After 40 years of waiting Wham! has finally secured the Christmas number one slot.
The duo’s song “Last Christmas” was pipped to the post in 1984 by charity single “Don’t They Know It’s Christmas”.
Now, the Wham! hit has made history for the longest-ever journey for a single to make it to number one in time for Christmas Day, according to the Official Charts Company.
Last Christmas is the UK’s third biggest song of all time, with a total of 5.34 million chart units.
Wham! – George Michael and Andrew Ridgley – always felt Last Christmas was a surefire number one.
However, the charity song beat them to that honour.
Ridgley said:
“Last Christmas has finally ascended to the much cherished and sought-after official Christmas number one, which was always the main goal.
“George would be beside himself [that] after all of these years, [we’ve] finally obtained Christmas number one.
“Yog [Michael] said that he wrote Last Christmas with the intention of writing a Christmas number one.
“It’s mission accomplished.
“A Christmas number one has been a long-held ambition for Yog and me, and for the fans, too.
“It’ll mean a lot to Wham!’s legacy – it’s the crowning glory.”
Michael, who had a glittering solo career with singles including Careless Whisper, died on Christmas Day in 2016 aged 53.
His proceeds of the single are still donated to the Ethiopian famine appeal, something that the artist publicly pledged himself the year of the song’s release.
