Kylie Minogue has scored her first UK Christmas No 1, and eighth No 1 single overall, with the song Xmas.<\/p>\n
She beat competition from Wham!\u2019s mega-streaming Last Christmas<\/a>, which has been Christmas No 1 for the past two years: it was last week\u2019s chart-topper but drops to No 2. Also in the race was Lullaby from the charity campaign Together for Palestine, which reached No 5.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s hard to put into words how special this feels,\u201d Kylie told Official Charts. \u201cBeing Christmas<\/a> No 1 really is the most wonderful gift.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s Kylie\u2019s first No 1 in 22 years, after Slow in 2003, and only her second solo Top 10 hit since 2010\u2019s All the Lovers. Xmas makes her the first woman to secure UK No 1 singles in four different decades, and she\u2019s a rare Australian Christmas chart-topper \u2013 Nicole Kidman was the previous one, with her Robbie Williams duet Somethin\u2019 Stupid in 2001.<\/p>\n In a way, Kylie has been at Christmas No 1 once before, but only as a small part of the 1989 version of Band Aid\u2019s Do They Know It\u2019s Christmas?, performing alongside Cliff Richard, Bananarama and many more \u2013 the song doesn\u2019t count as an official Kylie hit on the charts. She had nearly reached the top spot the previous year with her ultra-sappy Jason Donovan duet Especially for You, but Richard kept them off No 1 with his arguably even sappier Mistletoe and Wine.<\/p>\n Kylie\u2019s Xmas was helped along by sales of CD and vinyl versions, but its success is all the more remarkable because it isn\u2019t available on most streaming services: she recorded it as an exclusive track for Amazon<\/a> Music.<\/p>\n The online retailer has identified Christmas music as a big draw for customers in recent years, using exclusive songs as a way to tempt them into signing up 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\u2019s Alexa devices, helping to increase their chart success.<\/p>\n It\u2019s the first time an Amazon-commissioned song has reached Christmas No 1, though previous efforts have nearly managed it. Last year Tom Grennan\u2019s It Can\u2019t Be Christmas reached No 3, and in 2023 Sam Ryder reached No 2 with It\u2019s Christmas to Me. Ellie Goulding\u2019s Amazon-exclusive cover of Joni Mitchell\u2019s River, released in 2019, reached No 1 just after Christmas that year. Katy Perry, Olivia Dean, Laufey, Jorja Smith and George Ezra are among the other artists to have recorded Christmas songs for Amazon.<\/p>\n Speaking to Music Week<\/a> as the Kylie campaign kicked off, Amazon Music\u2019s Alex Nutton heralded \u201csignificant investment and promotional support in commissioning new Christmas tracks these past few years \u2026 A great Christmas track has the power to stand the test of time. When commissioning these songs, our goal is always to create a new holiday favourite that customers will return to year after year.\u201d<\/p>\n