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‘Twas the week before Christmas, when all through the charts, several artists were stirring, to be Top Of The Pops.

Festive classics are battling it out with more modern hits in the most competitive Christmas chart in years – and the final cut-off for sales and streams to count is midnight tonight.

Wham!’s Last Christmas was the early leader, but with a new mid-week vinyl release of The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl’s Fairytale Of New York, following the death of frontman Shane MacGowan, there could be a change ahead of Friday’s big reveal.

There has also been hype building around fellow contenders Sam Ryder and Mariah Carey.

With LadBaby dropping out of the running after five years at the top at Christmas, it is all to play for.

Whoever is number one in the Official Singles Chart on Friday, they will join some British musical icons who have previously secured the festive top spot, including The Beatles and the Spice Girls – as well as more unlikely chart-toppers such as Mr Blobby and Bob The Builder.

Here, Sky News looks at this year’s contenders.

Wham! – Last Christmas

Wham pictured in September 1984, three months before Last Christmas was released
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Wham! in 1984

The 1984 hit was number one in last week’s chart – securing the top spot for the second week in a row.

George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley’s melancholy tale of a scorned lover is one of the favourites for the Christmas crown.

If it succeeds, it will be the first time it has been Christmas number one – it was famously kept off the top spot in 1984 by Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas?.

Last Christmas has hit the top of the charts several times previously – but not as Christmas number one – in 2021, 2022 and January 2023.

Sam Ryder – You’re Christmas To Me

Sam Ryder
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Sam Ryder

Sam Ryder is in the running after a late surge with his song You’re Christmas To Me.

His single was released exclusively through Amazon Music (so isn’t on Spotify or Apple) but he is now in a “tight scuffle” with Wham! for the Christmas number one, according to the Official Charts Company.

After finishing in second place in the 2022 Eurovision Song Contest, could Ryder go one better this time and top the festive charts?

Creator Universe – I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday

Creator Universe – a collection of more than 30 TikTok stars – is in the race for Christmas number one with a cover of Wizzard’s 1973 track I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday.

The song was only released on 15 December, with profits from the single to be donated to The Trussell Trust, which runs around 1,200 food banks across the UK.

Some of the online influencers who recorded the cover at London’s Abbey Road Studios were Rosie McClelland, The Famileigh and Amy-Jo Simpson.

Mariah Carey – All I Want For Christmas

In this Dec. 3, 2014 file photo, Mariah Carey performs at the 82nd Annual Rockefeller Center Christmas tree lighting ceremony in New York. Caesars Palace announced Thursday, Jan. 15, 2015, that the pop icon would launch a residency May 16 at The Colosseum in Las Vegas. Carey has announced 18 performances so far. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP, File)
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Mariah Carey in 2014

The US superstar missed out on Christmas number one to East 17’s Stay Another Day when both songs were released in 1994.

But Carey is in with a shot this year, charting at number three in last week’s chart.

The song broke UK chart records when it hit number one in December 2020 – 26 years after its release.

It has been in the top 40 for the festive season every year since 2007.

The Pogues featuring Kirsty MacColl – Fairytale Of New York

Singers Kirsty MacColl and Shane MacGowan collaborated on the controversial Pogues' Christmas song 'Fairytale in New York' which is now considered offensive by some
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Kirsty MacColl and Shane MacGowan

After the death of The Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan last month, an online campaign has gathered momentum to get their gloomy yet hopeful 1988 Christmas classic to the number one spot for the first time ever.

MacGowan’s wife Victoria Mary Clarke said previously the song “should be the Christmas number one, it absolutely should. I’m very much in favour of that”.

She added: “I don’t think [getting to number one] was ever that important to him, because I think that he really appreciated the fact that so many people love it and it means so much to so many people, and being number one isn’t really all about being appreciated.”

MacGowan’s partner on the song, Kirsty MacColl, died in a boating accident in Mexico in December 2000.

Jack Harlow – Lovin On Me

Jack Harlow attends the 65th Annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, California, U.S., February 5, 2023. REUTERS/David Swanson
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Jack Harlow at the 2023 Grammys

The first non-festive contender is US rapper Jack Harlow’s Lovin On Me.

It is the 25-year-old’s fourth top five single in the UK.

The song was previously in the number one spot for three consecutive weeks in November and December – making it Harlow’s first chart-topping song in the UK.

A snippet of the song went viral on TikTok before its release.

Noah Kahan – Stick Season

OAKLAND, CA - MARCH 26: Noah Kahan performs live in concert at the Fox Theater on March 26, 2019 in Oakland, California. Photo: imageSPACE/MediaPunch
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Noah Kahan performing in 2019. Pic: AP

The US singer’s breakthrough UK hit climbed to the second place position on last week’s chart after 11 weeks in the chart.

The popularity of the 26-year-old’s song was boosted by a cover performed by pop star Olivia Rodrigo.

Kahan, from Vermont, first hit the charts in October, and has been in the second spot for two non-consecutive weeks.

Ed Sheeran and Sir Elton John – Merry Christmas

Undated handout photo issued by Official Charts Company of Ed Sheeran (right) and Sir Elton John who's festive collaboration Merry Christmas has gone straight to the top of the UK singles chart. Issue date: Friday December 10, 2021.
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Sir Elton John and Ed Sheeran in 2021 when they secured the number one spot on the charts

Ed Sheeran and Sir Elton John‘s 2021 offering was pipped in the Christmas charts that year by a remix of itself – LadBaby‘s Sausage Rolls For Everyone.

However, it was number one for three non-consecutive weeks that year, and reached a high of number three on last year’s Christmas charts.

An outside contender for 2023, it was in sixth position in last week’s chart.

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Zack Polanski and Nigel Farage are polar opposites in politics, but have one thing in common

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Zack Polanski and Nigel Farage are polar opposites in politics, but have one thing in common

Zack Polanski and Nigel Farage might be polar opposites when it comes to politics – but they do have one thing in common.

The pair are both cutting through in a changing media landscape when attention is scarce and trust in mainstream politics is scarcer still.

For Farage, the Reform UK leader, momentum has been building since he won a seat at the general election last year and he continues to top the polls.

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Badenoch doesn’t want to talk about Farage

But in the six weeks since Polanski became leader of the Greens, membership has doubled, they’ve polled higher than ever before while three Labour councillors have defected. Has the insurgent firebrand finally met his match?

“I’m sure I don’t need to say this, but I despise Nigel Farage’s politics and disagree with him on almost everything,” Polanski tells Sky News.

“But I think his storytelling has undoubtedly cut through and so yes there has been a huge part of us saying ‘If Farage can do that with a politics of hate and division, then it’s time for the Green Party to do that with a politics of hope and community’ and that’s absolutely what I intend to keep doing.”

Polanski was speaking after a news conference to announce the defections of the councillors in Swindon – a bellwether area that is currently led by a Labour council and has two Labour MPs, but was previously controlled by the Tories.

It is the sort of story the party would previously have announced in a press release, but the self-described “eco populist” is determined to do things differently to grab attention.

He has done media interviews daily over the past few weeks, launched his own podcast and turbocharged the Greens social media content – producing slick viral videos such as his visit to Handsworth (the Birmingham neighbourhood where Robert Jenrick claimed he saw no white people).

Zack Polanski announces the defection of Labour councillors
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Zack Polanski announces the defection of Labour councillors

Polanski insists that it is not increased exposure in and of itself that is attracting people to his party but his messaging – he wants to “make hope normal again”.

“I’m not going to be in a wetsuit or be parachuting from a helicopter”, he says in a swipe at Lib Dem leader Ed Davey.

“I think you only need to do stunts if you don’t have something really clear to say and then you need to grab attention.

“I think when you look at the challenges facing this country right now if you talk about taxing wealth and not work, if you talk about the mass inequality in our society and you talk about your solidarity with people living in poverty, with working-class communities, I think these are the things that people both want to hear, but also they want to know our solutions. The good news is I’ve got loads of solutions and the party has loads of solutions. “

Some of those solutions have come under criticism – Reform UK have attacked his policy to legalise drugs and abolish private landlords.

Discontent is fuelling the rise of challenger parties. Pic: PA
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Discontent is fuelling the rise of challenger parties. Pic: PA

Polanski is confident he can win the fight. He says it helps that he talks “quite quickly because it means that I’m able to be bold but also have nuance”. And he is a London Assembly member not an MP, so he has time to be the party’s cheerleader rather than being bogged down with case work.

As for what’s next, the 42-year-old has alluded to conversations with Labour MPs about defections. He has not revealed who they are but today gave an idea of who he would welcome – naming Starmer critic Richard Burgon.

Like Burgon, Polanski believes Starmer “will be gone by May” and that the local elections for Labour “will be disastrous”.

He wants to replace Labour “right across England and Wales” when voters go to the polls, something Reform UK has also vowed to do.

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Is Zack Polanski squeezing the Labour vote?

Could the Greens be kingmakers?

Luke Tryl, director of More in Common, says this reflects a “new axis of competition” as frontline British politics shifts from a battle of left vs right to a battle of process vs anti-establishment.

Farage has been the beneficiary of this battle so far but Tryl says Polanski is “coming up in focus groups” in a way his predecessors didn’t. “He is cutting through”, the pollster says.

However, one big challenge Polanski faces is whether his rise will cause the left vote to fragment and make it easier for Farage to win – something he has said he wants to avoid at all costs.

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And yet, asked if he would form a coalition with Labour to keep Farage out of power in the event of a hung parliament, he suggested he would only do so if Sir Keir Starmer is no longer prime minister.

“I have issues with Keir Starmer as prime minister,” he says. “I think he had the trust of the public, but I would say that’s been broken over and over again. If we had a different Labour prime minister that would be a different conversation about where their values are.”

He adds: “I do think stopping Nigel Farage has to be a huge mission for any progressive in this country, but the biggest way we can stop Nigel Farage is by people joining the Green Party right now; creating a real alternative to this Labour government, where we say we don’t have to compromise on our values.

“If people wanted to vote for Nigel Farage, they’d vote for Nigel Farage. What does Keir Starmer think he’s doing by offering politics that are similar but watered down? That’s not going to appeal to anyone, and I think that’s why they’re sinking in the polls.”

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Paratrooper known as ‘Soldier F’ not guilty of Bloody Sunday murders

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Paratrooper known as 'Soldier F' not guilty of Bloody Sunday murders

A former paratrooper accused of murdering two civilians in the Bloody Sunday shootings in Northern Ireland 53 years ago has been found not guilty.

Soldier F – who cannot be identified for legal reasons – was accused of killing James Wray and William McKinney during disorder after a civil rights parade on 30 January 1972 in Londonderry, also known as Derry.

The veteran was also found not guilty of five attempted murders at Belfast Crown Court on Thursday.

He had denied all seven charges.

Thirteen people were shot dead by the Parachute Regiment on the day in question.

Soldier F did not give evidence, but the court heard about previous statements from two paratroopers – known as G and H – who were in Glenfada Park North along with F.

The prosecution said their testimony was direct evidence that the defendant had opened fire in the area.

Bloody Sunday Trust undated handout photos of (top row, left to right) Patrick Doherty, Bernard McGuigan, John "Jackie" Duddy and Gerald Donaghey, (bottom row, left to right) Gerard McKinney, Jim Wray, William McKinney and John
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Bloody Sunday Trust undated handout photos of (top row, left to right) Patrick Doherty, Bernard McGuigan, John “Jackie” Duddy and Gerald Donaghey, (bottom row, left to right) Gerard McKinney, Jim Wray, William McKinney and John

However, the defence argued that they were unreliable witnesses as their statements were inconsistent with each other and with other witnesses who gave evidence.

The trial was held in Belfast in front of a judge, not a jury.

Delivering his judgment, Judge Patrick Lynch said the evidence presented against the veteran fell well short of what was needed for conviction.

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Two people dead and five others taken to hospital after fire in Glasgow

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Two people dead and five others taken to hospital after fire in Glasgow

Two people have died and five others were taken to hospital following a fire in Glasgow.

Emergency crews were called to the blaze at a property in Hughenden Lane in Hyndland at about 10.20pm on Monday.

Police Scotland said a man and a woman were pronounced dead at the scene.

The force said their next of kin have been informed.

Five others were taken to hospital for the effects of smoke inhalation.

Read more from Sky News:
Paratrooper known as ‘Soldier F’ not guilty of Bloody Sunday murders
Three arrested on suspicion of assisting Russian spy agencies

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A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “The fire is not believed to be suspicious, and no criminality has been established.”

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