The race for this year's Christmas number one is soon set to begin, with a number of strong contenders vying for the top spot.
Last year, hit Wham! song 'Last Christmas' managed to claim the UK Christmas number one, and it was joined by several other festive favourites in the chart.
Prior to this, LadBaby had dominated the charts each December for five consecutive years with their charity singles. However, the husband-and-wife duo put a halt to their Christmas number one success in 2023 - and won't be releasing a song this year either.
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Mark and Roxanne Hoyle, the couple behind the social media brand LadBaby, have previously collaborated with the likes of Elton John and Ed Sheeran over the years, but their music success came to a close for a heartbreaking reason.
The couple faced backlash for their five Christmas number ones, which include 'We Built This City’, ‘I Love Sausage Rolls’ and ‘Sausage Rolls for Everyone’.
In 2019, allegations emerged that Roxanne - who is known as LadBaby Mum on social media - and Mark had been pocketing the money from the tracks, despite it being said that all proceeds would go to food bank charity The Trussell Trust.
Online abuse then ensued, including threats and blackmail attempts. The Trussell Trust stepped in to say the claims weren't true, but criticism of LadBaby continued regardless.
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“I think there were a lot of misconceptions around money,” Mark told The Guardian.
“I really struggled with that, because it’s one thing people going, ‘We don’t like your teeth, we don’t like your voice.’ But when there’s this narrative going around that we stole the money and we profited from it, it was really difficult to take.”
With Trussell having seen its highest levels of need in recent years, it could be asked why LadBaby didn’t use its platform to criticise the reasons the food banks were needed, alongside raising awareness and cash.
But Mark said: “I’m not an expert to do that. For me, it was about helping families. That’s how we can make a difference. We can raise awareness and try to raise money.”
Roxanne added that the abuse they were facing over allegations around the singles was extreme, as she said ‘the police came to support us through that time’ with anti-terror officers advising them at home.
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She does admit though: “I’m devastated we’re not doing another song, because those songs shouldn’t have been about trolling and controversy.”
However, while there’s no song again this year, there might be one in 2028 (whether everyone will be happy about that or not) as the 10-year anniversary of their first - if Roxanne manages to convince Mark.
“It needs to be a sausage roll megamix," Roxanne added.
Danni King