so why not.

Just in case this doesn't pop up on your radar.. new KEiiNO single Venus out tomorrow https://www.instagram.com/p/CVlFNRfMmZY/

And this probably means she's releasing a single on November 2nd https://twitter.com/leonalewis/status/1453445416763027461

Leona's "Christmas, With Love Always" is showing on some online stores with release date of 12 Nov so I guess we'll be getting more info on that shortly https://www.juno.co.uk/products/leona-lewis...ways/852469-01/

I've no idea what else he does but I bet he'd jump at the chance of a full-time daytime gig

What did he lie about?

They are, though it's a track from the album

Well it's not impossible even Easy On Me could hold on that long - we're not that far away from Christmas now. I expect something else will come along, but Adele seems as good a guess as anyone right now. Before Ladbaby we had a few "default" #1s with normal sales numbers.

Distant future I think. He'd be too much of a dramatic change from Ken I think. I'd say Gary Davies is a shoo-in at this point.

I get why independent or legacy acts are releasing these - and charging maybe £3 or £4 for them - but why does Ed Sheeran need to go to the effort of signing thousands of CDs and selling them for 99p when he'll probably go to #1 anyway?

yeah IIRC if the CD had been eligible it would've made number 13. Also- Tatjana - Santa Maria (original 1995 release) The Modern - Industry And one I heard DJ Stephanie Hirst mention once, though have never been able to verify, is Barkin Brothers - Gonna Catch You (Gordon's Groove) which she reckons would've been top 5.

Would be interested to see what's there.. take a picture for us next time you go!

Sadly there hasn't been as many released in Germany in the last couple of years as there were for much of the 2010s

Amazing to see Brandi Carlisle's The Story doing well because of Jools (and Elton) too!

James Morrison Greatest Hits out Feb 11 https://music.apple.com/us/album/whos-gonna...15?i=1589449182

I think it's more plausible that it's real than artists are willing to allow their record labels to cheat their fans for the sake of a couple thousand sales. I'd like to think most artists would have more integrity than that.

Grace Davies is really plugging hard today to get Roots in the top 100 tomorrow, sounds like it's really important to her bless her. I guess she's gonna fall short but good effort.