The musician, full name, Christopher Anton Rea was born on March 4, 1951 in Middlesbrough, England to an Italian father and Irish mother. He initially picked up a guitar at the age of 21, arguably a late bloomer in the music world and began playing in small local bands

During his musical career, spanning over more than five decades, Rea released a staggering 25 studio albums, two of which shot straight to the top of the UK albums chart. He became a staple of the British music scene in the late 1980’s and solidified his reputation as one of the UK’s most distinctive singer-songwriters.

Perhaps his most well-known song, ‘Driving Home For Christmas’ perfectly encapsulates the excitement most of us get when returning to our families in the festive season at the very end of a long year. The song was originally recorded in 1986 and over the years since its release it continues to climb the charts, making a resurgence as countless individuals listen to it whilst driving home for christmas. The initial version of the song was released as a B-side to Rea’s single, ‘Hello Friend’ in 1986. Upon its original release the song gained modest success, however since 2007 the song has made a reappearance on the UK Singles chart every christmas season.

Rea never originally planned to make a christmas song and was inspire during his very own experience driving home for christmas with his wife. Rea needed to drive home to Middlesbrough from Abbey Road Studios in London in order to save money as train tickets were (and still are) rather pricey.

Rea was notorious for experiencing health struggles behind closed doors throughout his career, this greatly influenced his shift into the blues music style.

Never taking his music ventures onto American soil, Rea never toured in the United States despite his 1978 single ‘Fool (If You Think It’s over) reaching. No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Rea’s journey as a musician was marked not only by his successes but also by his struggles. He had severe health hardships in his personal life, receiving a diagnosis for pancreatic cancer in 2001. To combat this Rea underwent major surgery removing his gallbladder, pancreas and part of his liver, this procedure left him with Type 1 Diabetes. In 2016 he unfortunately suffered a stroke however against all odds continued to go on tour and produce new music.

Also, a passionate car enthusiast, Rea competed in professional racing intertwining his love for all things cars into his musical work.

Rea’s soul is bound to live on within his music and in the hearts of his wife Joan and daughters Josephine and Julia. Countless festive tributes are pouring in as we speak.

Gracie Abrams’s ‘That’s So True‘ was already viral among fans of the American artist before its release on the deluxe version of Abrams’s second full length album, titled ‘The Secret of Us'; the song had been performed by Abrams and co-writer Audrey Hobert at one of Abrams’s show, and successively it was announced by the latter that the song would be released on the deluxe version of the album. Mostly thanks to TikTok, the song reached a level of popularity that none of Abrams’s songs ever had in the past, becoming her first UK number one. Up until last week, the song charted at number two, second only to WHAM!’s ‘Last Christmas’; but this week, the song fell almost twenty spots down charting at number 21, lower than its debut. It is ‘That’s So True”s ninth week on the UK chart, the song previously spent over a month at number one but was dethroned by Christmas hits. Will Abrams fight back and climb charts once again, or is it time for a new chart-topping hit?

Similarly to Abrams, Rosè’s ‘APT‘ featuring Bruno Mars charted in the UK’s top five for well over a month, peaking at number two. The song was released as a lead single for Rosè’s debut album, titled ‘Rosie’, which was released earlier this month. A couple weeks after its release, the song debuted at number four on the UK Official Charts, and from then it went on to spend eight weeks charting in the top five and, despite never achieving the number one position, the song became a hit immediately after its chart debut. Last week, ‘APT’ claimed spot number five of UK charts, while this week it is currently charting at number 28, losing over twenty spots. Alike ‘That’s So True’, ‘APT’ also had to make space for Christmas hits, giving up its well-deserved spot in the top five: will ‘APT’ come back to top charts once the Christmas excitement has died down, or is its time as a certified chart-topper over?

As the UK’s top twenty is over taken by the festive hits, some honourable mentions of those songs that bravely climbed charts over the Christmas period are Lola Young’s ‘Messy‘, that currently charts in the 33rd spot but last week had peaked at number seven; Wicked’s ‘Defying Gravity’ is currently number 58 after charting in the 20th spot last week, Sabrina Carpenter’s ‘Bed Chem‘ charts as 66 after claiming the 38th spot last week and Gigi Perez’s ‘Sailor Song‘ went from charting at number 34 last week to 68 this week.