The Official Charts Company said that pop sensation Kylie Minogue is dominating a three-way competition for this year’s Christmas number one. The closest rival, Wham’s Last Christmas, which has dominated the charts for the past two years, is currently 7,000 units behind her festive track XMAS.
The charity track Lullaby by Togeth For Palestine, a supergroup that includes Dan Smith of Bastille, Celeste, Neneh Cherry, Nadine Shah, Brian Eno and Leigh-Anne Pinnock of Little Mix, is ranked third with just 231 sales behind Wham.
If Kylie maintains her lead, XMAS would become her first number one single since Slow in 2003. “I think I’d cry,” she added to BBC News.
“It’s been an unbelievable year, so that would be the cherry on top,” she further added.
Kylie’s song, which she performed on Sunday night on Strictly Come Dancing, is practically a yuletide YMCA because it includes a dance sequence that spells out the letters X-M-A-S.
More significantly, it’s exclusive to Amazon in terms of charts. When you ask Amazon-branded smart speakers to play Christmas music, it appears prominently on the playlists you hear and each stream counts toward the chart.
The 10th anniversary editions of the star’s Kylie Christmas album, which peaked at the top of the album charts last week, included a brand-new song called XMAS. Although it was present during the initial recording sessions, it was never included. Kylie told the BBC that the song’s unfinished state had long troubled her. “It’s not something I’ve constantly thought about, but it’s had a place in my mind,” Kylie said.
She continued, “As the years went by, I kept thinking someone else was going to release a song called Xmas-and it would have been so annoying that I didn’t get it done in time.”
“It’s the only song that’s ever lived with me this long,” the pop star further said.