Wham!’s Last Christmas Tops the UK Charts for Second Year Running

The UK Christmas chart has been officially revealed and it is safe to say, most of us are familiar with the track that made the top spot.

For only the second time ever, Last Christmas by Wham! has secured its spot as Christmas number one in the UK charts. The iconic track achieved this for the first time in the songs history in 2023, after a 39 year long wait. Now, on the songs 40th anniversary, it has raced ahead of new holiday releases and viral tracks, managing to break a record as the first song to be Christmas number one for two consecutive years.

It was a close race with Gracie Abrams’ hit song, That’s So True, coming in second place, making this the eighth week it has been in the top 10. Tom Grennan was also making a strong bid for number one with his new holiday song It Can’t Be Christmas. Grennan had taken to social media to encourage fans to stream, buy and download his track and even had the words ‘Christmas no.1 2024 is…’ tattooed on his leg in the hopes he’d be able to complete the ink with his own song. Sadly he won’t be able to do so, with his track landing at number four, just after Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas Is You. Whether he will instead get the Wham! song tattooed instead is yet to be confirmed.

Not only was the competition tough but it defied the odds even more so as a viral game, nicknamed Whamageddon, actively encourages players to not listen to the song. The light-hearted game involves avoiding hearing the classic Christmas hit for as long as possible in the lead up to the big day. Some say the game starts November 1st, when radios and shops start playing festive tracks, and others treat it as an advent calendar countdown, beginning on December 1st. Either way, it seems not enough were participating to affect the track’s rise to the top.

Speaking about the achievement, original Wham! member, Andrew Ridgeley said he was “especially pleased for George, he would have been utterly delighted” and noted how their track had become such a classic, almost as much a part of Christmas as mince pies, turkey and pigs in blankets.”