Campaign Launches To Make Cher's If I Could Turn Back Time The UK Christmas Number One #turnback2016

The UK's Telegraph reports how a campaign has started to make Cher's 1989 UK#6 hit If I Could Turn Back Time the #1 single at Christmas, due to its somewhat fitting title:

A campaign has launched to make Cher's 1989 hit 'If I Could Turn Back Time' the Christmas number one slot this year.

Paul Joseph, 39, from Lamberth, started the initiative in an attempt to send out "a communal statement" against everything negative that has happened this year, citing "Brexit, Donald Trump... and the deaths of so many legendary celebrities", as his inspiration.

As a part time producer, the idea to add Cher into the Christmas race came after Joseph was involved in a PopHorror show earlier in the year, at the London Horror Festival. His show, entitled 'Brexit Chainsaw Massacre' looked satirically at the events of 2016, and there was one scene that particularly stuck with him.

He said: " At the end of the play, we used Freddie Kruegar and Jason from 'Friday the 13th' to represent Brexit as a breakup scene, and in the background we played Cher's 'If I Could Turn Back Time'.

"There was something about the song that really summed up this year. Things are really a bit rubbish, and I think at Christmas it would be good to say, 'if I could turn back time, I would do some things differently.'"

Joseph has been planning his approach since the beginning of the month. Now, we've a week to go until the Christmas number one is revealed, he is launching the campaign on social media, with a video outlining his vision. "I've been canvassing a few friends, speaking to Cher supporters  and getting lots of people to help. I'm calling them my Christmas 'Cher-ubs'."

Joseph will also be pushing for supporters to take part in #TurnBackTimeTuesday, where he will encourage people to film themselves signing along to the Cher song in a bid to draw in more viral online support.

This isn't the first big campaign for Joseph, as last year he and his husband, Tim Benzie, started a campaign entitled 'Its got to be Bassey', where they put forward the case for Shirley Bassey to sing the next James Bond song. Whilst Sam Smith took the honour, their promotional video clocked up over 40,000 views, and gained support from around the country.


Plus, in 2013, he and Benzie enlisted Dermot O'Leary and dozens of locals from around the capital to make a viral video, encouraging his niece Emma to visit from from Australia, which, happily, was a success. 'If I Could Turn Back Time', which appears in Cher's nineteenth album, 'Heart of Stone', will be battling against several songs already tipped for the top spot. These include, 'One day I'll fly away' from the John Lewis Christmas Advert,'When Christmas comes around' from X Factor's Matt Terry, and James Corden's 'The greatest gift for Christmas is me'. For Joseph, Cher winning the much anticipated seasonal slot would send a message of defiance against the "divisiveness" that has taken place in 2016. He said: "[Cher] has always represented her opinions very well, and has been very vocally anti Trump. That's more the sort of person we should be looking up to." Speaking about her chances of reaching the Christmas number one slot, he said: "I think it's worth going for. There's been a few surprising choices in the past... Of course there's lots of worthy contenders, but let's give it a try." If you want to see Cher take the Christmas number one slot, then download and stream 'If I could turn back time', and spread the hashtag #turnback2016.