Wham!'s Last Christmas named UK's festive number one for second time in a row
Wham!'s hit Last Christmas has been crowned Christmas number one two years in a row.
The festive classic had a 39-year wait to secure the coveted title last year after it was first released in December 1984 by pop duo George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley.
The song has since become the UK's third-biggest song of all time.
Ridgeley told the Official Charts that his late bandmate Michael, who died on Christmas Day in 2016 at the age of 53, would be “utterly delighted” the song had become a festive classic.
He said: “Thirty-seven years to get to number one, 39 years to Christmas number one, and then like London buses they all come along at once!
“I’m especially pleased for George, he would have been utterly delighted, his fabulous Christmas composition has become such a classic, almost as much a part of Christmas as mince pies, turkey and pigs in blankets.
“It’s testament to a really wonderful Christmas song that in a lot of people’s minds evokes and represents Christmas as we would all wish it to be."
Mariah Carey's All I Want For Christmas Is You came in second place. It has claimed the number-one spot on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart every Christmas since 2019.
Tom Grennan's Amazon Original It Can't Be Christmas takes third place in the UK charts, with Gracie Abrams at number four.
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey has also released a charity single, Love Is Enough, and has vowed to do a skydive if the song gets at least 10,000 downloads this week.
A 21-year-old George Michael wrote Last Christmas in his childhood bedroom in 1983, and it went on to top the charts in 14 countries since its release in 84.
Wham!'s hit famously missed out on the number one spot upon its release, beaten by Band Aid's Do They Know It's Christmas?.
Ridgeley said in 2023 that it was a "huge disappointment" for the pair not to reach the top spot in 1984 as they believed it was “nailed on”.
"Had it not been for Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas?, it probably would’ve been number one,” the 60-year-old said.
"Thwarted for many years subsequent to that – the perennial bridesmaid – over recent years it seems it’s become part of the fabric of Christmas for a lot of people."
The song also topped a poll earlier this year that asked Brits what was their favourite festive song to kick off the season.
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