NHS choir pips Justin Bieber to secure Christmas number one spot

Getting the title of U.K. Christmas number one song is a big friggin’ deal but for Justin Bieber the Christmas season is more about giving than receiving.

NHS Choir began trending on Twitter on Wednesday afternoon after the American pop star called on the combined power of his 71.9 million followers to “do the right thing” and help charity single A Bridge Over You win, conceding that “for one week it’s OK not to be number one”. By Monday the tide had turned in the favour of Justin Bieber who stormed ahead and it looks like he had locked down the Christmas number 1.

In the end, the NHS Choir achieved 127,000 sales, while Bieber’s Love Yourself had sales and streams equivalent to 97,000 copies.

Twitter campaign: Bieber said: ‘Let’s do the right thing and help them win.

Bieber still holds a strong chart presence with three of his songs placing in the second, third and fifth positions in the charts.

Proceeds from the NHS choir’s single will go to health charities including Carers UK and Mind.

The battle for Christmas No 1 was the closest seen since Rage Against The Machine’s scintillating victory over The X Factor’s Joe McElderry in 2009 with their song, Killing In The Name. It’s a brilliant celebration for the NHS across the country so well done and thank you everyone for downloading and streaming.

NHS Communications Manager Joe Blunden – who previously set up the choir’s Facebook page – previously explained that the aim of the track was to highlight the “amazing” work of the NHS. A massive cheer for the NHS, thank you!’ “There couldn’t be a more deserving group of winners”.

Following a week-long head-to-head, the Lewisham and Greenwich NHS choir’s charity single, A Bridge Over You, finished the chart race with almost 31,000 sales ahead of the multimillion selling popstar.

With Christmas painstakingly close, the choir’s effort now sits at number two in the charts.