I talked last week about the huge royalties made by writing a good Christmas song. There’s also the coveted position of the Christmas Number 1 that will be announced this year on Friday December 21st. The announcement of the UK Christmas number one has been a staple event in the festive calendar for over 60 years and is usually a milestone in a singer or bands career.
The XFactor winner used to dominate the Christmas number 1, in fact the first eleven winners of the show, Steve Brookstein, Shayne Ward, Leona Lewis, Leon Jackson, Alexandra Burke, Joe McElderry, Matt Cardle, Little Mix, James Arthur, Sam Bailey and Ben Haenow all reached the top spot with their winner’s singles. However that changed in 2015 when winner Louisa Johnson only reached number 9. In 2016 winner Matt Terry reached number 3 with a song written by Ed Sheeran. 2017 champions Rak Su released their song ‘Dimelo’ which for the first time featured other established artists, Naughty Boy and Wyclef Jean but could only make number 2.
This year’s X Factor winner, Dalton Harris. Since being crowned champion of the TV talent show last weekend has released his debut single, a cover of Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s ‘Power Of Love’ but is only 4th favourite with the bookies.
The favourite for this year’s Christmas No. 1 has been revealed as Ariana Grande who is currently top of the chart, so she has another 2 weeks to survive.
US singer Ava Max has been given odds of 7/2 to make a surprise ascent to the number one spot with her single ‘Sweet But Psycho’, while Lancashire’s Flakefleet Primary School are at 4/1 with their original charity song ‘Light Up’, which aids the Alzheimers Society.
Ariana Grande – 6/5
Ava Max – 7/2
Flakefleet Primary School – 4/1
Dalton Harris – 5/1
Elton John – 15/2
Ed Sheeran – 9/1
Miley Cyrus and Mark Ronson – 9/1
Clean Bandit – 10/1
Ed Sheeran bagged the prize in 2017 for the first time with ‘Perfect’ beating Eminem’s ‘River’, Wham!’s ‘Last Christmas’ and Mariah Carey’s ‘All I Want For Christmas is You.’
Away from the Christmas number 1, Spotify has revealed its top 10 road trip songs. These are songs that have been downloaded the most in 2018 to put on Spotify playlists that have been created to listen to when driving.
1. Mr. Brightside, The Killers
2. Sweet Home Alabama, Lynyrd Skynyrd
3. Don’t Stop Believin’, Journey
4. All Star, Smash Mouth
5. Bohemian Rhapsody, Queen
6. Hotel California, Eagles
7. Seven Nation Army, The White Stripes
8. Highway To Hell, AC/DC
9. Africa, Toto
10. Smells Like Teen Spirit, Nirvana
If I had to choose one it would be Michael Jackson’s ‘Don’t Stop til you get enough’ which was off his best album in my opinion ‘Off the Wall’ released in 1979.
I don’t watch many reality TV shows but I do like the Jungle. I talked about Harry Redknapp the other week and I still think he’ll win it. But what about Noel Edmonds? Came in after all the others, was Emperor so did nothing for a few days, ate reasonably well and slept on a proper bed. Left after 9 days to stay in the 5* Versace Palazzo Hotel and apparently is the highest paid star ever in the show at £600k.
Deal or no Deal?
A movie based on the music of Prince is reportedly in the works, after the rights to use the singer’s legendary catalogue of songs was secured.
Universal Pictures has confirmed a deal with the music icon’s estate, although it won’t be a biopic of his life in the vein of recent releases such as Bohemian Rhapsody.
Instead, the film will focus on an original story that uses Prince’s songs to drive forward to the plot. The original idea was reportedly formulated by Prince’s estate and Universal after they agreed that a biopic had largely been covered by Prince’s 1984 movie Purple Rain.
Although specific details of the plot are yet to emerge, negotiations are believed to be underway with potential writers and producers who hope that the film can follow in the vein of successes such as Mamma Mia, which featured the music of ABBA alongside an original plot line.
The name Cata Coll may not mean a lot to you and up to last weekend, me neither. She is a female goalkeeper born here in Mallorca who has just won the U-17 World Cup for Spain beating Mexico 2-1. She has only been a goalkeeper since the age of 12 and currently plays for UD Collerense. She trains with Pablo Roca and his goalkeeping school where my youngest Son trains. And when I mentioned it to him earlier this week he casually remarked yes I’ve trained with her! An amazing achievement for her and local football, hopefully this leads to bigger and better things.
A good away win for Real Mallorca last weekend, 0-2 in Reus. Means they are in 6th place, currently unbeaten in 7 and today they play 5th placed Malaga. One of the favourites to go back up they’ve stuttered of late only winning one of their last 5 games. Still a difficult match for Mallorca and should give us an idea of whether we can seriously consider them as promotion contenders. They lost in midweek to Valladolid in the Copa Del Rey by 4-2 on aggregate which wasn’t a surprise and to quote an old football saying, they can now concentrate on the league. Both my boys got gubbed this week, my youngest 4-0 and my eldest 8-0! The Manacor side my eldest played were very good with one of the boys on the books of Real Madrid. I joked about being in Manacor on a Sunday evening but it’s ridiculous for a team of his age to be playing at that time. We got home at 10.45! Hopefully better results to come this weekend with a trip to Soller for my youngest. At least the tunnel is free now!
I must mention the North London Derby that my team Arsenal won by 4-2. A feisty game that was a great advert for the Premier League. As you can imagine I was very happy and I’ve been struggling to get hold of my friends from the other team from North London ever since. The ones I did get hold of though I’ve discovered have no sense of humour! In fact, we have a night out with two of them this evening so it should be lively.
Enjoy Your Weekend!
Richie presents the Radio One Mallorca Breakfast show Monday to Friday 07.30-11.00am on 93.8fm in Mallorca and 102fm in Calvià, online at www.radioonemallorca.com on mobile through their free App for IPhone, Android, The Tunein Radio App and on the Spanish TDT TV service. If you can’t hear him on the radio then you’ll find him working at Pirates Adventure the islands number one night out and every now and again he may make an understudy appearance!
Feel free to email him at rprior@globobalear.com
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