Victoria Mary Clarke, wife of the late music legend Shane MacGowan, has shared her love of Wham! whose track Last Christmas secured top spot for the festive season, at the expense of the Pogues’s Fairytale Of New York.
Originally released in 1984, Last Christmas narrowly missed out on the coveted title, with the spoils going to Band Aid’s Do They Know Its Christmas.
In securing top spot for this year, Last Christmas has also made history, after becoming the most streamed Christmas Number one during the festive week, with 13.3 million streams.
Having finally secured top spot at Christmas, 39 years after its release, the track has also taken the longest ever journey to reach number one in the UK for the festive season.
“the main goal”
Speaking about the song reaching number one, Wham! member Andrew Ridgeley was thrilled to have achieved this goal, adding that this is something that would have made his late bandmate George Michael, very proud indeed.
George Michael died in December 2016.
“‘Last Christmas’ has finally ascended to the much-cherished and sought-after Official Christmas Number One, which was always the main goal”, stated Ridgeley.
Referring to Michael, Ridgeley also added, “George would be beside himself [that] after all of these years, [we’ve] finally obtained Christmas Number One. Yog [George] said that he wrote Last Christmas with the intention of writing a Christmas Number One. It’s mission accomplished”.
“We love George”, Clarke praises Wham!
Posting this classy message via social media, Victoria Mary Clarke who had been campaigning for the Pogues’ track to hit top spot following her husband’s death, praised Last Christmas for reaching number one.
“I love ♥ Wham!!! We love George ♥ Wham!”, Clarke wrote.
I love ❤️ Wham!!! We loved George ❤️ Wham! – Last Christmas (Official Video) https://t.co/k1nrzqC8X3 via @YouTube
— @victoriamary (@Victoriamary) December 24, 2023
Fairytale Of New York had been competing with Last Christmas for the coveted number one spot for for the last few weeks, with the Pogues track eventually finishing in sixth place.
Eurovision star Sam Ryder’s track You’re Christmas To Me finished in second spot, with Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas Is You taking third.
Finishing in fourth place was Noah Kahan’s Stick Season, with Elton John & Ed Sheeran’s collaboration Merry Christmas taking up fifth place.
Last week, New York’s IFC Centre confirmed that they would screen Shane MacGowan’s Crock of Gold film in honour of what have been the late singer’s 66th birthday.
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