LadBaby is aiming for three Christmas number ones in a row - when you can listen to the new song

As Christmas rolls ever nearer, the race for the coveted Christmas Number 1 top spot is heating up.

There are plenty of contenders once again this year, from novelty singles from surprising celebrities, to fun charity singles hoping to raise cash for strapped services in the wake of the coronavirus crisis.

One of the bookies’ current favourites is LadBaby, a name that is quickly becoming synonymous with the festive chart race. He’s quickly shot to the top of many pollsters’ predictions, despite only announcing his 2020 Christmas effort on 13 December.

Can he make it three on the trot? Here is everything you need to know.

When was LadBaby first Christmas Number 1?

The YouTube “dad blogger” – real name Mark Hoyle – fought off competition from pop stars Ariana Grande and Ava Max to claim his first Christmas number one in 2018.

He took the top spot with novelty song ‘We Built This City’, which riffed on the 1985 Starship track while adding a sausage roll-themed twist.

Hoyle recorded his ode to sausage rolls – as opposed to the original rock ‘n’ roll – with his wife Roxanne and their two sons, with proceeds from the single going to The Trussell Trust, which supplies food banks.

According to the Official Charts Company, We Built This City sold 75,000 combined sales in the last week, of which 93 per cent were downloads.

The track was the first novelty song to become Christmas number one since Bob The Builder’s ‘Can We Fix It?’ in 2000.

Hoyle repeated the feat in 2019, when his track ‘I Love Sausage Rolls’ (a parody of Joan Jett’s ‘I Love Rock 'n' Roll’) topped the charts once again, making him only the third act to have two consecutive Christmas number one singles, and the first to have two successive novelty Christmas number ones in the UK.