Kylie Minogue gets her first Christmas No. 1 for her and Amazon, with Christmas | UK charts

Kylie Minogue scores her first Christmas number one single in the UK, and eighth number one overall, with Christmas Song.

It beat out competition from the massive streaming platform Wham! Last Christmas, which has held the No. 1 Christmas spot for the past two years: It was at the top of the chart last week but has fallen to second place. Also in the race was Lullaby from the charity campaign Together for Palestine, which reached fifth place.

“It’s hard to put into words how special this is,” Kylie told Official Charts. “Being Christmas No. 1 is truly the most amazing gift.”

It is Kylie’s first No. 1 single in 22 years, following 2003’s Slow, and her second top 10 single since All the Lovers in 2010. The birthday makes her the first woman to have a No. 1 UK singles hit in four different decades, and it’s also rare for an Australian Christmas topping – Nicole Kidman being the previous one, with her Robbie Williams duet Somethin’ Stupid in 2001.

Somehow, Kylie has been to a Christmas No. 1 once before, but only as a small part of the 1989 version of Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas?, where she performed alongside Cliff Richard, Bananarama and many more – the song doesn’t count as Kylie’s official single on the charts. They had almost reached number one the previous year with their brilliant Jason Donovan duet “Especially For You”, but Richard kept them away from number one with his even more brilliant song Mistletoe and Wine.

Kylie’s Xmas has helped sales of CD and vinyl releases, but its success is all the more notable because it’s not available on most streaming services: she recorded it as an exclusive track for Amazon Music.

The online retailer has identified Christmas music as a big draw for customers in recent years, using exclusive songs as a way to entice them to subscribe to its music streaming offering (the songs can also be heard on YouTube). These exclusives are also often played when Christmas music is requested on Amazon’s Alexa devices, helping to drive chart success.

It’s the first time an Amazon-commissioned song has reached No. 1 at Christmas, although previous efforts have nearly managed to do so. Last year, Tom Grennan’s It Can’t Be Christmas reached No. 3, and in 2023, Sam Ryder reaches No. 2 with It’s Christmas to Me. Ellie Goulding’s Amazon-exclusive cover of Joni Mitchell’s River, released in 2019, reached number one after Christmas that year. Katy Perry, Olivia Deen, Lovie, Jorja Smith and George Ezra are among other artists who have recorded Christmas songs for Amazon.

Speaking to Music Week as Kylie’s campaign kicked off, Amazon Music’s Alex Nutton announced “significant investment and promotional support in commissioning new Christmas tracks over the past few years…a great Christmas track has the ability to stand the test of time. When commissioning these songs, our goal is always to create new holiday favorites that customers will return to year after year.”

In terms of pure sales, “Together for Palestine” came out on top, but “Lullaby” was broadcast relatively little. The song is adapted from the Palestinian lullaby Yama Mawil al-Hawa, and features a mixture of the original Arabic lyrics and new lyrics written by Peter Gabriel. It is performed by Palestinian artists such as Nay Barghouti alongside British artists such as Ninah Cherry, Celeste, Lee-Anne Pinnock, and Together for Palestine co-founder Brian Eno.

Earlier this month, Eno told The Guardian that he “wouldn’t be completely disappointed” if the song didn’t reach number one, because “Christmas songs are their own thing.” The proceeds from the song will be distributed to Palestinian causes through the Choose Love Charitable Foundation.

The rest of the chart is expected to be full of Christmas songs: 27 of them in all. Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas”, Brenda Lee’s “All I Want for Christmas is You” and “Rockin’around the Christmas Tree” were at No. 3 and 4, and Christmas songs by the Pogues, Kelly Clarkson, Elton John and Bobby Helms were all in the top 10 (Dave and Tems’ “Raindance” is an out-of-Christmas song at No. 7).

On the albums chart, Pink Floyd’s 50th anniversary reissue of “Wish You Were Here” came to No. 1, securing a mysterious record: the longest period between an album’s first No. 1 debut and its last. Previously this was Abbey Road by The Beatles, who topped the chart in 1969 and then again in 2019, a slightly shorter gap of 49 years and 252 days.

Wish You Were Here is Pink Floyd’s second UK album of the year, following the live album Pink Floyd in Pompeii – MCMLXXII. They’ve also scored a No. 1 Christmas song in the past, with “Another Brick in the Wall” in 1979.

Kylie topped the album charts last week with Kylie Christmas (Fully Wrapped), a reissue of her 2015 Christmas album.