‘Last Christmas’ Tops UK Charts for Second Consecutive Year as Anniversary of George Michael’s Death Looms

Michael died unexpectedly at the age of 53 on Christmas Day 2016

George Michael at the 55th annual Berlinale International Film Festival on February 16, 2005 in Berlin, Germany. Photo: Sean Gallup/Getty

It’s a bittersweet time of the year as Wham!’s “Last Christmas” reaches the top of the UK charts for the second year in a row.

On Friday, Dec. 20, the Official Charts Company announced that the 1984 track, released by the duo made up of Andrew Ridgeley and the late George Michael, had become the first song in chart history ever to clinch two consecutive Christmas Number 1 victories.

The achievement makes the beloved track, written and produced by Michael, this week’s most streamed and physically purchased song.

It coincides with the release of the Last Christmas 40th Anniversary EP earlier this month, and it comes days before the anniversary of Michael’s death, which occurred unexpectedly on Christmas Day in 2016. Michael, born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou, was 53 at the time of his death. It was later determined that Michael died from natural causes.

While speaking to Official Charts about the achievement, Ridgeley said, “37 years to get to Number 1, 39 years to Christmas Number 1, and then like London buses they all come along at once!”

Wham! ‘Last Christmas’ artwork.Columbia Records

He said the milestone made him “especially pleased for George” as “he would have been utterly delighted.”

“His fabulous Christmas composition has become such a classic, almost as much a part of Christmas as mince pies, turkey and pigs in blankets,” said Ridgeley. “It’s testament to a really wonderful Christmas song that in a lot of people’s minds evokes and represents Christmas as we would all wish it to be.”

“I’d like to thank everyone who has listened to, downloaded, bought, streamed Last Christmas and been a part of history,” he continued.

Wham! Members Andrew Ridgeley and George Michael. Mick Hutson/Redferns

Official Charts said that the milestone achievement has made Wham! part of “a rare Official Charts club, as one of only a few acts to achieve the Official Christmas Number 1 multiple times.”

“Their peers now include; Queen (2), Cliff Richard (2), Spice Girls (3), The Beatles (4) and the current record-holders, LadBaby (5),” the organization said in its announcement.

Speaking to why he believes the song continues to find success years after its release, Ridgeley said, “Artists of that calibre and songwriters, of which George was one, transcend the ages and decades and endure because of their quality. I think that’s the reason why ‘Last Christmas’ has endured.”