Last Thursday, the 9th of November, the British company, John Lewis Partnership (which covers Waitrose and John Lewis) released its latest ad ‘Snapper, The Perfect Tree’. The ad features a “cheeky carnivorous plant” and is accompanied by “Operatic Superstar” Andrea Bocelli. Bocelli sings the beautiful Italian song “Festa”, meaning ‘Party’ or ‘Celebration’.

In the video, a small boy picks up a ‘grow your own tree’ box at a small Christmas market. At home, the small sapling starts to grow, with the piano chords speeding up into a steady pace and a big drumbeat signalling a change and positivity. As the plant turns into a big Venus the family is not impressed, and the plant is replaced with a standard pine Christmas tree. At this point, the thick musical texture diminishes and there is just a solo piano, Bocelli’s voice and backing vocals. At the end of the video, all the family go outside to celebrate Christmas Day with Snapper, the plant.

The moral of the video is to “Let your traditions grow”, which is an important and kind message to share with the UK nation although it divided audiences, with one X (Twitter) user saying the advert was “a disappointment”. 

Many others enjoyed the advert, with one saying “Thank you John Lewis for making my mum smile.  It’s a tradition I show her your ad morning of release. My dad died a few months ago, we’re all so sad, especially Mum. It made us smile. Sending kindness + love”.

However, it seemingly got many adult males on the defence, hitting out at the fact there was no adult male presence, with some ranting “Where’s The Dad???!!” and “Being a dad, I’ll shop somewhere else this Christmas, thanks”. John Lewis replied succinctly “‘Showing a mum and a grandma, we always attempt to show a broad representation of British life across our advertising. This is a very realistic scenario for thousands of families in the UK.’

Catherine Shuttleworth, CEO of Savvy Marketing commented “John Lewis has opted instead for a vision of a modern family Christmas. Let’s see if it works”

The John Lewis marketing team have also gone one step further, releasing ‘Snapper’ merch. Get it here

The adverts started circulating and becoming a topic of conversation in 2010 as Ellie Goulding covered Elton John’s “Your Song”. Then came the rising popularity of the song “The Power of Love” after Gabrielle Aplin’s rendition in 2012. The Bear and the Hare animation in 2013 was accompanied by Lily Allen’s sweet version of Keane’s “Somewhere Only We Know” in 2013 and the Scandi singer Aurora covered  “Half The World Away” – by Oasis back in 2015. 

Other British supermarkets have taken different directions with their campaigns. Asda makes this Christmas “Incredibuble”, opting to use Canadian vocalist Michael Buble and Sainbury’s ‘Rickrolling’ people with a surprise appearance of Rick Astley in their ad. 

Watch the ‘Snapper, The Perfect Tree’ John Lewis advert here

The album features three original songs by the Grammy award-winning jazz and soul performer as well as jazz-age standards and soulful tracks from the 1960s. He mentions “In my writing, there are elements of Bill Withers, there is a song from Stevie Wonder..from Marvin Gaye”. There is also a guest performance from the American, Grammy-winning Samara Joy on Broadway songwriter Frank Loesser’s “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve”.

Listen to the album here

Following his summer stint playing three sold-out shows at “London’s Most Iconic Venue”, Royal Albert Hall this June, the singer is returning for a fourth and final performance of the year on December 13th – get tickets here (There is only standing availability on offer now). The London show will be part of his current winter tour in both the UK and internationally. 

Described as “a jazz singer of thrilling presence, a booming baritone with a gift for earthy refinement and soaring uplift”, Gregory Porter has become known for many things: his outstanding voice, his ability to bring audiences to joyful tears and ‘lo and behold’ his hat, which he wears every time he performs. 

Porter responded to curiosity about the hat, stating ‘I’ve had some surgery on my skin, so this has been my look for a little while and will continue to be for a while longer. People recognise me by it now. It is what it is.” 

Years later he added that it has become his style. He thought “Actually, this is comfortable, this is a look. I started to sing and people were like, ‘Oh yeah, that’s the guy with the hat.’ So it became a thing.” However, the vocalist reported that he would like his fans to focus on “his heart and sound” rather than the accessory. 

Porter was on ITV’s ‘This Morning’ earlier today, speaking of his first-ever festive album and also joining in some festive cooking. Whilst getting into the Christmas spirit, he showed viewers how he makes his family’s festive favourites,  sweet potato pie with crumbly shortcrust pastry.

Ex-Saturday’s singer and presenter Rochelle Humes questioned him on why he hasn’t put out a Christmas album before. Jestingly, he replied, “I wanted to start my career off with a Christmas album and they didn’t let me!…so now is the time”. He talked about elements of influence on him and his sound “Stylistically I’m using gospel, blues, soul to tell the Christmas story” 

Then on his mum’s influence, the woman who taught him how to sing, he says “There were 8 of us, 5 boys and 3 girls, she would cook food… Turkey, greens… sweet potato pie… filled the table with food. We thought we were gonna eat and we loaded it into the truck and we went around and fed the homeless people” “Then we brought the food back and we ate the leftovers…..she was teaching… she did it from her heart..that’s the kind of thing you do on Christmas day”. 

The fourth in lead was Mariah Carey’s 1994 Christmas hit “All I Want For Christmas”. Third, in lead was “Christmas Drillings” by British YouTube group Sidemen featuring British Rapper JME released on the 4th of December 2022, making it the first ever song within the drill genre to enter the festive chart.  The runner-up was Wham’s 1984 Christmas hit “Last Christmas”. 

Now LadBaby remains the King of his Christmas Number 1 throne, even beating The Beatles’ record of UK number one singles overall. All thanks to the UK’s Number one “Food Aid” (A cover of Band Aid’s “Do They Know It’s Christmas?“) which has now brought justice to charity campaigners. From the single alone, this has paved a way for profits to be split accordingly between the food bank charity, The Trussell Trust and the Band-Aid Trust.

LadBaby shared his thoughts with OfficialCharts.com, “I can’t quite believe it! We’re number one! The charity has made it five years in a row. How have we done this again? We want to say thank you to everyone who has supported us for the last five years. A massive apology to The Beatles, and to all The Beatles’ fans… I’m sorry! The charity wins. The Trussell Trust gets Christmas number one again!

“Thank you to all the people who have downloaded, all the people who believed in us and brought a bit of Christmas magic. We love you all. Yes mate!” 

Here are all of LadBaby’s five consecutive Number 1 single from 2018-2022:

2018: “We Built This City”

2019: “I Love Sausage Rolls”

2020: “Don’t Stop Me Eatin”

2021: “Sausage Rolls For Everyone” ft Ed Sheeran and Elton John

2022: “Food Aid” ft Martin Lewis

LadBaby refused to share his thoughts on making a sixth attempt on the charts next year. However, his wife Roxanne told the BBC her thoughts, “We didn’t want to come back this year but unfortunately, the food banks are in emergency crisis. We didn’t want to turn our backs on so many people. We get messages everyday from nurses, teachers, children and families who are struggling.  You don’t want music to become something people get annoyed with [but] that’s why we did it.”

LadBaby adds on to say, “We want to do whatever we can at Christmas to support food banks, and if that isn’t in the form of a song, it doesn’t mean we won’t show up somewhere else. Plans are always afoot. Don’t rule us out. You think we can’t sing? Wait until we go somewhere else and can’t do that, too.“

The UK’s Official Charts Company stated that it the ‘surge of interest’ in Christmas music is ‘very unusual’ for this time of the year. Martin Talbot, the company’s chief executive said that listeners have been leaning on “familiar TV, film, books and music as comfort from the miserable tone of so much of this year’s news”.

The increased festive streams this year is a result of the Covid-19 pandemic that has forced many into isolation and an uncomfortable and uncertain time, therefore familiar and nostalgic music has taken the reigns earlier than ever. Among the 21 Christmas tunes surging includes mostly the classics.

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Mariah Carey’s All I Want for Christmas is the highest on the list sitting comfortably at the number 2 position in the charts. Wham’s Last Christmas is close behind while the Pogues’ Fairytale of New York has broken into the top 10 this week.

Michael Buble, Elton John, Paul McCartney and John Lennon all reached the Top 40 this week as well, rather unsurprisingly as the UK is smitten with their classic hits. However, there are a few new Christmas songs that have been released this year to feature in the charts as well.

 

 

 

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Many artists have chosen to release Christmas covers this year, including Miley Cyrus who recently covered Wham’s Last Christmas and many more in her virtual concert promoting the new Plastic Hearts album. Cyrus, along with Ariana Grande, Dua Lipa, Kylie and Little Mix are among the minority who continue to have hit songs in the top 40 that are not Christmas themed.

The number 1 position fittingly sits with Positions by Ariana Grande, who has a Christmas song in the top as well, Santa Baby. While many artists this year, none have successfully reached the top 40 chart because listeners are streaming based on nostalgic purposes.

However, one new festive hit could reach the charts by next week. The queen of Christmas, Mariah Carey, has teamed up with Ariana Grande and Jennifer Hudson on the new Christmas track Oh Santa! which is made of all the holiday ingredients to break into the charts. The new song was released today, December 4th and is streaming on all platforms.

We did it https://t.co/Cp80uhYdI9

— Mariah Carey (@MariahCarey) December 16, 2019

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas!…or at least it is in early November. Spotify and iTunes have released figures that show how much earlier this year that Christmas music than in previous years. Of course, the song that crept in early in is the festive top tier staple none other than Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas. Spotify and iTunes show that the festive it has reappeared in the charts on the 8th and 2nd of November respectfully a whole 2 weeks earlier than the year before.

Being within the top 50 on both streaming giants All I Want For Christmas isn’t the only festive wonder that is making it’s early come back. “Behind her in the Spotify chart are six more Christmas songs, including The Pogues’ Fairytale of New York and Michael Bublé’s It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas. Between them, the songs have more than 500,00 daily plays.”

As it stands now Carey’s Christmas hit is currently 63rd but it is expected to enter the UK charts any day now. If so then this year would mark All I Want For Christmas‘s 100th overall week in the top charts. Considering it was released in 1994 having 100 weeks (obviously not straight) in the top charts is one hell of a feat for anyone.

Although the UK has been starting its festive cheer early we are lagging behind other countries. Estonia and Iceland started to dust off the ol’ Christmas playlists in October, but out shadowing even them is the Philipines who were getting into their Christmas spirit all the way back in early September! As someone who loves Christmas even, I think that’s too early.

Speaking of too early, Magic Radio has launched its new radio station which is dedicated 100% to Christmas music. However, many people would think that this would be a seasonal station that would start around about now, but due to popular demand, they launched the station WAY back in August! We’ve been able to get into the festive mood back since way back in the summer (2 seasons before the festive season).

The news on Christmas music being listened to early is obvious. This year the world has been plagued with the Coronavirus pandemic and we’ve all suffered and worried, earlier in the year people kept their Christmas decorations up or put them up early to keep the spirits of the community up. With that in mind, it’s easy to see why Christmas music is coming out early. We could all do with some festive cheer around now, let’s keep safe and get into the Christmas mood with some Miriah Carey!