U.K. MIDWEEKS: MAX LEADS FESTIVE RACE

The race for the U.K.’s Official Christmas #1 single is a battle between Ava Max, Ariana Grande… and a novelty song by YouTube personality LadBaby. Over on albums, Bruce Springsteen has the highest new midweek entry at #2.

Max is currently leading the way on singles with “Sweet But Psycho” (Atlantic) ahead by just 978 combined sales. At #2 is LadBaby—a dad of two from Nottingham who has built up a sizeable following on YouTube with his videos documenting parenthood. His track is a northern version of Starship’s “We Built This City,” but dedicated to sausage rolls instead of rock & roll, naturally. It’s all in the name of charity with proceeds going to food bank network The Trussell Trust.

Ariana Grande is just 508 combined sales behind at #3 with “thank u, next” (Island) and she's also new at #4 with “Imagine.” While LadBaby is #1 on iTunes, the track is nowhere to be seen on Spotify’s U.K. Top 50 where Mariah Carey is top with “All I Want for Christmas is You” (Columbia), which is #5 on today’s Official Chart update.

On the Official Albums midweek chart, The Greatest Showman (Atlantic) is heading for another week at #1. However, Springsteen provides competition with Springsteen on Broadway (Columbia) just 1.8k combined sales behind at #2.

Michael Buble stays at #3 with Love (Reprise), George Ezra is #4 with Staying at Tamara’s (Columbia) and Roy Orbison and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra are #5 with Unchained Melodies (Polydor/Sony Music CG).