The X Factor winner Joe McElderry is losing out to Rage Against The Machine in the race for the UK Christmas Number One single.

Early midweek indications today (December 15) are that McElderry’s single ‘The Climb’ (a cover of a song) has sold less than the US band, whose 1992 song ‘Killing In The Name’ is Number Two in the charts following a Facebook campaign to get them to the top spot.

However the physical format of McElderry’s single is not released until tomorrow and this is expected to give the song a huge boost in the chart.

‘Killing In The Name’ shot to Number Two in the midweeks despite the Facebook campaign group going down periodically earlier this week. The song is Number One on the iTunes and Amazon.co.uk download charts.

The X Factor mogul Simon Cowell has branded the campaign “stupid” and “cynical”.

nme.co.uk 15/12/09