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Wham!’s Last Christmas has topped the UK singles chart for the first time, 36 years after it was first released.

The track was streamed 9.2 million times over the last week. First released in December 1984, Last Christmas was famously held off the top spot by Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas?

The family and Estate of George Michael are overjoyed to learn that on the first day of a brand new year Last Christmas has reached number one in the UK charts for the first time. After such a difficult 2020 for all of us and at the time of year that was so special to George we are so grateful to everyone who made this possible and know how much it would have meant to him. We are also pleased to be able to continue donating George’s record royalties from sales/streaming from this track to charitable causes close to his heart as he did for so many years.

Sony Music UK would like to add –

“We are absolutely delighted that after a wait of 36 years WHAM!’s Last Christmas has topped the UK Chart. We thank the fans for their support and Andrew Ridgeley and George Michael for creating this timeless treasure.

Celebrating the news, Andrew Ridgeley paid tribute to George Michael:

Previously, Last Christmas was the UK’s best-selling single to never reach Number 1, accumulating 1.9 million pure sales to date across its lifetime.

That title is now handed over to Maroon 5’s Moves Like Jagger ft. Christina Aguilera (1.55m pure sales), a Number 2 hit in 2011.

But Last Christmas does now hold a new chart record – for the longest time taken for a single to reach number one.

The previous record-holder was Tony Christie’s (Is This The Way To) Amarillo? which had a 34-year gap between its original release and topping the chart for Comic Relief in 2005.