Klaxon…the race for this year’s Official Christmas Number 1 is officially open.

Today marks day 1 of the race to be the coveted Christmas Number 1 2019. The winner of the biggest chart battle of the year, compiled by the Official Charts Company and broadcast exclusively on BBC Radio 1, will be announced a week from now on Friday, December 20.

The Christmas Number 1 is a British tradition that stretches back over 65 years and has been claimed by some of the world’s most iconic music stars. The Beatles, Spice Girls, Queen, Cliff Richard and Mr Blobby and not to forget Rage Against The Machine, have all landed Christmas chart-toppers in the past. image005.pngLook back at every Christmas Number 1 single here.

Last year saw dad blogger and YouTube star LadBaby claim the Christmas chart crown with his cover of We Built This City; an ode to sausage rolls that raised money for foodbank charity The Trussell Trust. It was the first novelty single to top the chart at Christmas since Bob The Builder’s Can We Fix It? in 2000.

"The whole of last Christmas passed me by because of all the chaos," LadBaby - real name Mark Hoyle - told OfficialCharts.com. "It only really sunk in what had happened around February. What sticks out for me was people saying we couldn't do it... in a funny way it rallied people to get behind the song.

"Everywhere I go now people shout out at me 'You're the sausage roll man!', probably more so than LadBaby. My following since then has grown dramatically as well, and it's given some much-needed attention to the Trussell Trust. It really is humbling to see what we achieved with them."

But who’s in line to bag 2019’s Official Christmas Number 1?

LadBaby and his family are throwing their hat into the ring once again this year. In the hope that lightning will indeed strike twice, I Love Sausage Rolls is released today, a playful twist on the Joan Jett classic I Love Rock n Roll, in aid of The Trussell Trust.

Elsewhere, other key contenders include Stormzy whose highly-anticipated second album Heavy Is The Head is out today with popular tracks from the album expected to make an impact on the Official Singles Chart. Plus reigning Number 1 Dance Monkey by Tones & I which could hold on for a further week, or 8 year-old Fleet schoolboy Frankie Morland whose recorded a song called World In Danger about his fears about climate change and the future of the planet.

Taylor Swift, 2019 breakthrough star Lewis Capaldi, Ellie Goulding and rapper D Double E could all be in with a shot, or six year-old brain tumour survivor Lyra Cole, raising money for Brain Tumour Research with her version of Johnny Mathis’s 1976 Christmas Number 1, When A Child Is Born.

Plus a host of ever popular Christmas classics are currently climbing the Official Chart, including Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas which celebrates its 25th birthday this year, as well as Wham!’s Last Christmas which gets a new limited 7” white vinyl release today, and The Pogues’ Fairytale Of New York.

See the full latest list of Official Christmas Number 1 contenders.

The Official Christmas Number 1 race 2019 is underway today, with sales and streams counting up until midnight Thursday, December 19. Tune in to The Official Chart with Scott Mills on BBC Radio 1, compiled by the Official Charts Company, from 4pm Friday 20 December to hear the Top 40 countdown and the crowning of the UK’s Official Christmas Number 1 2019, the full Top 100 Official Christmas Singles Chart and Albums Chart will be published on OfficialCharts.com from 5.45pm.

Join the conversation now using #XmasNo1. Follow @OfficialCharts on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram for all the latest race updates, and join the Official Charts mailing list for Breaking News on this year’s race.

Full list of contenders via below link