Wham!’s Andrew Ridgeley says George Michael would be ‘beside himself’ over Christmas number one – 39 years after release
WHAM star Andrew Ridgeley has said George Michael would be “beside himself” at Last Christmas reaching number one in the charts.
The singer spoke of how his late friend would feel about the achievement – 39 years after the song’s release.
The Christmas classic failed to reach number one in 1984 when it was beaten by Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas?
Andrew, 60, told Official Charts: “George would be beside himself after all of these years to finally obtain number one.
“Yog and I perceived music largely in the sense of the Official Charts. We always contextualised our success by our chart success.
“It was a huge disappointment to us both when it didn’t reach No1 because in our opinion, it was nailed on.
“Had it not been for Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas? it probably would have been No1.”
He continued: ‘”It’ll mean a lot to Wham!’s legacy, it’s the crowning glory.
“Last Christmas was conceived as a Christmas No1. Lofty ambitions, but Yog set lofty ambitions for himself as a songwriter.’
The song finished 5,926 copies ahead of Sam Ryder‘s You’re Christmas To Me, clinching the win for the Eighties group.
The news was revealed on the Radio 1 chart show this evening by presenter Jack Saunders.
The bittersweet song about being left heartbroken during the festive season surged in popularity following George’s death and hit No1 for the first time ever in January 2021.
It returned to the top spot twice in 2022 and has spent the last fortnight at No1.
Before that, it had held the title of the highest-selling single never to have topped the Official Charts.
George died on Christmas Day, 2016.
The singer, aged 53, was found dead in bed at his Oxfordshire home by his boyfriend Fadi Fawaz.