Kylie Minogue Leads Dramatic Three-Way Push for Christmas No. 1
Just 13 minutes ago, the Official Charts Company revealed a fierce competition for this year’s Christmas number one. Pop icon Kylie Minogue is steering a three-way race, with her festive track XMAS pulling ahead by about 7,000 units over Wham!'s Last Christmas, which has held the top spot for the past two holiday seasons.
In third place, narrowly behind Wham, is Together For Palestine’s charity single Lullaby. The supergroup features a star-studded lineup—including Bastille’s Dan Smith, Celeste, Neneh Cherry, Nadine Shah, Brian Eno, and Leigh-Anne Pinnock of Little Mix—trailing Wham by only 231 sales.
If Kylie maintains her current momentum, XMAS would mark her first UK No. 1 single since Slow in 2003. “I think I’d cry,” she told BBC News, adding, “It’s been an unbelievable year, so that would be the cherry on top.”
XMAS is the track Kylie performed on Sunday’s Strictly Come Dancing, and its accompanying dance routine famously spells out the letters X-M-A-S, turning the number-one race into a festive YMCA moment.
From a chart-logic perspective, the song’s status is boosted by its Amazon exclusivity. Because it’s readily accessible via smart speakers, every request to play Christmas music pushes XMAS into plays that count toward the charts.
Kylie’s Christmas project centers on XMAS, a brand-new song created for the 10th anniversary edition of Kylie Christmas, which previously topped the album chart. Although the tune originated during earlier recording sessions, it hadn’t been completed until now. Kylie explained to the BBC that the idea of finishing it lingered in the back of her mind: “It’s not something I’ve dwelt on constantly, but it has lived with me. Over the years I kept fearing someone else would release a song called Xmas, and I’d regret not finishing it in time. It’s the only song that’s ever stuck with me this long.”
This isn’t Kylie’s first close call for a festive No. 1. In 1988, Especially For You nearly beat Cliff Richard’s Mistletoe and Wine in the race for the top spot.
Meanwhile, Kylie won’t be in the UK to celebrate if she wins. She told BBC News, “I’m heading home. I’m looking forward to spending time with my family and, you know, obsessing over a jigsaw while the cricket is on. That’s about the level I want to reach.”
Wham!’s Last Christmas remains the current No. 1 and could sustain a strong streaming performance long enough to keep the crown, potentially making history as the first-ever song to reach Christmas No. 1 three times if it holds on.
On the charity front, Together For Palestine’s track is the weekend’s best-selling song in the UK so far, with proceeds destined for Gaza aid. The tune reworks the traditional Palestinian folk song Yamma Mwel El Hawa (Mama, Sing to the Wind) with new English lyrics by Peter Gabriel. Nai Barghouti, a Palestinian singer on the track, recalled recording it at age 11 and spoke of its enduring meaning as a symbol of resilience, defiance, beauty, dignity, and hope. She described entering the Christmas chart as “a small beam of light in such darkness.”
Sales for the charity single hover just under 10,000 copies according to Official Charts Company data, but it has yet to crack Spotify’s Top 100. If streams pick up elsewhere, its ranking could shift as the week progresses.
Other contenders in the frame include Mariah Carey’s All I Want for Christmas Is You (predicted to land around No. 4) and The Pogues with Kirsty MacColl’s Fairytale of New York (around No. 5). Fairytale currently sits as the week’s third-best-selling single, boosted by a limited-edition zoetrope vinyl released on Friday. The track has famously occupied every Top 20 position except No. 1, and if streaming numbers surge, it could leap to the top.
As of now, fewer than 10,000 sales separate the top five, according to the Official Charts Company. Do keep in mind that these figures are preliminary, and the chart picture may evolve as additional streaming data comes in throughout the week.
