WHAM!’s Last Christmas’ Tops UK Christmas Charts After 39 Years
Image: Wham!'s George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley.
After nearly four decades since’ Last Christmas’ lost to Band Aid’s ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’, WHAM! has secured the official number one spot in the UK and made chart history.
Last Christmas has achieved a remarkable feat, becoming the most-streamed Christmas Number 1 with 13.3 million streams in the last seven days, according to The Official Charts.
WHAM!’s Last Christmas achieved the longest journey ever to Christmas Number 1, with the previous record-holder for the longest journey to Christmas Number 1 being Jackie Wilson, whose song Reet Petite claimed the top spot in 1986, 29 years after its initial release.
The Official Charts interviewed WHAM!’s Andrew Ridgeley on the historic win and explored the legacy of ‘Last Christmas’.
A Christmas Number 1
Ridgeley shared that the sought-after Official Christmas Number 1 spot had always been the main goal for the band, “George would be beside himself, after all of these years, finally obtain Christmas Number 1. It’s mission accomplished!”
The acclaimed English singer and songwriter, counted among the best-selling artists of all time with estimated sales ranging from 100 million to 125 million records worldwide, passed away in 2016.
“Yog [George] said that he wrote Last Christmas with the intention of writing a Christmas Number 1. That was the challenge; the goal that he set for himself… 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. Christmas might not be the same for a lot of people if that hadn’t started hearing Last Christmas from September 13, or whenever it starts getting played!”, Ridgeley said.
Ridgeley expressed his appreciation for the support of fans worldwide which allowed the beloved song to reach a historic number 1 for the first time in 39 years.
“It’s wonderful to have had the support of our fans worldwide in the bid for this Christmas Number 1, especially as it’s been an enduring, decades-long effort for everyone involved. I’m deeply grateful for the support that’s shown for the song year after year. We’ve done it! “Ridgeley said.
LadBaby’s 5 Year Long Streak Comes To An End
LadBaby had held the top spot for the past five years, establishing a record for the longest-running streak at number one. The husband and wife duo behind LadBaby, Roxanne and Mark Hoyle are online entertainment personalities, and won their first Christmas No 1 in 2018 with ‘We Built This City… On Sausage Rolls’.
LadBaby’s rendition of Starship’s 1985 hit “We Built This City” featured altered lyrics that paid homage to sausage rolls instead of rock and roll. The parody was released on December 14, 2018, with the proceeds from the single benefiting the foodbank charity The Trussell Trust.
In November, they announced their decision not to enter a song this year, opening up the competition to numerous other potential contenders, including Mariah Carey, The Pogues and Sam Ryder.
“After five amazing years we’ve decided to pass the baton over to the Great British public and we’re not going for Christmas No 1 this year,” he told Metro. “We never expected it to be five, I’ll be totally honest. It’s one of those things that just happened over the years and we thought it was amazing that the public got behind us in the way that they did. Five years ago when we started this, we knew the importance of food banks in this country and we wanted to raise funds and awareness for that”, he said.
