With nearly 10,000 votes across 40 rounds, we’re delighted to announce that the winning album in our World Cup of Christmas Folk competition is WinterFolk by Belinda O’Hooley & Heidi Tidow.
Live to your Living Room supporters nominated their 64 favourite Christmas folk albums, which were whittled down to one winner over the course of December.
Cat McGill, Co-founder and Creative Director at Live to your Living Room said: “People voted on Facebook in their thousands in order to have their say. Not only was there lots of friendly debate, but artists got into the spirit of the competition too, encouraging their fans to vote and make their voices heard.”
WinterFolk, released in 2017, is a critically acclaimed album, a mixture of traditional folk songs, festive cover versions, and reworked versions of previous songs, including Whitethorn, which originally appeared on Rachel Unthank and the Winterset’s 2007 album, The Bairns.
The grand final, held between Boxing Day and New Year’s Eve, saw WinterFolk and Midwinter by Miranda Sykes & Jim Causley, battle for the number one spot. Midwinter took second place, followed by Wesselbobs by Bryony Griffith & Alice Jones.
O’Hooley & Tidow said about their victory: “What a competition! Thanks to everyone who voted, to Miranda and Jim who made it such a great challenge, and to Cat and all the team. We’re absolutely delighted. WinterFolk’s journey continues!”
Cat said: “The main aim of this competition was to showcase just how eclectic and magical folk music is. We shared Bandcamp links for all the artists, so supporters could discover new Christmas songs to add to their playlists.
“I’d like to offer my congratulations to Belinda and Heidi for an extremely well-deserved win, as well as huge thanks to all of the artists who took part.”