Reuters
UNITED KINGDOM — Sam Bailey, a prison guard who won this year’s version of the British talent showThe X Factor, took the Christmas number one position on the UK singles chart with her debut release on Sunday.
The 36-year-old mother-of-two sold 149,000 copies of Skyscraper, a reworking of American singer Demi Lovato’s 2011 hit, outselling US singer Pharrell Williams’Happy by more than two to one.
Last week’s number one, Somewhere Only We Know by British singer Lily Allen, slipped to number six. The song received wide exposure as the theme for a Christmas television advertisement.
“Being number one is absolutely amazing,” Bailey said. “It really is the icing on the cake.” Two social media campaigns designed to keep the X Factor winner off the top spot, cast by their supporters as an attempt to promote real music rather than manufactured acts, ended in failure.
Full story: Prison guard takes Christmas number one spot in UK