Christmas number one: Sidemen and JME’s quest for top spot

It will be a race to top spot for The Sidemen and JME, who want the first grime Christmas number one

It’s the stuff of dreams to be top of the charts at Christmas – but could it be a festive first for grime?

That’s what YouTube collective Sidemen and artist JME are hoping for with their new single Christmas Drillings.

“What started as a YouTube video has turned into a movement,” Sidemen’s Vikkstar tells BBC Newsbeat.

They have stiff competition, going against Stormzy’s Firebabe, Raye’s Escapism and LadBaby’s Food Aid for the number one spot.

Having a chart-topping hit at Christmas can be a moment of pride for many artists, but for grime icon JME, it goes beyond that.

The artist, known for songs like Man Don’t Care, features on the song – with the profits intended for charity FareShare which focuses on hunger and food waste.

JME says “if we get number one, I’ll just play the song on repeat at full volume”

He recalls hearing about food banks at university, but now seeing “them week in and week out”.

“It’s something that you hear about but if you don’t see them you don’t feel it,” he says.

“There’s a food bank round the corner from me which always has queues outside it and I always wished there was a way I could help directly,” JME adds.

Trying to make a Christmas number one

While you might imagine a big Christmas song to have lots of detailed thinking powering its success, Christmas Drillings actually has its roots in YouTube.

The Sidemen are known for their popular videos, with over 17 million subscribers on the platform – and in this case it’s one of their videos which is the inspiration.

The group split into two to make a Christmas song, with one group having $100 to make the track and the other $100,000 and a producer.

It’s the song with the bigger budget that ended up as Christmas Drillings, which also features other members KSI and Tobi TBJZL.

“Our fans have taken it and run with it – we can’t believe what’s happening,” says Vikkstar.

“We’ve had millions of streams, we can’t believe what we’re witnessing and it’s all for a great cause too,” Vikkstar says

While the song was initially a bit of fun, it turned serious very quickly.

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“When we started the song we didn’t know what to do. It could have been pop, hip-hop, grime and then the producer played a drill beat and that’s when I knew this was going to be a real song,” JME says.

“It started as a joke, making light of the [cost of living] situation at the moment. Now I play it every single day.

“You should hear the bass in my car when I’m driving around blasting it.”

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