LadBaby step down in race for Christmas Number One for first time in five years
LadBaby have announced that they will not be releasing a 2023 festive single after five consecutive years of claiming the Christmas Number One.
The duo – comprising husband and wife Mark and Roxanne Hoyle – have landed the UK Christmas Number One for five years straight with their comical twists on hit songs.
LadBaby previously hit the top spot in 2018 with ‘We Built This City’, in 2019 with ‘I Love Sausage Rolls’, in 2020 with ‘Don’t Stop Me Eatin’’, and 2021 with the Ed Sheeran and Elton John collaboration ‘Sausage Rolls For Everyone’.
In 2022, they broke a UK chart record previously held by The Beatles as they scored their fifth Christmas Number One with ‘Food Aid’.
However, 2023 is set to leave the bid for Number One wide open after the pair confirmed that they will not be in this year’s running.
“After five amazing years we’ve decided to pass the baton over to the Great British public and we’re not going for Christmas number one this year,” Mark told Metro.
“We never expected it to be five, I’ll be totally honest. It’s one of those things that just happened over the years and we thought it was amazing that the public got behind us in the way that they did. Five years ago when we started this, we knew the importance of food banks in this country and we wanted to raise funds and awareness for that so we did that one [song], that was lovely.”
Mark added that the “idea was always to stop at five”, while Rox added: “We was only meant to do one!”
Mark continued: “The legacy for us is we want charity songs to dominate every Christmas, we want all the top 20 to be charity songs for good causes, having fun, because that’s what Christmas is, it’s time for family and time for giving.”
Profits of last year’s single were split between the Band Aid Trust and food bank charity The Trussell Trust.
The chart victory saw them beat out competition from Wham!, Sidemen, Mariah Carey, The Kunts and more.
Meanwhile, last week AC/DC fans launched a campaign to try and get the band to Number One for Christmas 2023 ahead of LadBaby.
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Hollie Geraghty
NME
