It was a double Hallelujah at the top of the charts yesterday when X Factor winner Alexandra Burke won the battle for Christmas number one ahead of Jeff Buckley’s version of the song.

The talent show star’s record-breaking first single stormed straight in to the top spot in an “unprecedented” situation for the festive chart.

Selling 576,000 copies across CD and downloads, Burke’s Hallelujah became the fastest-selling single by a female solo artist. Alexandra said: “This is absolutely crazy, I can't believe it. It’s been the best week of my life.”

A classic cover of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah by Buckley, who died in a drowning accident in Memphis in May 1997 aged 30, finished at number two on download sales only.

This means that, for the first time in 51 years — and for the first time ever at Christmas — the same song is at numbers one and two of the singles chart. The only other time the scenario occurred was in January 1957 when Tommy Steele and Guy Mitchell held the top two places with Singin’ The Blues.

^{Above: The Jeff Buckley version}