Christmas hit tops music chart 39 years after release!

Christmas hit tops music chart 39 years after release!The hit Christmas anthem Last Christmas has topped the UK charts this year, 39 years after the song's release.

by Lorne Philpot

26-12-2023 22:24

in Lifestyle

Famous Christmas Hit tops the charts 39 years later. Image: Screengrab/Instagram: WhamOfficial

The Christmas hit released in 1984 by the 80s British pop duo Wham! has finally made it to number one on music charts in the UK.

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TOPPING UK MUSIC CHARTS Wham! have finally earned a Christmas No 1 for Last Christmas. The accolade comes 39 years after the song was released.

The Wham! Christmas anthem was streamed over 13 million times this week and was helped along by special vinyl and CD editions.

CHRISTMAS ANTHEM The festive song, synonymous with Christmas, can be heard almost everywhere one goes at this time of year.

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On the radio, in shops, in malls, or just about anywhere you go in the lead-up to Christmas, the catchy sounds of Wham's Last Christmas can be heard.

A WHAM! VICTORY According to The Guardian, Last Christmas has topped the charts around Christmas before, but never at Xmas itself.

In 2021 the Christmas hit reached number 1 on New Year's Day. This year, however, Last Christmas has spent the previous two weeks at number 1.

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Using the chart sales metric that combines actual sales over the years with streams, Last Christmas is the third-biggest song in UK history, with Ed Sheeran's Shape of You first and Band Aid second.

TOP POSITION DENIED The Wham! song was denied the Christmas music top spot by Band Aid's Do They Know It's Christmas? in 1984.

This famous hit was recorded by several artists who collaborated to fight world hunger. George Michael was, however, one of the recording artists of the Band Aid hit.

WHAM! MILESTONE Wham! split up in 1986, when both Michael and Ridgeley were 23 years old at the time. George Michael went on to become a famous solo artist with international hits.

Surviving former band member Andrew Ridgely said that this achievement was a bitter-sweet one since George Michael is no longer alive to celebrate it. Michael died on Christmas Day, 2016.

George would be beside himself that after all of these years, we've finally obtained Christmas No 1. Yog [George] said that he wrote Last Christmas with the intention of writing a Christmas No 1. It's mission accomplished! Ridgely said, per The Guardian.

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