XMAS + Christmas (Fully Wrapped Edition) - XMAS #1!

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www.musicweek.com

'We always had our eyes on the prize': Inside the triumphant Kylie Christmas No.1 campaign for XMAS

Kylie Minogue has the Christmas No.1 single with XMAS thanks to an audacious and infectiously fun campaign. Read on for the inside story on the chart battle with manager Polly Bhowmik and Warner Music catalogue leader Darina Connolly…
www.musicweek.com www.musicweek.com

Competing against festive perennials from the likes of Wham! and Mariah Carey, Minogue’s single came out on top thanks to a few factors – not the least of which was the star’s commitment to her Christmas campaign. It moved from No.16 to No.1 with 55,926 units, an increase in consumption of 154.8% week-on-week.

XMAS (Rhino/Warner) was helped by ACR chart rules on streaming that benefit new songs over catalogue, but that was tempered by the fact it is an Amazon Original and only available on that platform (with the exception of the video on YouTube, which dropped for the final week).

How does Music Week get away with spinning it like that?!
 
TBF I do think there's some truth to it. The "Alexa, play Christmas music" bump is massive, but surely it's not outweighing the fact that no cunt has Amazon Music compared to Spotify and Apple. I've listened to it far less that I would have if it were on a proper streaming platform.

Also Lolly you have expressed anti-Kylie sentiment there and are now an ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE
 
There's SOME truth to it, but it's downplaying how amazon are pushing it massively.

And they have an equal market share to Apple, in the UK at least.
 
plucky start-up Amazon have the market share of an apple! Spotify have a whole orchard! it's a Christmas miracle!
 
One wonders if Daniel Ek will respond and try and put something to his tastes at number one next year, such as Prussian Blue or Skrewdriver.
 
I see across the three editions there are now 12 original tracks so I’ll cobble them together as a playlist to see if they make an acceptable Christmas Eve drive home playlist as I can’t remember how most of them go.
 
Making a little note for the sake of comparison this time next year.

Last year's big Amazon exclusive was It Can't Be Christmas by Tom Grennan. Peaked at #3. Since being added to Spotify it's had 270,185 streams to date. Quite weak given he's a decently successful streaming star still (though his album this year seems to have been a bit of a flop for him). It doesn't appear in his current Spotify top ten even now.

2023's was Sam Ryder's Your Christmas To Me, which got to #2 and seems to have had a stronger afterlife. It's currently his #1 song and has 2.08m streams in total since going on Spotify.
 
The Sam Ryder one is actually quite fun, albiet a total rip-off of Underneath the Tree.

The Grennan one is a dirge.
 
I don't remember either of them until I hear them.

But then that's also true of Ed Sheeran and Elton John.

Cher is the only new Christmas song of the last few years that has stuck for me.
 
BoysForSeles said:
I see across the three editions there are now 12 original tracks so I’ll cobble them together as a playlist to see if they make an acceptable Christmas Eve drive home playlist as I can’t remember how most of them go.
Click to expand...
I gave this a go although I kept a few covers:

1. It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year
2. XMAS
3. At Christmas
4. Every Day’s Like Christmas
5. Hot In December
6. Santa Baby
7. White December
8. Only You
9. 100 Degrees
10. Office Party
11. Christmas Isn’t Christmas Til You Get Here
12. Stay Another Day
13. This Time Of Year
14. Every Day’s Like Christmas (SAW Remix)
 
Neil McCormick (the same critic who slated the anti-tour for not featuring enough hits) has thoughts…

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We have to hold two thoughts together at this point. Neil McCormick is a tedious buffoon. He's also - up to a point - right. There needs to be a fanbase and there needs to be some goodwill. Look at this thread - how many people were shrugging their shoulders until it was game on and then the downloads were being bought? There are actually comparatively few artists in the right position to make something like this work, where their career is such that they need the boost but they also have a level of popularity, love and respect that it ripe for being awakened.
 
Well, that's what I mean. There aren't that many people who could have made this work and Kylie was surely top of that list.
 
From the start I have said that given its Kylie, and she's paid her dues, that her getting a #1 with Amazon is absolutely fine, she doesn't do it every year, she's earnt her diva-ship, has promoted the song like artists used to do old skool, and is genuinely deserving of it, whilst also proving that spotify streams do not always have the monopoly. GO KYLIE.
 
There's a TOTP review of the year on NYE. I wonder if she has recorded a performance for it?
 
The views on YouTube have shot up but so too have all the negative comments. :bruised:
 
To be fair to Soldi, literally every casual review I've heard has been negative :D

That said I'm enjoying it. Quite the subtle influence from noted Linda Bengtzing hit Ta mig :disco:
 
Let's not forget, most of us at least initially thought it was a bit shit :santa:
 
I still haven’t heard it.

It’s charting on US adult contemporary radio at 32. It’s not a particularly important or influential format, but her only other charting hit on it was Loco-motion at 39.
 
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