Kylie Minogue Leads Three-Way Battle for Christmas Number One, with Wham and a Charity Hit Close Behind
Kylie Minogue has taken a commanding position in the race for the Christmas number one, according to the Official Charts Company. Her new festive track, XMAS, sits roughly 7,000 copies ahead of Wham!'s Last Christmas, which has held the top spot for the past two years.
In third place, narrowly trailing Wham by about 231 sales, is the charity single Lullaby by Together For Palestine. The supergroup comprises artists such as Bastille’s Dan Smith, Celeste, Neneh Cherry, Nadine Shah, Brian Eno, and Leigh-Anne Pinnock of Little Mix, among others.
If Kylie maintains this lead, XMAS would mark her first chart-topping single since Slow in 2003. “I think I’d cry,” she told BBC News. “It’s been an unbelievable year, so that would be the cherry on top.”
XMAS, which Kylie performed on Strictly Come Dancing this past Sunday, features a dance routine that spells out X-M-A-S, culminating in a festive YMCA-like sequence.
A key chart detail is that XMAS is an Amazon-exclusive release. This means every time someone asks a smart speaker to play Christmas music, Kylie’s track plays first, and every stream counts toward the chart.
The song is a brand-new recording created for the 10th anniversary edition of Kylie’s Christmas album, which dominated the album charts last week. Although it originated from earlier recording sessions, it had not been completed until now. Kylie told the BBC that the song had lingered in her mind for years, and she worried someone else might release a song titled Xmas first, which would have been frustrating if she hadn’t finished it.
Kylie notes that this is the only song she’s carried with her for so long, making its release intimately meaningful.
Historically, Kylie has flirted with the Christmas chart before. In 1988, Especially For You was a close runner-up to Cliff Richard’s Mistletoe and Wine. Regardless of the outcome, she won’t be in the UK to celebrate. “I’m heading home,” she told BBC News. “I’m looking forward to spending time with my family and, you know, obsessing over a jigsaw with the cricket on. That’s about the level I want to reach.”
Wham!’s Last Christmas currently sits at number one, boosted by substantial streaming figures that could help it retain the top spot. If it remains, the track would become the first-ever song to reach Christmas number one three times.
Meanwhile, Together For Palestine’s charity single was the weekend’s best-seller in the UK, with proceeds supporting aid for Gaza. The track reimagines the traditional Palestinian folk song Yamma Mwel El Hawa (Mama, Sing to the Wind) with new English lyrics penned by Peter Gabriel. Nai Barghouti, a Palestinian singer featured on the track, described the song as a lifelong companion: recording it first at age 11 and carrying its message of resilience, defiance, beauty, dignity, and hope wherever she goes.
Barghouti sees crossing into the Christmas charts as a small beacon of light amid overall hardship. The single has sold just under 10,000 copies so far, per Official Charts Company data, but it has not yet appeared on Spotify’s Top 100. As a result, its momentum could wane as the week progresses and other contenders gain streams.
Other major contenders include Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas Is You, projected to land around number four, and The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl’s Fairytale of New York, currently at number five. Fairytale of New York has enjoyed a surge thanks to a limited-edition zoetrope vinyl released on Friday and has historically reached every Top 20 position except number one. Strong streaming performance could help it overtake rivals.
Notably, the top five are tightly clustered, with fewer than 10,000 sales separating them, according to the Official Charts Company. However, given that the data at this stage is preliminary, the rankings are likely to shift as more streaming data arrives throughout the week.
