Wham! spend second week at Number 1 with Last Christmas - now key contenders for Christmas Number 1

Wham! remain at Number 1 in the UK for a second consecutive week, putting the group firmly among the favourite contenders for the Christmas Number 1 crown next week. 

Last Christmas holds steady at the Official Singles Chart summit, claiming its fifth non-consecutive week at Number 1 overall since finally managing to top the charts for the first time in January 2021. 

George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley just have to hold on for the next seven days to claim the coveted Official Christmas Number 1 single for the first time ever. And, with Wham! releasing Last Christmas on CD for the first time ever in the UK today, along with limited edition green vinyl, the track’s likely to see further uplift over the coming days. 

Today, the race for Christmas Number 1 has kicked off in earnest; and we can already name some contenders to look out for as the race develops... 

Jumping three places to Number 2 this week, Noah Kahan’s Stick Season makes a surprise surge into the heart of Christmas Number 1 conversation, and of course we can’t count out the Queen of Christmas herself, Mariah Carey, with All I Want For Christmas Is You at Number 3. 

Congratulations to Sam Ryder, who earns his second Top 10 single with You’re Christmas To Me this week (10). The Amazon Music Original rises two this week. It joins Sam’s other Top 10 hit, 2022’s SPACE MAN (2), and asserts the Eurovision hero as one to watch in the #XmasNo1 race.  

Elsewhere in the Top 5, The Pogues ft. Kirsty MacColl’s Fairytale of New York shows its annual popularity once again (5). With a brand-new vinyl release of Fairytale of New York in aid of Dublin Simon Community arriving next week, could the 1987 seasonal staple finally claim Christmas Number 1 for the first time ever? 

See the full list of 2023’s Official Christmas Number 1 single contenders here. 

Meanwhile in the Top 10, we find Ed Sheeran and Elton John’s Merry Christmas (6), Brenda Lee’s Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree (7), and Michael Bublé’s It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas (8) which was recently named by Official Charts as the biggest Christmas song of the 21st century – see the full Top 40 biggest modern Christmas songs here. 

As her second album THINK LATER enters the Top 5, Tate McRae returns to the Top 10, with greedy up five places (9) and exes rising 12 back into the Top 40 (39). 

Lyrical Lemonade – aka music video director Cole Bennett – makes his UK Top 40 debut as an artist, with Stop Giving Me Advice ft. Jack Harlow and Dave debuting at Number 29, while Fred again.. and Baby Keem’s leavemealone arrives at Number 30. 

Overall today, 28 Christmas songs make up the Official Singles Chart Top 40, with these songs rising week-on-week: Andy Williams’s It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year (14), Elton John’s Step Into Christmas (16), Jorja Smith’s Stay Another Day (20), Paul McCartney’s Wonderful Christmastime (25), The Ronette’s Sleigh Ride (26), Wizzard’s I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday (27), Slade’s Merry Xmas Everybody (33), Leona Lewis’s One More Sleep (34) and Justin Bieber’s Mistletoe (36).  

Image: John Rogers/Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images