BBC One has named an impressive line-up of big name acts for this year’s Top of the Pops Christmas and New Year specials.
On Christmas Day Fearne Cotton and BBC Radio 1’s Clara Amfo will host a show which includes performances from Anne-Marie, Clean Bandit, George Ezra, Rudimental with Jess Glynne & Dan Caplen and Rita Ora.
The show then returns for a New Year’s special on Saturday 29 December with B Young, Christine and the Queens, Jess Glynne, Jonas Blue and Jack & Jack, Lewis Capaldi, Mabel, Tom Odell & Rae Morris and Years & Years, culminating with the unveiling of the last Number 1 of 2018.
Speaking last week, Fearne Cotton said: “Top of the Pops has become a special annual tradition for many and I can’t wait to be back with Clara watching some of the biggest names in pop perform their big hits of the year!”
Clara Amfo added: “Getting to present the television that we’ve all watched as kids will never not be a joy for me and I’m so very happy to be back with Fearne for TOTP this festive season, see you from your sofa!”
Ahead of the big reveal, music fans might like to head over to Betway where the team have been looking back at the nation’s interest in Christmas Number 1s – a modern tradition which took on life in 1973 when Slade’s Merry Xmas Everybody and Wizzard’s I Wish it Could Be Christmas Everyday battled it out for the accolade.
While Slade took the prize, both songs have become an essential part of any Christmas playlist or compilation CD and so popular is Merry Xmas Everybody that the band were recently estimated to earn more than £1m in royalties each year, almost three times as much as Bing Crosby’s White Christmas!
Betway’s look-back also reveals that 33 per cent of Christmas No. 1s are about love, compared to 18 per cent about Christmas and finds that Wham! hit Last Christmas is the best-selling UK single never to reach number one.
Check out the infographic below for more great insights:
Source: Betway
