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X Factor winner Ben Haenow claims Official Christmas Number One

X Factor winner Ben Haenow has claimed this year’s Christmas Number One.

The singer’s cover of One Republic’s ‘Something I Need’ held off Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars’ ‘Uptown Funk’ to top the Official UK Singles Chart with a combined chart sales figure of over 214,000. All proceeds from the single will go to charity Together for Short Lives.

“To have even been in the running for Christmas Number 1 against some of the names that were in the race, and then to have actually won is incredible,” Haenow told OfficialCharts.com. “I’m gonna go and have a few good drinks with my mates…definitely more than a few good drinks… to really celebrate! I’m absolutely shocked, I can’t believe it.”

This year marks the first Christmas where audio streams from services such as Spotify and Deezer counted towards the final tally. Despite just missing out on the top spot, ‘Uptown Funk’ broke the record for most streams in a single week having been listened to nearly 2.34 million times. The record was previously held by Ed Sheeran’s ‘Thinking Out Loud’, which was streamed 1.72 million times in a single week in November.

Sheeran’s ‘X’ tops the album chart after achieving the biggest single-week sales of any artist album in 2014, suggesting a few people might be receiving a copy in their Christmas stocking this Thursday. The album, which racked up its eleventh week at the Official Albums Chart Number 1 spot, sold over 214,000 copies this week.

[NME]