Christmas number one revealed as fan favourite festive anthem – 39 years after it was first released

WHAM! have scored the festive No1 with Last Christmas, making George Michael’s ultimate wish come true seven years after his death.

The song finished 5,926 copies ahead of Sam Ryder's You’re Christmas To Me, clinching the win for the Eighties group.

George, who was in Wham! with Andrew Ridgeley, had been determined to score the Christmas No1 when it was first released in 1984, but it was beaten by Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas?.

The news was revealed on the Radio 1 chart show this evening by presenter Jack Saunders.

The bittersweet song about being left heartbroken during the festive season surged in popularity following George’s death and hit No1 for the first time ever in January 2021.

It returned to the top spot twice in 2022 and has spent the last fortnight at No1.

Before that, it had held the title of the highest-selling single never to have topped the Official Charts.

The band’s former manager Simon Napier-Bell said George always believed Last Christmas was “the best thing he ever wrote” - which was why he was especially disappointed about its failure to claim the festive top spot.

He explained: "It's extraordinary how Last Christmas stands up. If it was made this week, would you make it any differently?

"He was always slightly upset by the fact he naggingly knew it was the best thing he ever wrote.

“George, above all, really wanted to be remembered as a great songwriter. And I think at the bottom of his mind?

“It was rather annoying that the song he got so perfect was a Christmas song."

The video, which has been viewed 857 million times on YouTube, was shot in a ski resort in Switzerland and featured Kathy Hill as Andrew’s girlfriend, who has previously broken George’s heart.

Andrew and George spoke about the making of the song in their self-titled Netflix documentary which was released in June.

Andrew explained: “George needed success as a songwriter for personal affirmation.

“One Sunday at his mum and dad’s house there was a football match on TV. Yog just sat bolt upright and said, ‘I’ve got to go upstairs, I’ve got an idea’.”

George continued: “I went downstairs and I said to Andrew, ‘I’ve done it.’ I said, ‘We’re going to have four No1s this year and we’re going to have a Christmas No1.’ I played it to him and he went, ‘F*** yeah. Yeah.’

“We knew we had a No1 on our hands. The release was for the second week of December.”

On being beaten by a charity single raising money for famine relief in Ethiopia, he continued: “That was what was so ironic about the Band Aid - Do They Know It’s Christmas?.

“Everyone else was just thinking how fantastic it is, it’s going to be great, it’s going to be No1 and it’s going to be this and that.

“I had all those same feelings about it but I just had this little b*****d ego thing that I just had to keep squashing that was going, ‘S**t, s**t, s**t.’

“Because this little ego inside me had this master plan for four No1 singles this year and everything was ready.”

It is now the ninth best-selling single in British music history, with 1.9million copies sold, not including streams, while Band Aid’s track, which George also sang on, is the second biggest seller.

YouTuber LadBaby has claimed the coveted Christmas No1 for the past five consecutive years with his novelty sausage roll-themed singles in aid of food bank charity The Trussell Trust.

Last Christmas has managed to achieve the incredible feat despite millions of people attempting to avoid the song throughout December as part of a game dubbed Whamageddon.