Official Singles Chart on 28/12/2018

Don't forget that Shotgun would be number 10 in its 40th week on the chart and Baby Shark would be number 8

Yes, I suspect that the boost for 'Shotgun' is partly an effect of it being remembered as one of the big holiday-time hits of the year and people who liked it in the summer holidays thinking it's a fun song to stream in the Christmas holidays too - apparently children like to sing along to the very simple chorus melody so that may be part of what's going on in families! I would expect it to fall back compared with the non-Christmas pack in early January.

Shotgun is doing very well currently though - for example it's number 3 on the iTunes charts and number 5 on the spotify chart.

'Shotgun' has certainly held up very strongly over the New Year period! No. 7 now. But school starts again next Monday, so let's see how many more weeks it can hold in the Top 40 now. I note last week's 'underlying positions' were generally a reasonable guide to this week's positions, for example Post Malone (No. 3), Zara Larsson (No. 9), James Arthur and Anne-Marie (No. 8), Clean Bandit (No. 15) and Freya Ridings (No. 12). Halsey (No. 11) and Ellie Goulding (No. 43) have tailed off more, but they're still decent songs if you ask me!

I should hope not

Etin -- 'Happy New Year' by ABBA is really only about 1 Day, so it has very little time to make a Chart impact, each Year. However, it does do well, on various Countries iTunes, each late December/early January. On 1st January, (this Year - 2019), it was at No.1 in 9 Countries iTunes and Top 10 in 11 more. However, the English speaking Countries tend to totally ignore it. It only reached No.80 on UK iTunes and No.86 on Ireland's iTunes. It did nothing in the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. As for 'Thank God It's Christmas' by Queen. That never does anything in the Christmas UK & Ireland Christmas 'Official' Charts. But, December 2018 saw it reaching the Charts of Slovenia, (No.11), Germany, (No.16), Austria, (No.16), Denmark, (No.34), Switzerland, (No.36), Poland, (No.43), and Australia, (No.80).

Ronald -- Benny and Bjorn are still working on the 2 New ABBA Songs! Even though they were recorded in June 2017. Benny says that Agnetha and Frida need to add more of their vocals to them. They may add an Orchestra to the slower Song - 'I Still Have Faith In You'. The other Song is faster and more 'Pop' - 'Don't Shut Me Down'. Benny & Bjorn say that they also plan to do a 3rd New ABBA Song. Many Fans hope that ABBA will record an entire New Album. Whatever the case, we should get the New Songs sometime in 2019 - maybe between March and July. We will see...

Thanks for this information, really appreciate it!

lutricia mc neal? i didnt hear from him since 90s

I still feel the streaming thing is ridiculous. Nowhere in the past did me playing a music in my room counted for the charts. If they're to include streaming then they must put in a mechanism to count only 150 or 300 or 600 streams from a person per week.

As far as I know 100 paid streams count as one sale and 600 free streams count as one. A paid download is one sale … correct me if I'm wrong.
What gets me is if the chart is to be a valid 'respected' chart then all songs should have the same rules whether the song is 10 years old or new it shouldn't matter.

The chart already only counts 10 streams per song per person per day. So if someone's paying for their streaming service then they can make up a maximum of 7/10 of a sale per week for a single song, and if someone's streaming for free then they can make up a maximum of 7/60 of a sale per week for a single song.

But do you really want a chart where 'All I Want For Christmas Is You' is the Christmas #1 every single year? The Christmas chart would go from the most important chart of the year to the least important. There's no excitement in having the same songs go to the top of the chart year after year. I wholeheartedly disagree with ACR for new tracks just because they spent 10 weeks on the chart, but in this one case for Christmas songs I actually agree. I'd even prefer it if there was an entirely separate chart for the Christmas tracks.
I think James Masterton put it best on his https://chart-watch.uk/index.php/week-ending-january-3rd-2019 - "the chart does not exist to tell us that people listen to Christmas music at Christmas time".

"she"

Melanie Thornton https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiBoWNo6xDs

He would have been number 4 this week without christmas songs so probably.

Yes, glad to see Chris Rea getting to a decent chart position at last

Best Christmas song EVER!!!

Without acr how many Christmas songs would be in the top 40? It would most likely be nearly full of them. Perhaps next year will be Mariah's year as was pretty close this year. Crazy but interesting but well done Ava anyway.

Probably like 35, haha.
Yeah, even with ACR, Mariah only lost out by 153 combined sales, which would make this easily the closest race for #1 in 2018. I think with next year being the 25th anniversary of 'All I Want For Christmas Is You', it could go all the way then!

No reviews this week?

Maybe tomorrow, or I might just leave it until next week.
I'm fairly busy at the moment & I'd already planned a review of the Chart Of The Year anyway.

God only knows who will imerge through this swamp of Christmas songs, next week.

Well done to Ava Max though, in her succes for what looks to be impossible, gaining the number one spot and attempting to bringing the charts back to normal, you must be thrilled, at cutting through so many Christmas Classics.

Hey Piran! I love seeing 'Sweet but Psycho' finally go to #1 with another sales increase, but I'm really not a huge fan of all of the Christmas songs this week. I think James Masterton put it best on his https://chart-watch.uk/index.php/week-ending-january-3rd-2019 - "the chart does not exist to tell us that people listen to Christmas music at Christmas time". Without ACR on all of the old Christmas songs it would've been a complete landslide, which may be fun to see for 1 year, but when it would undoubtedly happen every single year for the foreseeable future it becomes increasingly obvious why the OCC implemented the ACR rule for older tracks. I still wholeheartedly disagree with it for new tracks, but actually agree with it for Christmas songs.
Other than that, it's insane that 'Shotgun' and 'Baby Shark' would've both been Top 10 without the Christmas songs, and I hope that 'Sunflower' can climb into the Top 5 next week since it would've been #5 this week without the Christmas tracks. 'Wow.' would've been #18 this week under normal circumstances despite a late Monday release, and it looks dead set for the Top 10 next week, maybe even Top 5. It's currently #4 and climbing on both Spotify and Apple Music. 'Without Me' will also sadly be going on ACR next week, but I think we will see quite a few new Top 10 tracks as all the Christmas songs drop out and the rest of the songs return to their true chart positions. We may even have an entirely upwardly-moving chart like we did last year, if 'Without Me' can still manage to climb despite the ACR.

Hey Gameskiller! :)
I'm really happy for 'Sweet But Psycho' becoming the final #1 of 2018 & that it was able to escape ACR due to the consistent sales increases as you mentioned.
I don't actually mind the Christmas takeover at all; the charts were made to tell us what are the most popular songs of the week & for as much as I like 'Sweet But Psycho', if 'All I Want For Christmas Is You' set a new weekly streaming record & clearly led in combined sales, surely that should be the #1 instead as it was clearly the song that people listened to most this week? Maybe Mariah will finally get there next year.
Yeah, if we put Christmas songs aside, 'Shotgun' being the Top 10 after 40 weeks on the chart proves that ACR is only really damages songs that are just getting their points from streaming. It'll never push back hits that get a revival in downloads, as this song proves.
I know there was a campaign to get 'Baby Shark' to Christmas #1, but I'm not sure that's the only reason that it climbed this week. I think the fact that YouTube now counts towards the chart would've put it Top 10 anyway. Was Bob The Builder the last time we had a cartoon song hit the Top 10? There might've been one sooner.
I wonder if there'll be a chart update at all tomorrow tonight with it being New Year's Eve?

I think 'Sweet but Psycho' will be the #1 through most of January, though 'Wow.' looks like it could be a genuine contender if it can increase its streams a bit more. It's currently #5 on Spotify (it and his other track 'Sunflower' are very close at the moment and are swapping places at #4 and #5 a lot) and #3 on Apple Music; if it can make it to #1 on both platforms with a reasonable lead that should be ale to offset its low sales and YouTube views (and if an official video gets released that will help a lot).
Personally, I don't want to see the Christmas songs takeover just because of the effect it would have in the future. In my opinion, the chart exists to tell both the public and artists how the contemporary tracks are performing, or how much a special event affects a certain track (such as the passing of an artist). Christmas, being a yearly event, distorts that picture by having the exact same tracks blast up the chart for 3-4 weeks every year. My main fear is that the Christmas charts would go from being the most important charts of the year to the least important, as everyone knows that the #1 will be 'All I Want For Christmas Is You' without fail. I don't mind the track going to #1, but I can't help but think about 10 years into the future when everyone is complaining that it's getting its 20th-30th week at #1 and that the Christmas chart is meaningless now. That's my take on it, at least.
I think that 'Shotgun' should be able to go Top 10 again next week - its sales are even stronger now than they were last week, and its streams will inevitably go up as the "Best of 2018" playlists start to get promoted on streaming services. 'God's Plan', 'One Kiss' and other big hits will likely go up as well, though probably not anywhere near as much as 'Shotgun' as the majority of their sales will come from their now halved streams. I don't know if 'Baby Shark' will reach the Top 10, but I can definitely see it reaching a new peak next week. I think 'Bob The Builder' was the last cartoon song to go Top 10, but I'm not too sure about that. I'm not sure if there'll be a chart update tomorrow either - guess we'll just have to wait and see!

26 Christmas songs in the Top 40 (and 1 former Christmas No.1) - 'Stay Another Day' is NOT a Christmas song!

I don't think Mariah Carey would be No.1 every year; this would have been the first year she would have been No.1 probably due to the day the charts were compiled in line with Christmas. She wasn't No.1 last year or any other year BEFORE ACR kicked in, it just happens that this year's circumstances were different and perhaps everyone was more festive. A strong single would easily have toppled it had there been one.

The idea of a sales chart is to show what is selling/streamed the most, to manipulate the chart for performance purposes undoes what the chart should be about. and don't forget a 'special events' track for a passing of an artist would also be hit by ACR.

I agree that the number of streams counted per sale should be adjusted considerably (maybe 1000 to 1 ratio as streams are NOT sales) BUT should be uniform across the board and not just 'hamstring' those that are more than 10 weeks old or even older material.

I guess if OCC don't change anything in 2019 then we might all be having this discussion again in 50 weeks. Perhaps we should cut and paste all these comments onto that weeks comments board to save us all bothering again!! lol.

True, you can't call that a Christmas song, but people have been treating it like one since it only comes back during the holidays & it'll inevitably drop out next week like all the other festive hits.

It'd probably get to #1 on the last Friday of this month and Last Christmas by Wham would stall at #2 yet again.

Yeah, the biggest Christmas chart is always the one after Christmas Day (which would be announced on the 27th this year).

about time they did away with the charts they make no sense recoeds should only be alowed to chart if there is aphysical release it would stop all this hyping of the charts

There aren't many physical single releases anymore so it would be a very quiet chart. What I would change is only allowing singles & not album tracks.

fair point maybe also only allow singles that haven't charted in the past 10 years it would stop all the christmas records getting a manoply on the charts

Don't all the Christmas songs make the chart more interesting (once a year) though as it is representing what is being streamed/sold like everything else, to cut out anything over a certain age defeats the whole chart idea.

If you check out the site you will find there is a separate sales chart and vinyl chart

Which I prefer anyway!!!