New campaign aims to make ELO’s ‘Mr. Blue Sky’ the UK Christmas #1

Lester Cohen/Getty Images for ASCAP

In the U.K. it’s a big deal for a song to land at #1 for Christmas, and a new campaign is trying to make that happen for the classic ELO tune “Mr. Blue Sky.” 

According to the Official Charts site, the “Mr. Blue Sky” Christmas #1 campaign was started on social media by Jon Morter, who was behind a successful 2009 campaign to get Rage Against the Machine to #1 for Christmas. The new campaign was sparked by a desire to help promote the Bluesky social media app over Elon Musk’s X, formerly known as Twitter.

“It certainly became apparent after I’d made the suggestion that many [users] on the Bluesky app want to make it happen to help promote the new place [now that] many are going away from X/Twitter,” Morter tells the  site. “If nothing else it will be a lot of fun to see if Bluesky users can have an impact on the annual Christmas #1 race.”

The campaign will also serve as a way to celebrate the band, now dubbed Jeff Lynne’s ELO, performing at the upcoming British Summertime Hyde Park festival. The concert is happening July 13 and has already been announced as their final show.

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