The race is on for acts trying to secure 2024’s official Christmas number one, with tracks from musical film Wicked: Part One, Band Aid and Sabrina Carpenter among the contenders.
Last year Wham! claimed the festive top spot with Last Christmas for the first time, 39 years after its original release.
The track, first released in December 1984 by pop duo George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley, was famously beaten that year by Band Aid’s charity single Do They Know It’s Christmas?
To mark its 40th anniversary, the Band Aid track, blending 1984’s original, 2004’s Band Aid 20 iteration and 2014’s Band Aid 30 rendition, has recently been re-released.
To coincide with the 40th anniversary of Last Christmas, the BBC is also releasing the documentary Wham! Last Christmas Unwrapped, focusing on the track.
Also marking an anniversary this year is Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas is You, and East 17’s Stay Another Day, which originally beat the US singer to the top spot in 1994.
East 17 is trying to raise funds for Nordoff and Robbins, a music therapy charity, by re-releasing their track 30 years on.
The boy band’s Tony Mortimer told Official Charts: “All she wanted for Christmas she didn’t get, did she? No, it was funny. She’s an absolute legend, and we admire her so much. To be alongside such names, four little lads from Walthamstow, it’s surreal.
“She’s going to want to even it up this time – I think she’s going to pull out all the stops. We’ll see what happens, but as long as Nordoff and Robbins are riding on the back of it, I’d love another chart battle. This is to get people talking about music therapy.”
Official Charts also said a release of the Wicked musical song Defying Gravity, sung by the star of the film Cynthia Erivo, featuring actress and singer Ariana Grande, as well as YouTuber KSI’s Thick Of It track with Trippie Redd, could also be at chart-topper at Christmas.
Chief executive of Official Charts Martin Talbot, said: “Last year we saw an all-time Christmas favourite finally reach the festive summit, in the form of Wham!’s Last Christmas, and this year we have a range of old and new favourites preparing to enter the race.
“With just four weeks to go until the big reveal, the field looks as wide open as ever.”
It has been more than a decade since a woman earned a Christmas number one, and US singers Carpenter, Chappell Roan and Gracie Abrams have been touted as strong contenders this year.
The X Factor winner Sam Bailey had a chart-topper with 2013’s Skyscraper, and it is thought Roan’s synth-pop hit Hot To Go!, one of Carpenter’s number ones, such as Espresso, Please Please Please and Taste, and Abrams’ That’s So True, could follow in her footsteps.
New releases are also in with a chance as Ed Sheeran, who has had Christmas chart-toppers with 2017’s Perfect and 2021’s LadBaby and Sir Elton John collaboration Sausage Rolls For Everyone, released Under The Tree.
His new song, out next month, appears on the soundtrack for Richard Curtis’s 2024 Netflix animated film That Christmas.
Kelly Clarkson’s You For Christmas, Michael Buble and Carly Pearce’s Maybe This Christmas, and Jedward’s Lovemas are among other festive tracks this year.
The winner of this year’s Christmas number one title will be announced on Friday December 20.
