Ac/Dc for Christmas No 1It’s the festive season and as with every year the focus on the Christmas number one rears its ugly head. It has been tainted in a manner in recent years due to X Factor’s dominance over the chart. In Ireland, not since Mario Rosenstock’s ‘Gift Grub/Leave Right Now’ in 2005 has a non X Factor contestant ended with the Christmas accolade.

The UK chart has had a little more success staving off the march of brand Cowell with The Justice Collective, Military Wives and Rage Against The Machine all breaking up the dominance, meaning only Matt Cardle has taken a Christmas number one in the last four years in the UK.

This year the race is back on and Sam Bailey is favourite at 5/4 (UK) and 11/10 (IE). Betting was even suspended in Ireland due to the overwhelming popularity with those who fancy a flutter. However it has since been reinstated with AC/DC emerging as contender sitting as 11/4 (UK) and 3/1 (IE) making them second favourite. This is all due to a Facebook campaign called AC/DC for Xmas No1 and has carried almost 150k likes already. If likes turn into sales, we may have another big battle on our hands.

There’s another unlikely contender too in Susan Boyle who has teamed up with Elvis to sing ‘O Come All Ye Faithful’ and while it’s out at 6/1 in the UK and 4/1 in Ireland, it’s most certainly not out of the question for a late surge. At least if Susan manages to win it would put a Christmas song back as the Christmas number one. Something we haven’t seen since Band Aid 20 with their rehash of Do They Know It’s Christmas in 2004.

The betting is fairly tight and a shift in support for AC/DC could make it a Highway To Hell for Sam Bailey. The real question we find ourselves wondering is if the Irish market is finally ready to give up on the X Factor domination and get behind something else and break the monotony.