SemiNoTV: Kylie Hits 'XMAS' No. 1 in UK

[Mark Jeffries]

The coveted Christmas number 1 single this year is the first number one in over two decades for Kylie Minogue, the Australian soap star and singer who's always been popular in the UK, but has not achieved the same fame here outside of the LGBTQ community--despite only being available for buying, streaming or downloading through Amazon, her new song "XMAS" (spelled out like cheerleading) ended a two-year reign of Whamegeddon (or Wham!'s "Last Christmas")--here's the song:

https://youtu.be/3B5Zcou91yA?si=loPdcmZ2Be_f1agM

In the U.S., Billboard's Christmas no. 1 will be announced Monday, but it will probably be That Mariah Carey Song again. Back in the UK, the top 5 following 'XMAS" are Whamegeddon, That Mariah Carey Song, Brenda Lee's "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" and one non-Christmas song, the charity record "Lullaby" by Together for Palestine to raise funds for people attempting to live In Gaza. It is safe to say that if the record was released in the U.S., iHeart and Audacy stations would not play it. Official Charts' page on Kylie's achievement (at the age of 57):

https://www.officialcharts.com/chart-news/christmas-number-1-2025-kylie-minogue-xmas/

And "Lullaby":

https://youtu.be/G957oaAZwhc?si=hMoIDS5-v-wA6MPt

[Adam Bowie]

The whole Kylie thing is interesting because the whole Christmas Number One thing has changed so much over the years.

For a long time it was fought hard over, with releases in the 80s and 90s doing battle on sales. Then into the 00s, along came Pop Idol and X Factor, with the winner basically guaranteed to get the Christmas Number One because they were such big shows. Then after those shows died down, there was a period of novelty records which triumphed, before streaming basically killed it all, and it became a Mariah Christmas every Christmas. Wham eventually usurped Mariah in the UK, but this year there is actually a new song at number one!

But XMAS by Kylie is Amazon Music backed. They've put it on all their playlists and pushed it hard. It's got radio airplay, and there were lots of physical versions to buy - many through Amazon. And this isn't a new Amazon thing, they got #3 last year with Tom Grennan while Sam Ryder made #2 the year before. 

The UK chart rules have something called "ACR" or Accelerated Chart Ratio that means new music requires a smaller number of streams to be the equivalent of a sale. Billboard has something similar. Still, it actually makes a change for someone other than Wham or Mariah to be number one, even if it's all meaningless!

Adam

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