Sam Ryder hopes his Christmas song will become a holiday classic.
The 34-year-old singer threw his hat into the ring for the annual race to the festive number one with ‘You’re Christmas To Me’ and he’s been overwhelmed with the reaction to the song, which he hopes will feature on seasonal playlists for years to come.
He told BANG Showbiz: “I’m speechless [about the reaction]! I wrote the song on the train with minutes to spare for the deadline, because it was written for a movie on Amazon Prime, and I needed to hand in my homework that evening.
“So, I was on the train thinking, ‘Right, got to write a Christmas song’.
“I’m a big fan of Christmas, I’m a big fan of late ‘80s, ‘90s Christmas hits.
“Those big bombastic songs that we sadly don’t hear a lot of anymore so I though, ‘You know what? I’m fed up of sad pop Christmas, we’re getting big, bombastic-runaway-flaming-sleigh Christmas back’, and that’s what we did.
“And people seem to like it. I’m stoked! “
But Sam admitted he was “stressed” at the idea of having to perform it live.
He said: “I didn’t expect to sing it live, so I wrote it as high as possible, thinking that not many people would hear it. It was just for my joy to write a song like that, but now we’re here, singing it live so yeah, it’s stressful.”
The ‘Space Man’ singer had always wanted to write a Christmas song, but his busy schedule prevented him from doing so until bow.
He said: “I always have time for those open-goal opportunities, where people and the culture at that time deem something to be uncool. That’s the time to strike.
“Eurovision was totally uncool when I went for it.
“Christmas songs, I’m a little bit late to the party with that, maybe two years, but I didn’t have any opportunity to do it. We were too busy always.
“There’s a lot of Christmas songs out now, so what I can take away from it is that we are so grateful that ours seems to be hanging out with the Goliaths, and that’s a blessing.”
Sam is looking forward to a Christmas of “absolute chaos” with his family.
Asked where he’ll spend Christmas, he said: “With my family at home. Like ‘Home Alone’, it’s very much on the night before they go on holiday, like the house is mental, it’s absolute chaos. So, that’s the kind of Christmas I will have.”