Wham!’s Last Christmas is Christmas no. 1 for the second year in a row | UK charts

Forty years after it was held off the top spot by Band Aid, Wham!’s Last Christmas is the UK Christmas No1 for the second year running.

Andrew Ridgeley, who was one half of Wham! along with the late George Michael, celebrated by saying: “Thirty-seven years to get to No.1, 39 years to Christmas No.1 and then they all come at once like London buses! I’m especially happy for George where he would have been absolutely delighted, his fantastic Christmas composition has become such a classic, almost as much a part of Christmas as mince pies, turkey and pigs in blankets.”

The quintessential carol song has arguably become the defining modern carol: so ubiquitous that it has inspired the game Whamageddon, which involves people trying to avoid hearing it for as long as possible each year.

It remains hugely popular not just in the UK but worldwide, currently getting 7.7 million plays per day globally on Spotify, and is the No. 4 in this week’s US Singles Chart.

George Michael also appears at number 12 on the list as part of the 40th anniversary version of Band Aid’s charity classic Do They Know It’s Christmas? The new version, spliced ​​together from the three previous official versions, caused controversy, with Ed Sheeran and others condemning it for perpetuating stereotypes about the plight of Africans. But co-writer Bob Geldof defended it, saying “hundreds of thousands of people, probably millions, are alive because of a little pop song”.

Last Christmas’s closest rival in the modern Christmas canon is Mariah Carey’s All I Want for Christmas Is You, which is at no. 3 in this week’s chart – beaten to no. 2 of the utterly uncelebratory That’s So True by pop singer Gracie Abrams, which spent four weeks at no. 1 recently.

At no. 4 is Tom Grennan with a new song, It Can’t Be Christmas, part of Amazon’s bid to dominate the Christmas charts. In recent years, the retailer has commissioned Christmas carols that it hosts exclusively on its Amazon Music service. With many listeners telling Alexa devices to “play Christmas carols”, Amazon’s own tracks are being prioritized on their playlists, ensuring a rise up the charts. Smooth jazz singer Laufey is number 19 with Christmas Magic, another Amazon affiliate track.

Of the songs in this week’s Top 40, 29 are Christmas themed, with Brenda Lee, Bobby Helms and the Pogues all reaching the Top 10 with their respective classics. One of the standouts is British singer-songwriter Lola Young, who scored her first Top 10 hit, with Messy reaching No. 7, a slow burn success after its initial release in May.

It may not have been streamed in anywhere near the numbers enjoyed by Christmas classics, but the week’s best-selling song is Freezing This Christmas by Sir Starmer and the Granny Harmerswhich is located at no. 37. Created by freelance writer Chris Middleton and sung by Rat Pack cover artist Dean Ager, the song is a satirical cover of Mud’s Lonely This Christmas, which criticizes Keir Starmer over Labour’s decision to end winter fuel payments to pensioners who do not on lower incomes. All proceeds from the song go to Age UK.

Sabrina Carpenter is capping off a stellar year in which she racked up 21 weeks at No.1 with her hits Espresso, Please Please Please and Taste, and continues to ride high, helped in part by the Netflix show A Nonsense Christmas With Sabrina Carpenter, described in the Guardian as ” a spirited attempt to drag the sometimes futty Christmas special into the modern age”.

Her song A Nonsense Christmas is at no. 16, while her album Short n’ Sweet returns to no. 1 for the first time since its release in August – it hasn’t left the Top 3 since then. Michael Bublé’s evergreen festive collection Christmas is at no. 2, while South Yorkshire rockers the Reytons have the highest new entry with their live album Clifton Park at no. 5.