Rapper KSI, who is represented in a syndication deal with Manchester’s Kyma Media, and his YouTube comedy collective The Sidemen have launched a Christmas campaign to keep LadBaby off the Christmas number one slot for a fifth consecutive year.
LadBaby, aka social media personalities Mark and Roxanne Hoyle, have unbelievably topped the festive charts with a sausage roll-themed song every year since their debut We Built This City (On Sausage Rolls) hit number one in December 2018. This feat makes the Hoyle couple the artist with the most UK Christmas number ones in history, currently tied with The Beatles.
The pair haven’t yet officially announced if they will release a Christmas song this year, but with four successive Christmas chart toppers in the bag, and the Beatles’ record available to be beaten, it seems a safe bet, which is where KSI and co, or hopefully anyone frankly, can potentially come in to play.
KSI’s tune Christmas Drillings, which is officially by The Sidemen ft JME, came as part of a YouTube challenge, naturally, which saw The Sidemen split into two teams to produce a Christmas hit. One team was given £100 to complete the task, and the other team were handed £100,000. It’s probably no surprise that the most fancied of the two songs was KSI’s team’s £100,000 effort.
The fact that the single was undoubtedly spurred on by the cash investment may come as somewhat ironic to energy companies and the makers of the John Lewis Christmas ad, all of whom are targeted in the gang’s not-entirely-festive ditty.
KSI isn’t alone in his mission to keep sausage rolls away from the top spot this December. If England can pull off a victory against France in the World Cup Quarter Final this weekend, the latest reworking of Baddiel, Skinner and the Lightning Seeds’ 1998 hit Three Lions seems sure to surge, while the bookies are also predicting a run for Fleetwood Mac in the wake of Christie McVie’s death. Boxer Tyson Fury and comic Jason Manford also both have charity singles to sell this year, so the race is in theory wide open.
Bookie William Hill currently has KSI and friends as something of an outsider in the race, with its website ofefring odds of 10/1 compared to favourite LadBaby’s 10/11, even without an official single to bet on as yet. Baddiel and Skinner are second favourites at 5/2, although a good run for England at the World Cup could rapidly change the maths, as could The Sidemen’s 17.4m YouTube subscribers, versus LadBaby’s paltry 1.08m. We live in hope.
