Happy new year, TOTP fantasists!
So it's come to this: for the first time ever, this year there was no Christmas edition of Top of the Pops. Instead there was a Christmas Eve "review of the year", presented by Clara Amfo and Jack Saunders on a sofa, with some legendary-grade manspreading from the latter (Saunders, not the sofa itself). Most of the performances were clips from the big BBC-covered events, and although there were one or two studio guests, there was no audience to cheer them on.
This wasn't a bad show as it did quite a good job of rounding up the year and included a fair bit of chart chat, but one does miss the eclecticism, unexpectedness and TV magic of the Christmas TOTP. It would have been great to see how, say, LF System approached the question of staging (we had to make do with their singer popping up on Jools's Hootenanny) and rewarded some of the year's less obvious stars - Becky Hill? Aitch? RAYE? - with a place in the Christmas viewing schedule. Maybe it will be back next year.
But here in fantasy land, where nothing gets cancelled, it's time to run down 2022's top ten artistes. Here we go!
In joint sixth place with eight appearances are the Encanto crew: Carolina Gaitan, Mauro Castillo, Rhenzy Feliz and Adassa. Encanto made a huge chart impact right at the start of the year and the success of We Need To Talk About Bruno in particular was easily enough to see these cast members into the top ten.
Also in joint sixth place with eight appearances is Luude. Great performance from the drum and bass producer, new to the chart this year, whose two big hits racked up eight appearances between them.
And also in joint sixth place with eight appearances is Lizzo. After a big 2019 Lizzo had gone quiet for a couple of years, so it's great to see her back and better than ever. Two huge hits caught the public imagination and she topped off the year with a Christmas song as well.
And also also in joint sixth place with eight appearances is Aitch. This year's highest placing British rapper appeared on five different TOTP hits this year, alongside Anne-Marie, Arrdee, Ashanti and Ed Sheeran as well as on his own.
And finally also in joint sixth place with eight appearances is Ella Henderson. Ella had her most TOTP appearances since 2014 by following a Becky Hill like path, giving her vocals to two big summer hits from Nathan Dawe and David Guetta, one of them also featuring Hill.
In joint third place with ten appearances is LF System. Our highest-placed newcomer gave us the biggest song of the summer, dominated the number 1 spot for two months and rode it to ten TOTP appearances.
Also in joint third place with ten appearances is Becky Hill. Bewdley's best dance diva continues to build year on year, this time collaborating with David Guetta, Galantis and Joel Corry to establish dancefloor supremacy.
And also in joint third place with ten appearances is George Ezra. I feel like the Gold Rush Kid had slightly quieted impact compared to Ezra's previous two albums, but the top singles from it had incredible chart staying power.
In second place with fourteen appearances is Harry Styles. It was Harry's year, really. As It Was parked itself at the top and refused to budge, and two other tracks from the album spent significant time in the top ten and made repeated appearances on the show. No ordinary mortal could beat that. But...
In first place with sixteen appearances is Ed Sheeran. Once again King Ed was never far from the TOTP studio, this year bringing TWELVE different tracks to the show, whether alone, in collaboration with other huge names, or guesting for more up-and-coming acts like Aitch and Fireboy DML. He just keeps coming up with the goods.
And here's the updated all-time Fantasy TOTP list:
1 Ed Sheeran (116)
2 Little Mix (71)
3 Dua Lipa (69)
4 Ariana Grande (60)
5 Drake (59)
6 The Weeknd (56)
7 Justin Bieber (50)
8 Sam Smith (47)
9 Calvin Harris (46)
10 Clean Bandit (45)
11 George Ezra (44)
12 Stormzy (42)
== Camila Cabello (42)
14 Anne-Marie (40)
15 Becky Hill (38)
16 Rita Ora (36)
17 Jess Glynne (35)
18 Jax Jones (34)
19 Harry Styles (33)
== Jason Derulo (33)
== Ellie Goulding (33)
The biggest climber here is George Ezra, but the real story has to be Ed Sheeran extending his already massive lead at the top, making it seem unlikely that he can ever be overtaken. Little Mix and Dua Lipa had quiet years and might need to look over their shoulders a bit. Becky Hill is the highest-placed new entrant to the top twenty at 15, though Harry Styles can expect to leapfrog her if he keeps up his furious pace (and if you included his appearances with One Direction he'd be seventh already).
Thanks as ever for reading and we'll see you throughout 2023.
