Rage Against The Machine Beat 'The X Factor,' Simon Cowell & Miley Cyrus

Posted Sun Dec 20, 2009 12:57pm PST by Lyndsey Parker in Reality Rocks

The "Christmas number one"--the song that tops the charts at the end of the calendar year--is a big deal in Britain, and for the last few years it's been all but guaranteed that the honor will go to the most recent X Factor winner's debut single. (Last year's X Factor champ, Alexandra Burke, in fact had one of the biggest U.K. Christmas number ones of all time.) But this year, 2009 X Factor winner Joe McElderry (and X Factor honcho Simon Cowell) will have to settle for spot number two--as Joe's single, a cover of Miley Cyrus's "The Climb," has been trumped by a 17-year-old Rage Against The Machine song.

It all started with a grassroots Facebook campaign, "Rage Against The X Factor," organized by RATM fan Jon Morter in a protest effort to stop Simon Cowell's empire from dominating the music industry--since Simon is the main X Factor judge, and X Factor winner McElderry just signed to Simon's SyCo record label. Eventually some big-name rockers--including the Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl, Sir Paul McCartney, and Rage's own Tom Morello--pledged their support to the campaign, the goal of which was to make RATM's 1992 political anthem "Killing In The Name" Britain's Christmas number one, instead of the expected X Factor single.

And, incredibly, this campaign WORKED.

Yes, the official numbers are in, and "Killing In The Name" has topped the U.K. singles chart with 500,000 copies sold, compared to number two entry Joe McElderry's sales of 450,000. For the first time in five years, an X Factor champion has not snagged Britain's coveted Christmas number one spot, thanks to Morter's Facebook campaign.

Upon hearing this crazy news, Rage Against The Machine (who recently vowed that they would play a 2010 "victory party to end all victory parties" free concert in Britain if "Killing" beat "The Climb") posted a statement on the band's official Christmas campaign website, ratm4xmas.co.uk, saying: "WE DID IT! RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE IS XMAS NUMBER ONE. We've shown that we can make a difference and that you don't have a right to Number One just because Simon Cowell says so, especially with a bad cover! Finally I would like to say thank you to all of you, we've raised £64,726.00 for [homeless charity] Shelter at the time of writing this, the difference that this will make to peoples lives is truly amazing. We gotta take the power back - Rage Against The Machine - Merry Christmas."

As for Simon Cowell's reaction, he is probably taking the news in stride, judging by a recent conversation he had with campaigner Morter. Morter told the British music paper NME that Simon personally phoned him the night before the chart numbers were released, to wish him well in this bizarre sales battle. "Simon was very sweet and it was lovely to talk to him," said Morter. "We had a good chat about music in general and just wished each other good luck. I've got total respect for him. That was a really nice thing to do.

"The whole aim of the campaign was not to diss The X Factor at all," Morter added. "The X Factor fans like music as much as we do, so I've got absolutely nothing against them. We were just tired of [X Factor] getting to number one every year and we wanted to get the Christmas number one back."

As for Joe McElderry, he's probably not too pleased to lose to "Killing In The Name." Joe recently told British newspaper The Sun that he hated the RATM song, saying: "They can't be serious! I had no idea what it sounded like. It's dreadful and I hate it. How could anyone enjoy this? Can you imagine the grandmas hearing this over Christmas lunch? I wouldn't buy it. It's a nought out of 10 from me. Simon Cowell wouldn't like it. They wouldn't get through to Boot Camp on The X Factor--they're just shouting."

McElderry added in that Sun interview: "I think people are jumping on this to have a go at Simon and The X Factor rather than me. But Simon gives people a shot...I will be really disappointed if [my single] doesn't go to number one after all the effort I've put in to this and winning the show."

However, today McElderry graciously told press: "Fair play to the guys who have organized the Facebook campaign--it's been exciting to be part of a much-hyped battle and they definitely deserve congratulations. This time last year I never thought for one minute that I'd win The X Factor, never mind about having a debut single out, so I'm just delighted to be in the charts."

Meanwhile, "Rage Against The X Factor" spearheader Morter is still in shock over his little Facebook campaign's history-making success. He told NME: "It's crazy, I can't believe it...It's been absolutely mad, this whole thing. To be Christmas number one is insane, isn't it? It just goes to show if you use social networking in the right way, you can do it."