Where will the NHS Choir be next week? And the week after? Bieber is more popular than he's ever been in the UK.

Bieber has a massive hit album which the choir don't.

The NHS Choir wouldn't have got anywhere near #1 if it wasn't for the media jumping onto their band wagon. At the start of the week they were already losing steam, and then Chris Evans got involved and it steamed ahead.

A Bridge Over You is a fluke #1 although it's sad that people get behind these singles just because they get exposure on daytime TV. Those 127k who downloaded the song in the last 7 days won't listen to this in a months time. I would much rather donate directly to charity (as I indeed did for Text Santa co-incidentally) than buy a song I don't really want to listen to despite its good cause.

As for Justin Bieber he's regained the top 2 on iTunes and I suspect by Monday, he will be back on top of the Spotify chart. So yep, he really is more popular than ever. He's just not as successful as Radio 2 and BBC/ITV news bulletins. lol

In fact, I wouldn't be at all surprised if the NSH Choir slip below all three of those Bieber songs in the top 10 next Friday.

Shame really that having an impact on the charts and an impact on culture are two different things.
I mean do people really give a toss about Westlife's 14 UK no.1 singles anymore? lol

Well after finally having heard 'What Do You Mean' on the Christmas Top of the Pops yesterday, I'm glad the choir got to number one. Biebers song as always wasn't good enough for me.

The random cutting to crying girls and those girls singing along to the entire song was just a cringe fest.

Anymore?

I never gave a toss about Westlife's #1 hits when they were topping the chart. Then again the UK chart was at its most engineered back then with record companies purposely releasing singles in quiet weeks knowing that they had a better chance of getting to #1.

I did think a shift was coming in around 2008 where it felt, to me, that the genuinely popular songs were the ones topping the charts and those that probably would've been #1 in the CD single era were struggling in the download era. By 2010, record companies had taken control control of the charts once again with engineered release dates.

Now with streaming, it seems to be happening all over again. As the streaming charts are fairly slowed paced and making up more than 70% of chart sales, there is a chance that 2016 will be another year where the genuinely popular songs are the ones that gradually climb up to #1, rather than songs (like the NSH Choir) topping the chart due to mass TV exposure. The type of song that goes to #1, and then drops out of the chart as quickly as it entered.

I couldn't really care less who got Xmas #1 to be honest. My point was pointing to a charity single to show Bieber's popularity in the UK hasn't grown is incorrect. His last three singles have gone to #1, his past four singles have all been certified platinum and his most recent album will easily become his best-selling in the UK.

I quite like most of them.

Surely the popularity of his songs can't be down to little girls and fans only, his latest singles must appeal to general popdance listeners, they are catchy, he is doing a Timberlake and appealing to a wider audience that before never paid attention to his music (and it was crap before IMHO except Beauty and a beat and Confidence)

I agree. His management have done an excellent job on his comeback and broadening his fanbase.