In the UK, the ‘Christmas number one’ is a national obsession. For years, pop hits have vied with celebrity charity ensembles and festive parodies for the top spot – often in the name of good causes.

The past few years have been dominated by YouTuber LadBaby, with hits like ‘Sausage Rolls For Everyone’ with Ed Sheeran and Elton John paying homage to the beloved British snack. Profits went to the Trussell Trust, an organisation fighting hunger and poverty in the UK.

This year, Christmas number one hopeful Louise Harris is taking a more sobering approach to get an important message about climate change across.

The singer-songwriter and Just Stop Oil campaigner released ‘We Tried’ in November, which has since soared to the top of the UK iTunes singles chart.

“I want to continue having decades of Christmases listening to lovely songs, but we need to have a liveable future in order to do that,” Harris told music magazine NME.

The Christmas hit puts climate change in laser focus, with a video featuring a tearful Harris woven with scenes of climate protests and natural disasters around the world. It highlights what will happen if we don’t act, says environmental activist group Just Stop Oil.

Since its release last month, it has garnered high profile supporters – and a good deal of controversy.

Why was ‘We Tried’ singer Louise Harris arrested?

Harris was charged with causing a public nuisance after participating in last year’s M25 climate protest, which brought traffic on the busy UK motorway to a halt.

At the end of last month she was arrested again for breaking her bail conditions as she performed ‘We Tried’ outside UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s house. She is now facing a suspended sentence and an extended ban on entering the M25 area.

Despite the controversy, Harris’s single has no shortage of high profile supporters, including English conservationist and TV presenter Chris Packham, who called it “beautiful for its razor sharp honesty… for its purity of frightened heart,” asking, “do you want this to be the ultimate anthem for doomed youth?”

Musician Brian Eno hailed it as “a powerful weapon” and a wake up call to “the cowardly inertia of our governments, to the greedy shortsightedness of business-as-usual, and to the numbing distractions of the media.”

Most recently, the single gained backing from Victoria Mary Clarke, the widow of The Pogues singer Shane MacGowan, whose Christmas hit ‘Fairytale of New York’ is also tipped for the top spot in his memory this year.

Christiana Figueres – the chief negotiator of the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement – has also voiced support for Harris’s hit, calling it “A powerful song”.

‘We Tried’ reached number 26 on the Big Top 40 Chart from Global on Sunday 3 December – the first time a song about the climate crisis has achieved such popularity.

What is the Christmas song ‘We Tried’ about?

‘We Tried’ is written from a future perspective of irreversible climate catastrophe. Its chorus paints a picture of a world that’s run out of time to fight the crisis:

“So take me where the bluebirds sing, while we lose everything. There’s too much poisoning. And fly me where the birds still fly, ’cause smoke fills up our sky, ’cause we ran out of time. Oh well, we tried.”

Images of UK Conservative Party politicians provide a backdrop for despairing lyrics: “Well, maybe we were meant to win… but not enough good drowned out the sin… they watched the world cave in”.

Ending with, “It’s not too late to avoid irreversible climate catastrophe… We have time – but not for long,” the song aims to spur collective action while holding powerful decision-makers to account.

“If art can’t change the world, what can?”, Harris said in a press release from Just Stop Oil.

The song is available on iTunes, Amazon and Bandcamp for £0.59 (€0.68), with all proceeds going to climate causes. Sales until midnight on 21 December will seal its position in the Christmas music charts.

Watch out for an upcoming ‘climate album’ set to be released by the singer in 2024 if her latest single reaches her charity fundraising goal of £20,000 (€23,000).