Wham!'s Last Christmas has been crowned this year's Christmas number one, 39 years after it was first released.

The festive beat classic Sam Ryder to the top spot after one of the most open races in years. Mariah Carey was third, with Noah Kahn's Stick Season fourth.

It's the first time George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley's song has been number one in Christmas week.

"It's marvelous and humbling to have got there," Ridgeley told the BBC. "Top of the pile is a great place to be."

He added that Michael, who died in 2016, had always wanted the song to be a Christmas number one.


He felt any great songwriter should be able to write a Christmas hit to order. Unfortunately, it's taken too long for George - but he'd be absolutely over the moon.


First released in 1984, Last Christmas was originally held off the top spot by Band Aid's charity single Do They Know It's Christmas?


But this week, UK fans streamed the song 13.3 million times, making it the most-played song ever during Christmas week.


The Christmas chart top five
Wham! - Last Christmas
Sam Ryder - You're Christmas To Me
Mariah Carey - All I Want For Christmas Is You
Noah Kahan - Stick Season
Ed Sheeran and Elton John - Merry Christmas
:: As it happened - The race for Christmas number one


For the last five years, charity campaigners LadBaby obtained the Christmas number one with their food-based fundraising singles.


They finally dropped out of the race this year, meaning the title was up for grabs.


In total, 33 of this week's Top 40 songs were Christmas-themed, including tracks like Ariana Grande's Santa Tell Me and Brenda Lee's Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree.

Last Christmas was written by George Michael in his childhood bedroom in February 1984, "and as far as I was concerned it was a number one", he told Smash Hits in 1986.

Inspiration struck out of the blue, while the singer was hanging out at his parents' house in Hertfordshire.

"There was a footy match on the telly and he suddenly jumped up and disappeared upstairs where he had a little four-track studio," Ridgeley told BBC News.

"About an hour later, he came back and said, 'Andy Andy, you've got to listen to this'. I rarely saw him as excited or as animated as that.

"And as soon as I heard it, it was so apparent that it had all the hallmarks of a Christmas classic. It was a jaw-dropping moment."


Andrew Ridgeley: I wish Wham played a farewell tour
The song was subsequently recorded in the middle of August at London's Advision Studios, which Michael plastered in Christmas decorations to set the mood.


When the duo played it to their families, "it claimed its first victim", Ridgeley told RTÉ in 1984.


"One of my mother's friends had a romance at Christmas, which is what the song is about. She got jilted and when she heard it, she burst into tears."


The cheesy-but-cheerful video was shot later that year in Switzerland, featuring Wham!'s backing singers Pepsi & Shirlie and model Kathy Hill.


Alongside its famous chunky knitwear, and central role for a silver brooch, the video also marked the final time Michael would be seen without his trademark designer stubble.


The jet singerted back from the film shoot to record his vocals for Do They Know It's Christmas - which would eventually hold Wham!'s song off the top spot.


But Last Christmas is now the UK's third-biggest song of all time, with a lifetime total of 5.34 million chart units - a measure that combines streams and sales.