Wham! finish 2022 back at Number One with ‘Last Christmas’

Wham!‘s 1984 Christmas hit ‘Last Christmas’ has closed out 2022 by returning to the top spot on the Official Singles Chart.

• READ MORE: How much are musicians making from our favourite Christmas songs? 

The track previously returned to Number One two weeks ago (December 16) but missed out on an illustrious Christmas Number One last week when it was beaten by LadBaby with ‘Food Aid’. The track is Mark and Roxanne Hoyle’s fifth Christmas Number One in as many years, breaking a UK chart record previously held by The Beatles. Proceeds from the single, as with all LadBaby songs, have been donated to food bank charity the Trussell Trust.

Now, ‘Last Christmas’ has returned to Number One to become the final chart-topper of 2022 with over 79,000 charts units, according to the Official Charts Company. It is also the most-streamed track of the week.

The UK Top 10 is, unsurprisingly, almost entirely made up of Christmas songs, with Mariah Carey‘s ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ landing at Number Two, Ed Sheeran & Elton John‘s ‘Merry Christmas’ charting at Number Three and Brenda Lee’s ‘Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree’ at Number Four. The only non-Christmas song in the Top 10 is Stormzy‘s ‘Firebabe’, which is at Number Five.

‘Last Christmas’ first topped the charts at the beginning of 2021, 36 years after its release. It had previously peaked at Number Two, having been kept off the top spot by Band Aid’s ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’ which coincidentally also featured George Michael.

Not everyone is such a fan of Wham!’s festive classic, however. A couple have raised £50,000 to buy the rights to the song so they can scrub it from existence and never have to hear it again. Tomas and Hannah Mazetti are aiming to raise £15million to buy the rights and send the master tapes off to a nuclear waste site in Finland “where it’ll rest for at least two million years”.

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