The Daily Telegraph - Saturday
This Christmas, Wham! finally get their No 1
Four decades after being trumped by Band Aid, the duo’s festive hit takes much coveted top spot
WHAM! have secured the Christmas No 1 slot almost four decades after the group was trumped by Band Aid’s single.
The duo, George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley, shot to fame in the 1980s and released their festive hit Last
Christmas in 1984, but it was famously beaten to the top spot by the charity single Do They Know It’s Christmas?.
The Wham! hit has now made history for the longest-ever journey for a single to make it to first place in time for Christmas Day, according to the Official Charts Company.
The achievement was described by Ridgeley, 60, as “mission accomplished”, and the “crowning glory” of the band’s legacy.
He said securing the official Christmas No 1, “was always the main goal. George would be beside himself [that] after all of these years, [we’ve] finally obtained Christmas No 1. Yog [Michael)] said that he wrote Last Christmas with the intention of writing a Christmas No 1. It’s mission accomplished.” The singer, songwriter and record producer added that the Christmas hit would have reached the top spot in 1984, had it not been for Band Aid’s release.
He said it was a “huge disappointment” not to reach the top spot at the time as they believed it was “nailed on” for them.
“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 said.
“Christmas No 1 has been a long-held ambition for Yog and I, and for the fans, too. It’ll mean a lot to Wham!’s legacy. It’s the crowning glory.” Michael, who had an extensive solo career with singles including Careless Whisper, died on Christmas Day in 2016 aged 53.
Simon Napier-Bell, the band’s former manager, recently told The Daily Telegraph the singer “was very cantankerous, difficult, [and] determined to win”.
Speaking about Last Christmas, he said: “It’s a magnificent piece of work, isn’t it? How can you create a Christmas song that has bells in it, which says ‘Christmas’ every three seconds, and yet has nothing cheesy about it?”
Michael’s proceeds of the single are donated to the Ethiopian famine appeal, something the artist publicly pledged himself the year of the song’s release.
Last Christmas is now the UK’s third biggest song of all time with a combined lifetime total of 5.34 million chart units,
‘George would be beside himself that after all of these years, we’ve finally obtained Christmas No 1’
the Official Charts Company said. With five-time Christmas No 1 champion LadBaby out of the running this year, 2023 has seen competition from other UK talent and beyond.
Sam Ryder, who came second at the 2022 Eurovision competition, landed the second spot owith his new song
You’re Christmas To Me. Meanwhile,
Cher’s new track DJ Play A Christmas
Song placed at No 3.
It comes after a campaign by Pogues fans to get the band’s Christmas hit
Fairytale of New York to the top spot following the death of frontman Shane MacGowan last month.
The Official Charts Company said that “after [a] passionate campaign by fans” the track remains in the Top 10 at No 6.