Hallelujah tops Christmas chart

Burke was crowned winner of the X Factor last Saturday

Newly-crowned X Factor queen Alexandra Burke has topped the Christmas singles chart with Hallelujah.

Burke won the battle for Christmas number one ahead of the late Jeff Buckley, whose version of the same song was in second place.

It is 51 years since the same song sat at numbers one and two, and the first time ever at Christmas.

Burke's Hallelujah became the fastest-selling single by a female solo artist, with 576,000 copies sold.

The cover of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah by Buckley, who died in a drowning accident in Memphis in May 1997 aged 30, finished at number two on download sales only.

It's ironic that it's taken the X Factor to get a lot more of us to appreciate the music of Leonard Cohen Gennaro Castaldo, HMV

The Official Charts Company said the only other time the scenario occurred was in January 1957 when Tommy Steele and Guy Mitchell held the top two places with Singin' The Blues.

Cohen - who wrote the hit more than 20 years ago - made it a triple Hallelujah in the top 40 with a new entry at number 36.

Official Charts Company managing director Martin Talbot said: "It is a particularly amazing week for Alexandra Burke who has broken a string of records to announce her arrival in spectacular style.

"And, chart placings at 1, 2 and 36 are remarkable for a 25-year-old song which has never previously reached the top 40."

HMV's Gennaro Castaldo said: "It was pretty much a given that Alexandra Burke's cover of Hallelujah would dominate the race for this year's Christmas number one, but it's been such a strange year that we thought the charts would throw up some kind of a surprise, and the twist came in the form of the Jeff Buckley cover.

Buckley's Hallelujah is widely regarded as the definitive version

"It's ironic that it's taken the X Factor to get a lot more of us to appreciate the music of Leonard Cohen and the talent of Jeff Buckley."

Burke's victory pushed 2006 X Factor winner Leona Lewis off the top after two weeks. She is at number three with her cover of Snow Patrol's Run.

The reality TV theme continued in the chart charts after comedian Peter Kay's spoof reality TV singer Geraldine entered the top 10 at number five with Once Upon A Christmas Song.

Comeback kings Take That claimed Christmas number one in the album chart with The Circus.

The album is the fastest-selling album in the UK so far this millennium, according to the Official Charts Company, and the second biggest-selling album of 2008.

Duffy's Rockferry was the year's runaway biggest seller so far, with 1.5 million copies sold in 2008 to date.