Wham! have earned the Christmas Number One with their iconic holiday hit “Last Christmas” after attempting to land the spot for 39 years. The track was produced by the late George Michael with the aim of landing the Christmas Number One in 1984. However, “Last Christmas” was left off the top spot upon release by Band-Aid’s “Do They Know It’s Christmas?,” a song that would become the second best-selling single of all time.
Almost four decades later, “Last Christmas” has earned the festive top spot. Wham! have also made history by setting the record for the longest-ever journey to the UK Christmas Number One. Speaking about the achievement, Wham!’s Andrew Ridgeley said: “‘Last Christmas’ has finally ascended to the much cherished and sought-after Official Christmas Number One, which was always the main goal.”
He continued: “George would be beside himself [that] after all these years, [we’ve] finally obtained Christmas Number One. Yog [George] said that he wrote Last Christmas with the intention of writing a Christmas Number One. It’s mission accomplished!”
“Last Christmas” was streamed a staggering 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 has become the UK’s third biggest song of all time with a combined lifetime total of 5.34m chart units, comprising 1.93m sales and nearly 413 million streams.
Over the past week, Wham! batted off competition from Sam Ryder, Mariah Carey and The Pogues ft. Kirsty MacColl, Elton John and more over the Christmas Number one spot.
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