Tuesday, December 22, 2009

THE END OF A TRADITION (Christmas Anarchy in the UK!!)


Christmas Number One Singles are those that are at the top of the UK Singles Chart on the week before Christmas Day.


Christmas No. 1 songs are a big deal for musicians in Britain as they can lead to a surge in record sales and a place in history.
These songs are HUGE HITS and many of them has became The best-selling song of the year in recent years.





The Beatles are the only artist to have four Christmas number ones, three consecutively starting from 1963.


The Spice Girls equalled the record of having three consecutive Christmas number ones, from 1996 to 1998. "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen, which reached the number one spot at Christmas 1975 and 1991, is the only record to have reached the top twice.

"Do They Know It's Christmas?" has been Christmas number one for three generations of Band Aid. The (original) Band Aid version of this song is the second best selling single in UK history.

From 2005 to 2008, the winners of the talent competition The X Factor (The British Version of AMERICAN IDOL) took the number one spot — beginning with Shayne Ward in 2005, followed by Leona Lewis, Leon Jackson and Alexandra Burke.



This trend was broken last Sunday when Rage Against The Machine's 1992 single "Killing in the name" became this year's Number One Christmas in The United Kingdom.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkuOAY-S6OY


Backed by a Facebook group with close to one million members, this powerful 90's anthem claimed the top spot on the British single chart on the last Sunday before Christmas.




Even more impressive, it was the first time in five years that a winner of Simon Cowell's show "X-Factor" failed to win.


"Killing in the name" sold 500,000 copies in one week to become the first ever Christmas number one that was only available by download.

"The Climb" by "X-Factor" winner Joe McEdlerry sold 450,000 copies to come in second.

Jon and Tracy Morter founded the Facebook group in early December with the goal of making the RATM's song the No. 1 single in Britian

After the creator of The X Factor, Simon Cowell, publicly denounced the campaign as "stupid" and "cynical", the group has been mentioned on various UK news channels, radio stations and website blogs.


Alongside these Facebook group, a JustGiving page was created to raise money for UK homeless charity Shelter.


The campaign has also been supported by Rage Against the Machine themselves. Guitarist Tom Morello said that achieving the Christmas number one was a "wonderful dose of anarchy" and that he plans to donate some of the unexpected windfall to charity. Foo Fighter's Dave Grohl, Sir Paul McCartney, and the band Muse also pledged their support for the campaign.

Impressed by the successful campaign of this couple of complete strangers, Simon Cowell offered them a job and guess what? They declined...YESSSSS!!

As well as knocking Cowell off his throne, the Morters also raised $101,829 for the homeless charity Shelter.



FELIZ NAVIDAD Everyone!!

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