The anticipation for this year’s Christmas number one is finally over! The title of 2025 Christmas goes to (again, and… again) WHAM! Not only has the band received the title for the second time, but they have also made UK charts history becoming the only artist to win the title for two consecutive years. WHAM!’s member Andrew Rigley thanked listeners in an exclusive interview with Official UK Charts, remembering the late George Michael, creator of the song, who “would have been utterly delighted”. As Rigley stated, “Last Christmas” is, nowadays, part of the Christmas tradition as mince pies, turkey, and pigs in blankets.

Catch up on all the Christmas chart glory from yesterday We’re already counting down to #XmasNo1 2025… https://t.co/JmbNjQTC34

— Official Charts (@officialcharts) December 21, 2024

This year marks the 40^th anniversary of “Last Christmas”; for the occasion, special editions were released and the song became the most streamed and physically purchased of the week in the UK. But of course, the song’s popularity is not only due to the release of the new editions: “Last Christmas” is one of the most recognisable Christmas hits that are known all around the world. Plus, it was crowned Christmas number one last year as well, when it peaked at number one for four consecutive weeks between December and January.

 The song was first released in 1984, the year when Band Aid’s “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” won the title. It eventually made its way to charts in 2007, when it peaked at fourteen. It then climbed charts year by year, appearing on the UK’s top 100 punctually every December, and finally reached the top five in 2018, peaking at number two right after Christmas. In the first week of 2021, “Last Christmas” finally peaked at number one and again in 2022 it spent two non-consecutive weeks at the top spot around Christmas.

The song finally won the title of Christmas Number One in 2023, where it held on to the number one position all the way through December, 39 years after it was released. It became the song with the longest journey to Christmas Number One in the UK.

WHAM! now becomes one of the very few artists to have multiple Christmas Number Ones. Other artists on the list are Queen, with two songs, the Spice Girls with three songs and the Beatles with four songs.

Other contenders for this year’s title were Gracie Abrams, who currently charts at number two, Rose and Bruno Mars with “Apt” at number five, Tom Grennan with newly released “It Can’t Be Christmas” and Christmas pop queen Mariah Carey, who loses the title to WHAM! once again. This year marked the 30^thanniversary of “All I want for Christmas is You”, and if took WHAM! 30 years then the next decade might just see Carey finally getting the crown.