This charity single is sung by the Military Wives Choir, the wives and girlfriends of British servicemen fighting in Afghanistan who were brought together by choirmaster Gareth Malone for the BBC2 series The Choir.
Having sold 556,000 copies in just over a week, the song has become a phenomenon — the fastest-selling single since 2008, outselling the rest of the Top 20 combined. And it’s outsold by six to one the song originally tipped to top thecharts by The X Factor winners Little Mix.
Really, how could it not have done so? Wherever You Are is composed from letters between these wives and their men — Britain’s heroes — as they served on the battlefield. By comparison, Little Mix’s Cannonball — of all titles! — seems quite exquisitely tasteless and inappropriate.
This triumph of The Choir over The X Factor represents the victory of courage over celebrity and endurance over inanity.
TheX-Factor song stands for wannabes — however winsome — dazzled by the prospect of fame and money. The Choir’s song stands for courage, patriotism and true, enduring love.
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