'How have we done this again?' LadBaby scores second Christmas number one

The race for 2019's Christmas number one has been won by LadBaby, who is top of the UK's festive chart for the second year in a row.

The YouTube star, whose real name is Mark Hoyle, beat Stormzy and Wham! to claim the title with his sausage roll-themed cover of I Love Rock 'n' Roll.

The Official Charts Company said it was the year's fastest-selling download.

"How have we done this again?" said Hoyle, whose song is raising money for food bank charity The Trussell Trust.

"Thank you everybody for supporting us once again, and all for an amazing cause."

LadBaby is only the third act in chart history to score consecutive Christmas number one singles. The others were The Beatles and the Spice Girls.

Hoyle, from Nottingham, found fame making YouTube videos about his journey from "lad to dad" after the birth of his two sons with wife Roxanne.

His single I Love Sausage Rolls racked up 93,000 chart sales this week - 18,000 more than his Christmas number one last year, We Built This City On Sausage Rolls.

More than 90% of this year's sales (approximately 85,000) came from digital purchases, making it the fastest-selling download since June 2017's Artists For Grenfell charity single.

The extent of his achievement shouldn't be underestimated. In an era when the charts chiefly measure consumption via streaming services like Spotify and YouTube, it is incredibly hard to break into the top 40 with a charity record, particularly at Christmas.

More than a dozen attempts were made to scale the chart this year, raising money for causes including The Children's Society and The British Heart Foundation - but only LadBaby reached the top 40.

A Facebook campaign to propel Jarvis Cocker's Running The World into the countdown, organised by people disappointed with the result of last week's general election, also fell short, with the song landing at number 48.

As the number one was announced on BBC Radio 1, LadBaby livestreamed his reaction on YouTube.

Hoyle was overcome with emotion, burying his head in his hands, while his wife screamed and jumped up and down - both wearing sausage roll-themed jumpsuits they'd had printed for the occasion.

Asked by Radio 1's Scott Mills if they planned to make a third attempt on the charts next year, Hoyle replied: "Who knows? I don't want it to become a joke. It needs to still be funny and it needs to still be right. I don't want people to start boycotting it next year if we go for it."

Despite losing the chart race, Stormzy had a stellar week, placing three tracks from his new album Heavy Is The Head in the top 10.

They included Own It, which ended the week at number two, followed by Audacity at six and Lessons at nine.

But the Glastonbury headliner missed out on the top spot in the album chart, where he was pipped to the post by Rod Stewart's You're In My Heart.

The record, which features new orchestral arrangements of hits like Maggie May and Stay With Me, is the star's 10th number one.

With Stormzy in second place, while Harry Styles' second album, Fine Line, is a new entry at three.

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