After one of the closet battles in Christmas chart history, the NHS Coir claimed this year’s festive number one spot, beating Justin Bieber. The race was the closest since 2009 when Rage Against The Machine beat ‘X-Factor’ winner Joe McElderry, with charity single ‘A Bridge Over You’, narrowly beating Bieber’s ‘Love Yourself’.

Justin BieberJustin Bieber narrowly missed out on this year’s Christmas number one spot.

The choir, which is made up of NHS doctors and nurses, sold over 127,000 copies of their single, beating Bieber by just 31,000 units. But the Canadian popstar was happy to have been dethroned and tweeted his congratulations to the choir.

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"Just heard the news. Amazing. That is what Christmas is all about. Choir-NHS congrats!! Very cool,” Bieber told his 72 million twitter followers. In the days leading up to the official chart announcement Bieber had urged fans to buy his festive rival’s single over his own and help a good cause.

"I'm hearing this UK Christmas race is close ... but the NHS Choir single is for charity,” Bieber tweeted earlier in the week. ”So for one week it's OK not to be number one. Let's do the right thing and help them win. It's Christmas. NHS Choir good luck." All proceeds from the NHS Choir's single will go to a selection of Uk charities including Carers UK and Mind.

Speaking to OfficialCharts.com the choir said: "We are absolutely overwhelmed and couldn't be any happier! It's a brilliant celebration for the NHS across the country so well done and thank you everyone for downloading and streaming. A massive cheer for the NHS, thank you!

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Martin Talbot, chief executive of the Official Charts Company added: "What a fantastic result for the NHS Choir to claim the 2015 Christmas Number 1. There will be thousands of NHS staff across the country working through Christmas Day, while the rest of the nation is putting its feet up - this success is for them. There couldn't be a more deserving group of winners."