Wham! are 2023’s UK Christmas No. 1 with their holiday classic, Last Christmas.
Originally released in 1984, the festive classic was famously kept off the top spot by Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas? (also featuring George Michael) that holiday period.
Now, 39 years later, he and Andrew Ridgeley have finally scored the Christmas No. 1, beating their closest rivals, Sam Ryder with You’re Christmas To Me and Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas Is You, to the summit.
It now sets the record for the longest ever journey to the UK Christmas No. 1, with Ridgeley telling Official Charts: “Last Christmas has finally ascended to the much-cherished and sought-after Official Christmas No. 1, which was always the main goal.
“George would be beside himself [that] after all of these years, [we’ve] finally obtained Christmas No. 1. Yog [George] said that he wrote Last Christmas with the intention of writing a Christmas No. 1. It’s mission accomplished!”
Last Christmas was streamed 13.3 million times over the past seven days, according to Official Charts Company data – the most-streamed Christmas Number 1 ever during Christmas week.
It’s now the UK’s third biggest song of all time, with a combined 5.34 million chart units, comprising 1.93 million sales and nearly 413 million streams.