Did you play "Whamageddon" this year? If you don't know the game, here are the official rules, according to the Whamageddon website:
(1) The objective is to go as long as possible without hearing WHAM's Christmas classic; "Last Christmas". (2) The game starts on December 1st, and finishes at the end of December 24th. Use your local timezone, if you'd like. (Yes, we're European heathens). (3) Only the original version applies. Enjoy the ?#!$&%! out of remixes and covers. (4) You're out as soon as you recognise the song. (Bonus Rule) Post on social media with the #whamageddon hashtag when you get hit.
If you played Whamageddon, did you win or lose? Chances are, you probably lost, as the Christmas hit seems to be ubiquitous. You might think, since the song really does seem to be everywhere, that at some point since it was released in 1984 that it would have hit the goal Wham!'s George Michael originally set for it—UK Christmas Number One. Well, it never did, until this week, when, after 39 years, the song finally topped the charts! NME explains:
Today, almost four decades later, 'Last Christmas' has earned the festive top spot. Wham! have also made history by setting the record for the longest-ever journey to the UK Christmas Number One.
Speaking about the achievement to Official Charts in a press release, Wham!'s Andrew Ridgeley said: "'Last Christmas' has finally ascended to the much-cherished and sought-after Official Christmas Number One, which was always the main goal."
He continued: "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!"
NME reports that "Last Christmas" was streamed 13.3 million times during the week leading up to Christmas, more than any previous UK Christmas Number One song. NME also explains that:
It has become the UK's third biggest song of all time with a combined lifetime total of 5.34m chart units, comprising 1.93m sales and nearly 413 million streams.
Congrats, Wham!—this was long overdue!
