It has been decreed that the Christmas number one shall be Hallelujah, performed by Alexandra Burke.

By the time you read this, at least one teenage member of our household will be among the hundreds of thousands who have bought it off iTunes.

My objection to this track – and sorry to be a Christmas party pooper – is that it is another example of someone with healthy lungs belting out a ballad, as if powerful emotions have to be expressed at maximum volume..

Hallelujah  is a song about a middle aged man lamenting a sexual relationship gone wrong. Frustrated old blokes don’t belt out their woes, they growl. In the original (which is not very good) Leonard Cohen growled. The lyrics are not suited to being sung by a wholesome young woman.

Indeed, if you study the lines "She tied you to a kitchen chair/She broke your throne and she cut your hair…" it become perfectly obvious that there is only one person who is has been in the public eye this year who is qualified to perform this number..

Yes, the Christmas number one should be Hallelujah, sung by Max Mosley.