Kylie Minogue seals Christmas number one with XMAS, first female artist to top four decades

Kylie Minogue has secured the United Kingdom's Christmas number one for this year with XMAS, the jaunty single taken from an expanded edition of Kylie Christmas (2015). The track dethroned Wham!'s Last Christmas, which had topped the chart in 2023 and 2024. The win comes 37 years after her first UK number one, I Should Be So Lucky, in 1988, making Minogue the first female artist to reach the top spot in four separate decades. XMAS arrived as part of a targeted chart push, with the track released exclusively through Amazon and given a prominent position on Amazon Music's Christmas playlist, alongside a limited run of vinyl and CD singles.

In a week described by industry observers as tight from start to finish, Minogue’s camp saw the single emerge as the overall winner as sales and streams accrued across multiple formats.

It was a close race all week: at one point, fewer than 10,000 copies separated the top five titles. In addition to Last Christmas, contenders included Mariah Carey’s festive staples and Brenda Lee’s timeless holiday classic as listeners loaded up Christmas playlists with a mix of new and evergreen tunes.

The Official Charts Company reported that Minogue’s strategy paid off, with the chart week yielding what officials described as her biggest sales week in 23 years, since 2002’s Love At First Sight. Head of the Official Charts Company, Martin Talbot, credited Minogue’s team for the strong push: “Kylie really, really targeted this particular race. Her record label pulled out all the stops. When you have a superstar of her status really going for it, she’s always going to be in with a chance.” He noted that the Amazon-led push helped, even as the edition’s exclusivity meant XMAS wasn’t immediately available on rival streaming services. The combination of Amazon plays, streams on YouTube, and limited-edition physicals ultimately helped clinch the crown.

Wham!'s Last Christmas has charted every year since 2007, and the track’s enduring appeal extended beyond the UK. While it didn’t top the UK Christmas chart this season, Last Christmas did top Billboard’s Global 200 for the first time, underscoring its global resonance and the way a holiday classic can endure across markets. BBC Radio 1’s Jack Saunders, who presents the UK chart show, attributed the song’s staying power to its spirit: “It’s a fantastic pop song, but it also captures the true heart and soul of what Christmas means to people. It’s family coming together, it’s reigniting friendships, it’s community. When you hear Wham! on the radio, you think, oh yeah we are all in this together, this is our song.”

Other tracks in contention this year included Together For Palestine’s charity single Lullaby, a reimagining built on the Palestinian folk song Mama, Sing to the Wind, with new lyrics by Peter Gabriel and performances by Palestinian artists alongside British stars like Neneh Cherry, Celeste and Dan from Bastille. Nai Barghouti, who features on the track, said, “To me, the Lullaby will always be number one,” highlighting the track’s broad global support.

Kylie’s victory arrives as she closes a remarkable touring cycle. The 66-date Tension World Tour wrapped earlier this year, and Minogue signaled a desire for a quieter holiday season. She said she intended to watch the Boxing Day cricket Test between Australia and England in Australia while chipping away at a jigsaw puzzle, a hobby that had once threaded through her Christmas downtime. “There’s a new jigsaw puzzle with a $1 sticker on the box from our local op shop,” she explained, adding that a prior Christmas puzzle session had become a family moment: “We were working on it, then someone would drift off, then we’d regroup. Then we finally found the final piece on film.”

The chart race this year also reflected broader industry dynamics. XMAS was promoted as part of an expanded Kylie Christmas package, with exclusive early access on Amazon Music and a limited physical release that helped fans and collectors alike. While some argued that the Amazon-first strategy gave Minogue a head start, others noted that Wham! and other perennial favorites remain catalog staples that can surge on streaming and radio. The Official Charts Company’s Talbot stressed that success in the Christmas chart often hinges on a combination of timing, format availability, and promotional intensity from the artist and label.

For Minogue, the Christmas crown adds a historic milestone: she becomes the first female artist to top the UK charts in four decades. It also marks a contrast with her earlier 1988 Christmas bid, a duet with Jason Donovan, “Especially For You,” which finished as a runner-up behind Cliff Richard’s “Mistletoe and Wine.” Beyond the awards and numbers, the new No. 1 sits within a larger cultural moment as fans weigh which holiday classics they want on repeat as December unfolds.

As the year winds down, Minogue’s team will likely continue to capitalize on the momentum, while fans celebrate a rare cross-decade achievement. For now, XMAS stands as a holiday anthem that sparked a multi-format, multi-venue push and delivered a Christmas chart moment that will be recalled in music history for years to come.