Winning Christmas number one – formula revealed
After the year that 2020 has presented us with, it’s no surprise that everyone’s been blasting the Christmas songs early this year in an attempt to bring a little more joy and happiness to the world. While all the classics are being played, there are also some brand new contenders chasing at their heels for the number one spot in the charts this year. The number one spot isn’t released until December 25th, meaning there’s now bets going on for who will claim this year’s number one spot for the most popular Christmas song.
So as we place our office bets and challenge a families to a game of guess the Christmas song, how can we get the one up on everyone’s predictions? Luckily, new research has been conducted that has calculated a winning formula for working out what this years top Christmas song will be. Keep reading to find out what the winning formula is.
How was the winning formula created?
Jackpot Joy have recently created the winning formula for working out who will win this year’s number one Christmas song by analysing all the UK festive chart toppers since 1952. Through clever analysis of the most trending words, popular genres and key influences, we’re able to spot the trends in Christmas music popularity over the past 7 decades and predict who is most likely to win the hears of the people this year.
What words are trending
While you’d think that Christmas themed words are the most popular, you might need to rethink your guessing strategy again as while traditionally, Christmas words such as angel, Christmas, Santa, Jesus, Christ and Stocking were among some of the most popular words, these words began to die out after the 90’s.
Before the 90’s, traditional Christmas words and words with religious connotations had more of an impact. In fact, hallelujah had 22 mentions, angel had 19 mentions, merry had 16 mentions and words like Reindeer (3 mentions, Present (2 mentions) and Holy (2 mentions) had very surprisingly low mentions for a Christmas song.
Meanwhile, it seems that quirkier Christmas songs that take a different road to the classics are on the rise, with words such as blobby and sausage roll being some of the top words in recent years. As bizarre as it seems for a Christmas number 1, it seems that audiences are changing and tradition may be going out of the window.
Recent chart topping winners
Last years winner of the number one Christmas tune was Youtuber and dad-blogger, LadBaby – with his charity single ‘I love Sausage Rolls’. The number one hit single that was created to raise money for the Trussel Trust was a take on the rock classic ‘I Love Roch N’ Roll’; a song by Joan Jetts which has over 2 million downloads.
While it might be unconventional, it seems that LadBaby might be on to something as he is one of the few people that have stayed in the Christmas charts for consecutive years in a row. Other artists that have managed to claim this victory include The Beatles and Spice Girls. The Beatles were able to keep their title with classics including ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’, ‘I Feel Fine’ and ‘We Can Work It Out’, while Spice Girls got their Christmas claim to fame with none other than ‘2 Become 1’, ‘Too Much’ and ‘Goodbye’.
Meanwhile Christmas classic ‘All I Want For Christmas’ by Mariah Carrey has re-entered the Christmas singles charts, as well as making it to the number one spot this month in the UK for the first time ever. While the research suggests that Christmas classics might be on their way out, it doesn’t look like Mariah Carey’s 1994 hit single doesn’t seem to be going anywhere soon.
Christmas classics throughout the decades
The research conducted by Jackpot Joy shows that the word Mistletoe was very popular during the 80’s and 90’s, with a total of 8 mentions throughout that time. This links in closely with the overall winning theme of love that makes Christmas songs so popular. What’s more, the word Angel was a popular term to be used in Christmas songs throughout the 90’s and 00’s with a total of seven mentions. Surprisingly, the term hasn’t actually been used again in a Christmas song since.
The decade that has been described as the Christmassiest in the research is none other than the 80’s. This is hardly surprising, given its reputation for being the decade of love and peace, which shares a winning theme with Christmas songs. Back then, it seems that traditional songs were far more popular, with the word Christmas itself being mentioned a total of 52 times, while love was mentioned 49 times.
The 80;s is also widely known for being the decade that produced the best selling single of all time ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas’, by Band Aid.
So what’s the winning formula?
Over the decades, it seems that peoples taste in Christmas music has changed, and while classics that featured traditional Christmas terms used to dominate the charts before the 00’s, today’s Christmas classics are a little quirkier. That being said, Love has always been the dominating theme and while songs about Sausage Rolls have been pretty popular in recent years, it seems if you strike a balance between traditional love themed songs and modern artists, you might just be on to a winner.