Joe McElderry loses chart race to Rage

Joe McElderry's battle with Rage Against the Machine has been all anyone has been talking about over the last seven days and it made for a very exciting Christmas countdown.

It came out of the blue. The campaign seemed to be getting some traction and then in the last few days it really took off and the race was on. It seemed too tight to call until 6pm last night when the Big Top 40 chart was locked down and Rage Against The Machine was revealed as this year's Christmas Number 1.

What do you think?

Is it right that a campaign that was targetted against Simon Cowell personally should deny Joe McElderry the Christmas Number 1? Let us know what you think, add your comments below.

The Rage single doesn't sound particularly festive to us - is the joke actually going to be on the rest of us. As we're no doubt going to be forced to listen to it every year as we count down previous festive chart toppers. Whether you like Joe McElderry's single or not, we know what we'd rather hear at Christmas!

Can Joe still make it to Number 1?

It's time now to look ahead to next week's chart. Will the Rage campaign run out of steam - it was designed to deny the X Factor winner the Christmas Number 1 spot only - but could it do it for a second week? Should we expect to see this kind of campaign every year now to try to block the X Factor winner from the top spot? What do you think?