December will be magic again

Oh, Reuters! Can you help me decide if I should bother with my annual fun of looking at the UK pop charts and obsessing as to what will be the Christmas Number One Single?

As the festive season approaches, the best-selling Christmas songs of the past will probably have a yuletide chart encore. But missing from the holiday revelry will be much in the way of new Christmas-themed releases from mainstream pop acts.

Some of the blame rests with the enormously popular TV talent show "The X Factor," which for the fourth consecutive year will release its winner's debut single right before Christmas, effectively rendering the once-pitched battle for the season's No. 1 a one-horse race.

The "X Factor" victor's single is due after the show's December 13 finale. The strongest challenger is expected to be "Once Upon a Christmas Song," a charity tune by transsexual singer Geraldine, a.k.a. comedian Peter Kay.

Hmmm.

Oh YouTube! Can we have a listen to that "Once Upon a Christmas Song" song?



Oh dear.

Well, I'll keep an eye on it then.