The X Factor winner Louisa Johnson has made a poor start in the race for Christmas number one, entering the charts at just number nine.
After singing her way to victory in the ITV talent show last Sunday, she has achieved combined sales of just 39,000 with her single, a cover of Bob Dylan’s "Forever Young".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Z9BE2Pz_VA&feature=oembed
Last year’s X Factor winner Ben Haenow achieved 214,000 combined sales with his winner’s single, "Something I Need", during its first week on sale – which saw him take the Christmas number one spot.
X Factor winners usually do well in the charts at Christmas, with number ones from winners Ben (2014), Sam Bailey (2013), Matt Cardle (2010), Alexandra Burke (2008), Leon Jackson (2007), Leona Lewis (2006) and Shayne Ward (2005).
Ben Haenow topped the charts at Christmas in 2014 (Ben Birchall/PA)
But Louisa faces another obstacle as the X Factor final took place earlier than usual this year.
With the Official Charts having moved from Sunday to Friday, Louisa has also not yet had a full week to make an impression.
But The X Factor has given a boost to One Direction’s single "History", which reached its highest position of number 11 after their performance of the song on Sunday’s final.
One Direction (Joe Giddens/PA)
Meanwhile, Adele’s "25" is set to become the fastest album to sell two million copies in UK chart history.
By midnight on December 17, the singer’s third album had reached 1.97 million sales, and it has now almost certainly hit the two million mark – having sold between 46,000 and 61,000 copies a day for the past week.
Adele (Guy Levy/BBC)
"25", which remains in the top spot on the album chart for the fourth consecutive week, will likely achieve this record after 29 days on sale – beating her previous album 21, which took 13 weeks to reach the two million mark.
On the singles chart, Justin Bieber set a new record as the first artist ever to log four consecutive weeks at numbers one and two, with his tracks Love Yourself and Sorry.
