The U.K. coveted Christmas No. 1 single belongs to Clean Bandit, who remain steady at the summit for a seventh week with “Rockabye” (Atlantic/Warner), featuring Sean Paul and Anne-Marie. There's no change atop the festive album chart either, where Michael Ball and Alfie Boe's Together (Decca/Universal) starts a second week, becoming the best-selling artist album of 2016.
Clean Bandit's total combined units for “Rockabye” are now 589,000, according to the Official Charts Company, which reports that the track finished the pre-Christmas sales week 10,000 units ahead of Rag 'n' Bone Man's “Human” (Best Laid Plans). That climbs 5-2, in a week in which the traditional high-profile race for the Yuletide honors has been more muted than usual, since it was clear from early on that no one could catch Clean Bandit.
With “Just Hold On” (Syco Music/Sony) by Louis Tomlinson & Steve Aoki down a place from its No. 2 entry last week, labelmates Little Mix race 23-4 with “Touch.” Mariah Carey's “All I Want For Christmas Is You” (Sony) rebounds 8-5, its highest weekly placing since 2007. Swedish pop singer-writer Zara Larsson climbs 12-6 with “I Would Like” (Black Butter/Epic/Sony).
Boe & Ball's collaborative album added 110,000 more combined units this week — 98% of them as physical albums. That's the second-highest weekly for any artist album this year, behind David Bowie's Blackstar at 146,000, and helps Together to reach a cumulative total of 466,000.
Little Mix augment their big singles climb with a 3-2 move for the album Glory Days, as The Wonder Of You (RCA/Sony) by Elvis Presley with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra improves 4-3. The Rolling Stones' Blue & Lonesome (Polydor/Universal) starts a third week in the top five with a 2-4 decline and Olly Murs' 24 HRS (RCA/Sony) holds at No. 5.