Scott McFly

A live final on Christmas Day would not do well at all. People would watch it, but then all the production staff, other crew, audience, judges and the contestants would have to give up their Christmas Day to be there. Not gonna happen, although I would welcome the move away from releasing the winning single on Christmas chart week.

yeah I caught Joe in the paper the other day being shepherded around St Ormond's Street hospital shaking hands with babies who have no clue who he is. nice gesture and all, but since it was smeared all over the sun it just reeks of PR "I'm a nice guy, help me beat the nasty rockers!"

More importantly, who are these 21 people that like KITN but haven't bought it?! Come on! :P

Yes, even although the minimum royalty cost to be eligible is 40p per track, Amazon sell some at a loss (29p) in order to drum up sales. But they are eligible, so you can get RATM from there if that's what you're asking for lol

Exactly, all we can do is keep encouraging our friends to buy and I'm not sure if that live version counts directly too but I'd sure like to have that in my collection as well.... If it's worth doing, do it right and keep going til the end! If chart history has taught us anything it's that anything can happen.

The original upload of that has been removed due to a copyright claim by the BPI... Here's a reupload:

Well, Joe's song is Simon Cowell's song so there's not much we can do to save Joe from the mix, this would've happened if it was Olly or Stacey winning too. I'm sick of answering the "they're both on Sony!" question, see Tom Morello's answer in the video for the horses' mouth answer. :P And yeah, poor Joe's worked so hard... over the past 4 months singing other people's songs when it's all planned out for him on a weekly TV show with millions and millions watching. Not like those Rage Against The Machine guys who got their careers handed to them on a plate. Oh wait...

Right, I don't post here often but I feel I have to say something here. I'm sick of hearing that this is some sort of Sony-orchestrated campaign, I've never heard such rubbish. I think you're being the cynical one here (in the words of Mr. Cowell). Yes, they are on the Sony label, so what? The song was chosen for the reasons it was (and I'll go over them if you want) regardless of what label the act is signed to. It is the complete antithesis of everything the X Factor stands for, why would Sony risk losing the Xmas number one spot and therefore a tonne of credibility for someone who needs that slot and will doubtless make them a lot more cash in the future than RATM will, and in the process highlighting and giving a voice to the hundreds of thousands of people who clearly detest the X Factor and everything that goes with it? Do you think they like their brand new, fresh off the factory line jewel in their crown being potentially (and hopefully) beaten to the Xmas no. 1 spot he should've been a shoe-in for by a song from 1992 that only peaked at 25 originally and has absolutely nowhere near the mass market appeal that Joe has?

Why was Bad excluded from (and now apparently re-included in) the main album chart does anyone know? It charted initially after his death (IIRC) with Thriller and Off The Wall which have continued to chart since.

Oh my god, Fearne just has no clue. Smooth Criminal came out in 1983 apparently and made number 3?! Jesus.

Yeah, how stupid and selfish of him giving all those countless millions of dollars to charity, he should have asked for it all back.

Considering the song itself is nothing but an identikit soundalike of one of the biggest hits of the year, I'd say the hate would've come regardless. But it does look inevitable now that they'll beat him to number one, sadly. But if sales of his other songs can keep going for today then hopefully he'll get the record for most songs in the top 40, which would be fantastic and certainly would not broken for a long time. Almost nobody else has had quite as many memorable songs as he has in his career.

Having now heard Cascada... oh my god, how much like Just Dance does that sound like?! Even down to the Colby O' Donis-style bit in the middle! I've heard some close similarities in songs before, but that song is unbelievable. Jeez. Anyway, RyRy, could you please let me know if there's any MJ songs just outside the top 40 that you haven't listed? Don't need exact positions or anything like that, just if there's anything that's around 41-50 that could make the top 40 if it gets a push at the end of the week. Much appreciated, cheers! And yes, everyone go buy MITM. Much more worthy number one than bleedin' Cascada. There's a reason Michael Jackson's had number ones before and Cascada haven't... :P

Yes, clearly that's all Michael Jackson was ever good for. My god. The ignorance of some people astounds me. The MJ songs in the chart are certainly not clogging it up, if they're doing anything it's putting to shame some of the crap that is in there. The man's done more in his lifetime (and not just musically) than Rihanna could in 10 and no doubt she'd say the same.

A lot of these though are just singles put onto later albums to sway a few more people to buy it though. Heck, didn't Scooter stick their entire back catalogue on Jumping All Over The World?