LadBaby, the husband-wife duo behind Christmas No 1s including “I Love Sausage Rolls” and “Don’t Stop Me Eatin’”, have spoken out over the toll of the backlash they received for their parody singles.
Mark and Roxanne Hoyle rose to national fame thanks to their record-breaking five consecutive No 1 Christmas songs, which were released to raise money for food bank charity The Trussell Trust.
Their first single, a parody cover of Starship’s 1985 track “We Built This City”, topped the charts in December 2018. The following year, they beat pop stars including Dua Lupa and Lewis Capaldi to the top spot on the charts with “I Love Sausage Rolls”, a cover of Alan Merrill’s “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll”.
Then, in 2023, they announced that they were pulling out of the Christmas No 1 race, explaining that they had started out with the intention of raising funds and awareness of the “importance of food banks in this country”.
However, their withdrawal from the race came amid intensifying criticism of their songs, along with questions surrounding their political affiliations and an unsubstantiated rumour that they were taking some of the charity money, which the Trussell Trust denied.
The couple, who share two children, have now said they were “scared” to issue a stronger denial of the financial allegations, as by this point they receiving threats: “We didn’t know how to [handle] it,” Mark Hoyle told The Guardian. “And quite often, you don’t want to make the situation worse, and so you don’t do anything.”
He said that he started experiencing panic attacks and continues to live with them; he and his wife had anti-terror officers visit their home after police began taking the threats against them seriously.
In the same interview, they addressed scrutiny over claims that they supported the Conservatives: “I’ve always voted Labour,” Mark said. “I come from a working-class background, I voted Labour at every election.”
LadBaby, who have collaborated with stars including Elton John and Ed Sheeran, announced last year that they would not be taking part in the 2023 race to Christmas No 1.
Roxanne said she was “devastated” that they were not doing another song, “because those songs shouldn’t have been about trolling and controversy”.
Mark Hoyle insisted in an Instagram video last year that the plan was “always to stop at five” and hoped LadBaby’s legacy would be that charity singles dominate “every Christmas… because that’s what Christmas is, it’s a time for family and time for giving”.
Addressing the criticism, he remarked: “You see [the trolling], of course you see it, and it’s not nice but we don’t pay attention to it. We know the reasons why we’re doing it. When you’ve got a song going for Christmas number one, the only important thing is raising awareness for this important charity.”
Mark and Roxanne Hoyle’s book, Our LadBaby Journey: Success, Sacrifice and Sausage Rolls, is released on Thursday 6 November.
