Kylie Minogue secures Christmas number one with XMAS, first female to top UK charts in four decades

Kylie Minogue has secured this year's Christmas number one in the United Kingdom with XMAS, topping Wham!'s Last Christmas, which had been the festive favorite in the previous two years. The single arrives 37 years after Minogue's first UK chart-topper, I Should Be So Lucky, and makes her the first female artist to reach the Christmas number one in four separate decades. "It's hard to put into words how special this feels," Minogue said in a statement, adding that she would celebrate the holiday with her family in Australia by obsessing over a jigsaw.

XMAS is the lead track from a new, expanded edition of Kylie Christmas (2015). It arrived through a strategy that included an exclusive Amazon Music release and prominent placement on Amazon's Christmas playlist. The track was not available on rival streaming services during the race week, but sales and streams across Amazon platforms, plus limited-edition vinyl and CD formats, helped push it to the top. Martin Talbot, head of the Official Charts Company, said: "Kylie really, really targeted this particular race. Her record label pulled out all the stops."

Chart data showed the race was tight throughout the week. At one point, the difference between the top five was as little as 10,000 copies, with other contenders including Mariah Carey and Brenda Lee.

Minogue has previously flirted with the Christmas crown. In 1988 her duet with Jason Donovan, Especially For You, was a major contender but finished runner-up behind Cliff Richard's Mistletoe and Wine. Offstage, the 55-year-old singer has continued to be a force in pop with a 66-date Tension World Tour. After the chart success, Minogue said she planned a relatively quiet Christmas in Australia and looked forward to watching the Boxing Day Test match between Australia and England while working on a jigsaw with family.

Wham!'s Last Christmas has enjoyed a long run of popularity, having topped the UK chart in 2023 and 2024, and it has topped Billboard's Global 200 for the first time last year, underscoring its worldwide appeal. BBC Radio 1's Jack Saunders attributed the song's enduring resonance to its themes of family and togetherness. "It's a fantastic pop song, but it captures the heart and soul of what Christmas means to people," Saunders said.

Other tracks in contention this year included Together For Palestine's Lullaby, a charity single raising funds for Gaza relief, featuring Palestinian artists alongside British stars such as Neneh Cherry, Celeste, and Dan from Bastille. Nai Barghouti, who also appears on the track, said, "To me, the Lullaby will always be number one," expressing pride at the global support.