You may have heard about the power struggle that has been happening in the UK for the coveted spot of Christmas No.1 on the singles charts. The two contenders for the top spot were Rage Against the Machine vs. the winner of the X Factor.

The results are in and the month-long Facebook campaign to keep X Factor out of the slot has resulted in a win for Rage Against the Machine’s Killing in the Name - HUGE upset if you know anything about traditional UK festive season No. 1s.

The Irish Times reports:

IN POSSIBLY the biggest chart upset ever, a little-known American punk-metal band have beaten the winner of the X Factor  to the UK Christmas number one slot.

Following a month-long Facebook campaign to keep whoever won this year’s X Factor off the Christmas No 1 slot, Rage Against the Machine’s Killing in the Name has surprised everyone by selling half a million copies to beat Joe McElderry’s The Climb in the UK singles chart, which was announced yesterday.

For the past four years, it has been axiomatic that the winner of the massively popular TV talent show programme secures the No 1 slot. With some 19 million viewers tuning in last week to see 18-year-old Joe McElderry win the show, it was presumed his debut single, a cover version of Miley Cyrus’s The Climb , would go straight to the top of the charts.

However, Jon Morter, a part-time DJ from Essex, thought it would be “a bit of a giggle” to start a Facebook page urging people to buy a 1992 track by Rage Against the Machine to prevent the X Factor winner being a predictable Christmas number one. He chose the band’s song Killing in the Name primarily because its chorus line is “F*** you, I won’t do what you tell me”.

 

The power of social media? Power to the people? or perhaps folks are just sick and tired of the run of the mill festive cheese.

During the RATM campaigning Brett Domino jumped on the bandwagon and made a festive mashup of the RATM hit, he reckons; "If it's going to be Christmas #1, thought I'd jump on the bandwagon and Christmas it up a bit." Listen to it here - pretty funny to hear Rage Against The Machine + Christmas Bells.