BBC Radio One was backed into a very awkward corner on Christmas Eve after a song called ‘Boris Johnson is Still a F**king C**t’ made it to number five on the official Christmas Top 40.
The song by satirical punk group The Kunts lead a strong campaign in the weeks leading up to the Christmas Number One being announced and even won support from former anti-Christmas number one chart-toppers Rage Against the Machine.
Despite the songs crass lyrics people clearly have a taste for sticking it to the establishment at this time of year and especially the government and the song wound up making the top five which was otherwise dominated by Christmas songs.
This put veteran radio one host Scott Mills in a very awkward position as there was no possible way that he could read the name of the song out on daytime radio on Christmas Eve nor could he even play the song.
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Instead, Mills had to use his instincts and alluded to the message of the song by saying: “number five this week is a song about Boris Johnson that has so many bad words in it I can’t possibly play it on daytime Radio 1.”
The Kunts (@kuntandthegang) have now had two Top 5 songs calling Boris Johnson a fucking cunt, what a time to be alive. #BORIS4XMASNO1 @KuntsChristmas pic.twitter.com/8uID6eBBdr
— a certain sort of person (@daztraction) December 24, 2021
Thoughts and prayers to Radio 1 who had to find a way to mention what charted at Number 5 on their show. https://t.co/QcRvpTi1ov pic.twitter.com/iMzmCEF6gA
— Scott Bryan (@scottygb) December 24, 2021
The Kunts landing the number five spot comes amid a war of words between them and the overall Christmas number one artists LadBaby who were able to secure a fourth successive festive chart-topper with their song ‘Sausage Rolls For Everyone’ which is a collaboration with Ed Sheeran and Sir Elton John and surpassed a record previously set by The Beatles and The Spice Girls.
LadBaby singer Mark Hoyle hit out at The Kunts in the build-up to the Christmas chart being announced citing that their song is raising money for the food bank charity The Trussell Trust. Hoyle said: “It takes a certain sort of person to download a song with that in the title, but you never know. There’s definitely an element that people aren’t happy with this government, but our song is for charity – I don’t believe theirs is – and ours is trying to raise more money than ever for food banks. It’s something that is even more important given everything that is going on.”
In a statement given to The Independent, The Kunts said that they had made a large donation to MIND and Cardiac Risk in the Young after the success of their song in the 2020 Christmas chart, which also charted a number five. The band added: “We may be vulgar in the language we use to get our point across but we would not be so vulgar as to use food banks to hawk records, increase our profile or sign lucrative sponsorship deals. Let me be clear, we would not stoop to using poverty, hunger and despair to promote our career like we believe LadBaby have done in this year’s Christmas number one campaign.”
The rest of this years top five was made up of Mariah Carey’s ‘All I Want For Christmas is You,’ Wham’s ‘Last Christmas’ and ‘Merry Christmas’ another collaboration between Elton John and Ed Sheeran.