British Man Campaigns For 1989 Cher Hit To Score UK's Christmas #1

UK man Paul Joseph is campaigning for Cher's 1989 hit, If I Could Turn Back Time, to pick up the country's coveted Christmas #1 slot on the UK Charts, as a "communal statement" against all the terrible things 2016 brought us — Brexit, Donald Trump, the death of Prince, David Bowie, Gene Wilder, Alan Rickman and many more legendary figures.

As The Telegraph reports, Joseph was inspired to launch the campaign after he staged a satirical production about 2016 called Brexit Chainsaw Massacre.

He says, "At the end of the play, we used Freddie Kruegar [sic] 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."

To get the ball rolling, Joseph has created a campaign video as well as the hashtag #TurnBackTimeTuesday to encourage Cher fans to film themselves singing along to the classic song.

"[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," Joseph said.

The UK Christmas #1 slot has always been an important tradition for Brits with the likes of Spice Girls, Westlife, Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson and Robbie Williams & Nicole Kidman all picking up the crown in the last two decades.

A notable precedent in campaigning for a Christmas #1 was seen back in 2009, when Rage Against The Machine's iconic Killing In The Name picked up the top spot, beating out X Factor Winner Joe McElderry.

This year, either One Day I'll Fly Away from the John Lewis Christmas ad, Matt Terry's When Christmas Comes Around or James Corden's The Greatest Gift For Christmas Is Me is billed to take the top spot.