After 39 years in the making, UK's 80s pop duo Wham!'s "Last Christmas" finally topped the Official Charts Christmas list for 2023.
The feat has now been confirmed by Official Charts as the longest-running journey to the top of the Christmas chart.
"Last Christmas" was streamed 13.3 million times over the past seven days, according to Official Charts Company data. This made the song the most streamed Christmas #1 ever during Christmas week and the UK's third biggest song of all time, only behind Ed Sheeran's "Shape of You" and Band-Aid's original "Do They Know It's Christmas?"
The song also had a combined lifetime total of 5.34 million chart units, comprising 1.93 million sales, and almost 413 million streams.
Receiving the award was Wham!'s surviving half, Andrew Ridgeley.
"'Last Christmas' has finally ascended to the much-cherished and sought-after Official Christmas Number 1, which was always the main goal," he said. "[He] said that he wrote 'Last Christmas' intending to write a Christmas Number 1. It's mission accomplished!"
Meanwhile, Official Charts CEO Martin Talbot congratulated the duo for its song's historic achievement.
"Huge congratulations to Andrew Ridgeley and WHAM! for winning what has been a fantastic race for this year's Official Christmas Number 1 - and in doing so finally topping the Official Christmas chart, 39 years after launching its first festive campaign in 1984," he said. "Having claimed the top spot for the first time last year, it is fantastic that Wham! has claimed the Christmas Number 1 honor at last."
39 Years in the Making
Penned and produced by the late George Michael to land the Christmas Number 1 in 1984, "Last Christmas" was famously kept off the top spot every year since, primarily because of "Do They Know It's Christmas?"
Nevertheless, the song has been popular—particularly because of its theme of Christmas romance and the shattering thereof—and many artists have covered it through the years.
Due to its popularity, there was even a time that people made a social media pop-culture game called "Whammageddon," where people can listen to Christmas pop songs while avoiding Wham!'s Christmas hit before Christmas Eve.
This made "Last Christmas" hold the title of being the UK's best-selling single to never have reached number 1 until it landed at the top of the UK Official Singles Chart in January 2021 and became the duo's top Christmas hit by the end of 2023.
"Christmas Number 1 has been a long-held ambition for [Michael] and I, and for the fans, too," Ridgely said. "It'll mean a lot to Wham!'s legacy - it's the crowning glory."
This year, Wham! unseated the five-time Official Charts champion LadBaby, as well as other competing artists whose songs were either popular at this time or Christmas staples.
Ridgely recalled how disappointing the initial reception for "Last Christmas" was in the 1980s, that it only got the accolade it deserved after almost four decades.
"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," he added.
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