Kylie leads three-way race for Christmas number one

Pop star Kylie Minogue is leading a three-way race for this year's Christmas number one, says the Official Charts Company.

Her festive single XMAS is currently 7,000 units ahead of the nearest competitor, Wham's Last Christmas - which has topped the charts for the last two years.

In third place, and only 231 sales behind Wham, is the charity single Lullaby, by Together For Palestine - a supergroup featuring Bastille's Dan Smith, Celeste, Neneh Cherry, Nadine Shah, Brian Eno and Little Mix's Leigh-Anne Pinnock, amongst others.

If Kylie maintains her lead, XMAS would become her first number one single since Slow in 2003. "I think I'd cry," she told BBC News.

"It's been an unbelievable year, so that would be the cherry on top."

Kylie's song, which she performed on Strictly Come Dancing on Sunday night, comes complete with a dance routine spelling out the letters X-M-A-S, making it a yuletide YMCA.

More importantly in chart terms, it's an Amazon exclusive. That means every time someone asks their smart speaker to play Christmas songs, Kylie comes first - and every stream is eligible for the charts.

XMAS is a brand new song, recorded for the 10th anniversary edition of the star's Kylie Christmas album, which topped the album charts last week.

It dates back to the original recording sessions, but never quite made the cut. Kylie told the BBC it had always bothered her that the song wasn't finished.

"It's not something I've constantly thought about, but it's had a place in my mind.

"As the years went by, I kept thinking someone else was going to release a song called Xmas - and it would have been so annoying that I didn't get it done in time.

"It's the only song that's ever lived with me this long."

However, it's not the first time that Kylie's been in the running for the festive top spot: In 1988, Especially For You was a close runner-up to Cliff Richard's Mistletoe and Wine.

However, no matter what happens, the star won't be in the UK to celebrate.

"I'm heading home," she told BBC News. "I'm looking forward to spending time with my family and, you know, obsessing over a jigsaw with the cricket on.

"That's about the level I want to get to."

Wham's Last Christmas is the current number one single; and it's huge streaming numbers could allow the band to hold on to the top spot.

If they do, Last Christmas will make history as the first ever song to reach Christmas number one three times.

Meanwhile, the UK's best-selling song of the weekend was Together For Palestine's charity single, which will raise funds for aid for people in Gaza.

It's based on the traditional Palestinian folk song Yamma Mwel El Hawa (Mama, Sing to the Wind), with new English lyrics written by Peter Gabriel.

"The song's really been a part of my life since an early age," says Nai Barghouti, a Palestinian singer who features on the track.

"I remember recording it for the first time when I was 11 years old, and it's been going a lot of places with me since then.

"The lyrics are always a strong confirmation of what it means to be Palestinian - a never-ending sense of resilience, defiance, beauty, dignity and hope."

Getting into the Christmas chart, she says, would represent "a small beam of light in such darkness".

The song has sold just under 10,000 copies so far according to Official Charts Company data. However, it has yet to make Spotify's Top 100 - which means it may fall down the rankings as the week progresses and streams for other contenders accumulate.

Those songs include Mariah Carey's All I Want For Christmas Is You (currently predicted to land at number four) and The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl's Fairytale of New York (which is at five).

Fairytale is the third best-selling single of the week thanks to a limited-edition zoetrope vinyl, which was released on Friday.

The song has famously achieved every position in the Top 20 except for number one; and strong streaming numbers could help it leapfrog the competition.

Less than 10,000 "sales" separate the top five, according to the Official Charts Company.

"However, with this also being preliminary data only, expect the picture to evolve as more streaming data arrives throughout the week."