Entertainment

LadBaby: From YouTube star to record-setting charts success

The social media star has made history as the first ever act to reach the festive top spot in four consecutive years.
The social media star has made history as the first ever act to reach the festive top spot in four consecutive years. The social media star has made history as the first ever act to reach the festive top spot in four consecutive years.

YouTuber and father-of-two Mark Hoyle is the unlikeliest of pop stars.

But the social media personality – who blogs under the name LadBaby with his wife Roxanne – has set a new chart record as the first act ever to achieve four consecutive Christmas number ones.

The “dad blogger” took the festive top spot with his novelty track Sausage Rolls For Everyone featuring Ed Sheeran and Sir Elton John.

The song is a sausage roll-themed charity rework of Sheeran and Sir Elton’s own new festive single Merry Christmas, in aid of The Trussell Trust food banks.

By claiming the top Christmas spot for four consecutive years, LadBaby has surpassed music titans The Beatles and Spice Girls, who are the only other acts to score a consecutive hat-trick.

Last year, he topped the Christmas chart with Don’t Stop Me Eatin’, which riffs on Journey’s 1981 track Don’t Stop Believin’, holding off challenges from festive classics such as Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas Is You and Last Christmas by Wham!.

It followed his 2019 Christmas number one I Love Sausage Rolls, a twist on I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll by Joan Jett.

Mark, right, and Roxanne Hoyle with Ed Sheeran
Mark, right, and Roxanne Hoyle with Ed Sheeran Roxanne, left, and Mark, right, with Ed Sheeran (LadBaby/PA)

He began his theme of food pun-based chart-toppers in 2018 with We Built This City, an ode to sausage rolls based on Starship’s 1980s glam-rock song.

Hoyle is a social media star who has translated his online success into sales.

The graphic designer and lifestyle blogger, from Nottingham, found fame documenting his journey from “lad to dad” after the birth of his two sons with wife Roxanne.

The 34-year-old, who lives in Hemel Hempstead, launched his YouTube channel in 2016 to document the pitfalls of fatherhood.

Singles charts
Singles charts The Hoyles (OfficialCharts.com/PA)

The social media star and his wife now regularly post videos sharing life hacks and playing pranks and domestic antics on one another.

He has more than a million subscribers on his YouTube channel, and five-and-a-half million followers on Facebook.

The Hoyles released a money-saving guide in 2018 called LadBaby: Parenting for £1 … And Other Baby Budget Hacks.

The same year the vlogger, known for his catchphrase “Yes, mate!”, won the Clas Ohlson celebrity dad of the year award, beating the Duke of Cambridge and former One Direction star Liam Payne.