Christmas Number 1: X Factor’s Ben Haenow increases lead on Mark Ronson

Something I Need has racked up sales of over 107,000 at this midweek stage, with all proceeds being donated to the Together For Short Lives charity. The song is just over 33,000 copies ahead of Mark Ronson’s Uptown Funk.

Ben’s chart success also puts the original version of the OneRepublic song on track to enter the UK Top 100 for the first time this weekend.

However, Ben doesn’t have the coveted Christmas Number 1 all wrapped up just yet, as this year, for the first time, audio streams from services such as Spotify, Deezer and O2 Tracks will count towards the final tally.

Uptown Funk is already the most streamed track of the week so far; current streaming trends tend to favour songs that have been available for several weeks as awareness for songs grows and they are added to playlists, meaning the addition of streaming data could favour Mark Ronson as the week progresses.

Click here to see all the Christmas Number 1 contenders

Sliding one place to Number 3 today is Ed Sheeran’s Thinking Out Loud, followed by new entry, Olly Murs’ Up FT Demi Lovato (4), and Take That’s These Days (5).

There are four further new entries in today’s Official Singles Chart Update Top 40. Dance duo Gorgon City are on track to score their fourth Top 20 single on Sunday with Go All Night FT Jennifer Hudson (8).

After performances on The X Factor final last weekend, Ed Sheeran’s Photograph makes its Top 40 debut at 32, while Imagine Dragons’ Demons (performed by Ben Haenow) re-enters at 33.

Iron Maiden’s The Number Of The Beast re-enters the Top 40 at Number 36 midweek, thanks to a Facebook Christmas Number 1 campaign.

The Official Singles Chart Update Top 40 is as follows. The Official Singles Chart Top 100 will be posted in full, here, on Sunday at 7pm.

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