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Shane MacGowan’s wife has praised Wham! after the Eighties pop duo beat The Pogues to the coveted Christmas No 1 spot.
MacGowan’s band were in contention for the top of the charts with their Kirsty MacColl collaboration, “Fairytale of New York”, up against Wham!’s “Last Christmas” and Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas is You”.
Fans of The Pogues were rooting for “Fairytale of New York” following MacGowan’s death aged 65 in November, with his wife, Irish author and journalist Victoria Mary Clarke, throwing her support behind the campaign.
Originally released in 1987, the track peaked at No 2, kept from the top of the charts by the Pet Shop Boys’ cover of “Always on My Mind”.
It has returned to the Christmas Top 40 in the UK every year since 2005, but has never reached No 1.
After an unusually fierce chart battle, which followed five consecutive years where duo LadBaby had claimed the Christmas No 1, it was revealed that Wham! had secured the coveted spot, 39 years after it was first released in 1984.
Comprising Andrew Ridgley and the late George Michael, Wham! infamously missed out on the Christmas No 1 on their first attempt after Band Aid’s “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” took the title.
Meanwhile, “Fairytale of New York” arrived at No 6 in the Christmas 2023 UK singles chart, while Eurovision Sam Ryder played second with his new single, “You’re Christmas to Me”.
Andrew Ridgley with his trophy for Christmas No 1 2023
(Official Charts)
“I love Wham!!! We loved George,” Clarke wrote on X/Twitter on Christmas Eve, celebrating Wham!’s achievement.
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Reacting to the news on Friday 22 December, Ridgley said in a statement: “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 No 1. Yog (Michael) said that he wrote Last Christmas with the intention of writing a Christmas No 1.
“It’s mission accomplished.”
Michael, who had an extensive solo career with singles including “Careless Whisper”, died on Christmas Day in 2016 aged 53.
Martin Talbot, chief executive officer of the Official Charts Company, said it was hard to recall “a harder-working Christmas No 2 artist than Sam Ryder”, who performed more than 30 shows in the past seven days as part of his efforts to top the charts.
“Sam has made it truly a chart battle to remember – and should be comforted by the many years it has taken a song as iconic as ‘Last Christmas’ to claim this most prized of chart achievements,” he said. “We can all only hope Sam doesn’t have as long to wait. Fantastic work, Sam – you are already a winner in our eyes!”
