Ed Sheeran has capped a hugely successful year by winning 2017’s Christmas No 1, with his song Perfect.
“This is an actual dream come true and I’m very proud and happy,” Sheeran said, wishing his fans “a very merry Christmas, happy holidays and a happy new year”.
He benefited from – or perhaps shamelessly exploited – chart rules that count streams and sales of multiple versions of the same song towards its chart placing. Sheeran released six versions of Perfect to aid its chances of getting the festive top spot: the original, an acoustic version, remixes by Robin Schulz and Mike Perry, and two duet versions with A-list names: Beyoncé and Andrea Bocelli.
Sheeran also features on the No 2 song, River by Eminem. The rapper scored the Christmas No 1 album for Revival, its commercial fortunes left undented by generally negative reviews.
The original version of Perfect is taken from Sheeran’s album ÷, which is the biggest-selling record in the UK this year, and features other enormous hits in Shape of You and Galway Girl.
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