Rage Against The MachineSimon Cowell has even more reason to be Scroogey this Christmas, thanks to Rage Against the Machine.

Jordan McElderry, the winner of The X Factor, a UK talent show, will not be taking the top spot on the UK singles chart for the week of Christmas. Instead, Rage Against the Machine will be sitting humbly atop the list, thanks to John and Tracy Morter, two Facebook users and RATM’s biggest fans.

The Facebook campaign was launched just last week, urging anyone who didn’t want another pop single as the number one to download RATM’s “Killing in the Name Of”.

It was announced yesterday that RATM had in fact topped the charts with 500,000 downloads of “Killing in the name of”, a single from 1992 self-titled debut. McElderry’s “The Climb” (actually a Miley Cyrus cover) only sold 450,000 singles.

“WOW!!!! WE DID IT!” reads the Rage Against the Machine for Christmas No. 1 Facebook page. “We all should be incredibly proud of what we have achieved on this group. We’ve shouted that we’ve had enough of a dull Christmas chart every year and given it a complete shot in the arm for many years to come.”

An admirable feat in itself, the Morters have also pledged to donate the £83,000 to SHELTER, a housing and homeless charity.  At the beginning of the campaign, RATM announced they would play a free “thank you” gig in the U.K., which led to a steep increase in downloads before the deadline on Dec. 19.

Tom Morelle, RATM’s guitarist, promised he would invite McElderry and Cowell to MC the show.

“Quite a day! Thanks again for making Rage part of this historic campaign,” Morello said via Twitter yesterday. “Changing the charts or the world: together we can’t be stopped.”

Cowell didn’t take the loss hard, however, even calling John Morter before the results were released to thank him for spicing up the holiday season.

“I called Jon on Saturday to congratulate the two of them that, win or lose, they turned this into a very exciting race for the Christmas Number One,” Cowell told Rolling Stone.

Even Paul McCartney was on board, after appearing on The X Factor last week. He said RATM’s win would be “funny” and would “prove a point”.

“The people in the U.K. are tired of being spoon-fed one schmaltzy ballad after another and they want to back their own charts, and we are honored that they have chosen our song to be the rebel anthem to try to topple The X Factor label,” Morello told the BBC5.

Rage performed “Killing in the Name Of” live over the BBC but were cut off early as lead singer Zach de la Rocha, shouted “Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me” four times as the song came to a close.

Morello took to the band’s website last week, telling fans to purchase the single and inking the promise of a gig in 2010 if they did score the win.

“Attention Freedom Fighters! RAGE VS. X-FACTOR WILL BE DECIDED BY SATURDAY’S SALES. Spread the word! Knock on doors! Host downloading parties! Knock over ladies buying X-Factor! The clock is ticking. And if “Killing in the Name” is number one WE ARE COMING. And it will be the victory party to end all victory parties.”






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