Rage Against the Machine's single "Killing In the Name" reached the No. 1 spot on the UK Christmas Week chart, leaving fans anticipating the date and location of a "huge" free concert the band promised if their song topped the single by Joe McElderry, who was this year's winner of Simon Cowell's "X Factor" reality show.

For the past four years, an "X Factor" winner has monopolized the British Christmas Week chart race, which began informally in the 1950s. The show's dominance in the contest had been so strong, area bookies began taking bets on the No. 2 song to make things interesting for gamblers.

This year, RATM made it interesting for everyone when it launched a grassroots campaign on Facebook to give McElderry, who was competing with a cover of Miley Cyrus' "The Climb," a run for his money.

As part of the successful anti-corporate campaign, the band promised to donate royalties from each download of the song to a homeless shelter. The band also encouraged its fans to make separate contributions to the charity, which reportedly received more than $100,000 in public donations.

The Rage song ended the week selling more than a half-million downloads, approximately 50,000 more than "X Factor's" McElderry.

Speaking on BBC Radio 1's Chart Show, RATM's Zach de la Rocha said the win was more about "the spontaneous action taken by young people throughout the UK to topple this very sterile pop monopoly and less about the song and the band. We are very proud to have had the song chosen as the vehicle by which to do this."

Much of the media coverage describes the win as a direct hit to Cowell, who reportedly described the RATM song as "dreadful." In a press release, the band said it plans to ask Cowell to MC the yet-to-be-scheduled victory concert.

McElderry reportedly was just delighted to have been in the race.