Christmas Number 1 frontrunner revealed as race for festive charttopper heats up
EARLY predictions for the 2026 Christmas Number 1 have already placed one song front and centre.
Despite it being over a month until Christmas, William Hill has revealed its favourite to take the tinselly top spot.
The bookmakers claim Sam Fender is in the lead, with his cover of The Rolling Stones’ You Can’t Always Get What You Want.
The song was revealed as the soundtrack to this year’s John Lewis Christmas advert, when it was unveiled last week.
The commercial itself – starring Kristin Scott Thomas – proved divisive on social media after it was released, but the song is at 8/11 to top the charts on Christmas Day.
This places Fender narrowly ahead of Wham! classic Last Christmas, which has been given “Evens” betting odds to top the festive charts.
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Olivia Rodrigo has multiple contenders in the top 10, and she is the third favourite at 9/4 in the bookmaker’s market.
Last week, she debuted her first-ever Christmas song, Take Me Home (4 Christmas), which arrived accompanied by an official music video featuring Sex And The City star Cynthia Nixon.
In it, Olivia sings about wishing for a boyfriend to take her home to spend the festive season with his parents.
Kylie Minogue rounds off the top four with odds of 13/2.
“This year’s John Lewis Christmas advert may have received some mixed reviews, but the UK public have taken very well to Sam Fender’s cover of You Can’t Always Get What You Want, meaning Fender tops our Christmas Number 1 market,” explained spokesperson for William Hill, Lee Phelps.
“It’s still early days in the betting,” he added. “But we go 8/11 that Fender tops the chart on 25th December.
“Wham! are always a heavyweight in our Christmas Number 1 betting and are narrowly behind Fender at even-money, with Olivia Rodrigo out at 9/4.”
Wham! released Last Christmas in December 1984 and never made it to Christmas Number 1 until 39 years after its original release in 2023.
It achieved a second consecutive Christmas Number 1 in December 2024, becoming the first song in UK chart history to do so.
Kylie broke the winning streak last year with her song Xmas.
Kylie could repeat the two-year success of Wham! but Elton John and Ed Sheeran are also listed to be in the running, with William Hill placing them at 12/1.
Their song Merry Christmas was released in 2021; and although it entered the charts at the top spot, it didn’t hold on long enough to be that year’s festive favourite.
Elton and Ed still achieved the Number 1 song that Christmas, with a remix of Merry Christmas, released two weeks later.
They teamed up with LadBaby and re-titled the track as Sausage Rolls For Everyone, releasing it as a charity single.
Last week Elton announced he has teamed up with CMAT with a re-release and duet version of his 1973 classic Step Into Christmas, which could be another contender in the coming weeks.
The official 2026 UK Christmas Number 1 will be announced by BBC Radio 1 on Friday December 18.