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Shane MacGowan's wife has Wham! praised! after the Eighties pop duo beat the Pogues to secure the coveted Christmas No.1 spot.
MacGowan's band fought for the top of the charts with their Kirsty MacColl collaboration “Fairytale of New York” and went up against Wham!'s “Last Christmas.” and “All I Want for Christmas is You” by Mariah Carey.
After MacGowan's death at age 65 in November, fans of “The Pogues” embraced “Fairytale of New York,” and his wife, Irish author and journalist Victoria Mary Clarke, supported the campaign.
Originally released in 1987, the track reached number 2 and was knocked off the top of the charts by the Pet Shop Boys' cover of “Always on My Mind”.
It has returned to the UK Christmas Top 40 every year since 2005, but has never reached number 1.
After an unusually bitter chart battle that took place five years in a row in which duo LadBaby took the Christmas number 1, it was announced that Wham! had secured the coveted spot, 39 years after its initial release in 1984.
Comprising Andrew Ridgley and the late George Michael, Wham! they infamously missed the Christmas number one on their first attempt after Band Aid's “Do They Know It's Christmas?” won the title.
Meanwhile, “Fairytale of New York” reached number 6 on the 2023 UK Christmas Singles Chart, while Eurovision Sam Ryder took second place with his new single “You're Christmas to Me”.
Andrew Ridgley with his Christmas No. 1 2023 trophy
(Official Charts)
“I love Wham!!! We loved George,” Clarke wrote on X/Twitter on Christmas Eve, celebrating Wham!’s success.
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Responding to the news on Friday, December 22, Ridgley said in a statement: “Last Christmas has finally risen to the long-cherished and coveted official number one Christmas, which was always the main goal.”
“George would be ecstatic that we finally got Christmas No. 1 after all these years. Yog (Michael) said that he wrote “Last Christmas” with the intention of writing a #1 Christmas book.
“Mission accomplished.”
Michael, who had an extensive solo career with singles including “Careless Whisper”, died on Christmas Day 2016, aged 53.
Martin Talbot, managing director of the Official Charts Company, said it was hard to remember “a harder-working No.2 Christmas artist than Sam Ryder”, who has performed more than 30 shows in the last seven days as part of his effort to reach the top spot the charts.
“Sam has truly made it a chart battle to remember – and it should be some consolation that a song as iconic as 'Last Christmas' has taken many years to achieve this most esteemed chart success,” he said. “We can all just hope that Sam doesn’t have to wait that long. Fantastic job Sam – you’re already a winner in our eyes!”