Christmas Number One Chart Single Revealed

The Hillsborough disaster tribute single has become the Christmas number one.

The Justice Collective's version of He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother sold more than 269,000 copies, comfortably outselling X Factor winner James Arthur's debut single Impossible by 45,000, according to figures from the Official Charts Company .

Impossible, which had gone straight to the top of the chart the previous Sunday, was knocked into second position.

Earlier in the week, Arthur had taken to Twitter to urge his follows to make the Hillsborough tribute song this year's festive number one.

He tweeted: "Platinum single baby! Not a bad start :) thanks to all who bought it now make sure the Hillsborough tune is number 1!! #LOVE"

After the chart was officially announced, he tweeted: "He ain't heavy he's my brother the deserved Xmas number 1. Beautiful song and a very worthy cause. Bless all affected by the disaster #LOVE"

The Hillsborough track, which features names such as Robbie Williams, Sir Paul McCartney and Spice Girl Mel C, is being sold to help cover the legal costs of the families of the 96 victims of the 1989 stadium disaster.

The Government said last week it would waive VAT on the charity single.

Margaret Aspinall, chair of the Hillsborough Families Support Group (HFSG), said it was "brilliant news" adding: "The families will be delighted. We haven't had very good Christmases for a long time, so this is an extra gift.

"It's obvious that it's got a lot of support and they've got the message across to everybody. It's truly amazing.

"I'd like to thank everybody who participated in making the record and the people who bought it."

As well as the Justice Collective and James Arthur's singles, several other songs were in the running for this year's Christmas top spot.

Those included Psy's mega-selling international smash Gangnam Style and another internet hit, One Pound Fish by East End market trader Shahid Nazir, which went viral in the summer.

The video of his One Pound Fish song has been watched more than 6.5 million times on YouTube and charted at 29, while Gangnam Style bounced back up to number six.

The Pogues' and Kirsty McColl's enduring hit Fairytale Of New York was also in with a chance. It has re-entered the Official Christmas Singles Chart Top 20 every year for the past seven years, and this time reached number 12.

Since 2002 the Christmas number one has been dominated by reality TV contests which end just in time for the winner to release a single.

The trend began with Popstars: The Rivals, but since 2005 winners of The X Factor have topped the Christmas chart five times.

The pattern was broken in 2009 when an internet campaign saw Rage Against The Machine's single Killing In The Name outselling Joe McElderry.

X Factor winner Matt Cardle was top in 2010, while in 2011 The Choir winners Military Wives were number one.