Kylie Minogue achieves UK Christmas number one with festive single ‘Xmas’

Kylie Minogue has claimed the coveted UK Christmas number one with her festive single ‘Xmas’, marking a significant milestone in her long and successful music career. The Australian pop star, aged 57, described the achievement as ‘the most wonderful gift’ and expressed gratitude to fans who supported the song by listening and sharing it during the festive season. This marks Minogue’s first Christmas number one in the UK and makes her the first solo female artist in 12 years to top the Christmas singles chart, following Sam Bailey’s success in 2013.

The achievement also places Minogue in chart history as the first woman to secure number one singles across four different decades, underlining her enduring popularity and adaptability in the music industry. Her success comes after two consecutive years in which Wham!’s classic ‘Last Christmas’ dominated the top spot. This year, Wham! finished second, followed by Mariah Carey’s perennial hit ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You’ in third place. Brenda Lee’s ‘Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree’ and the charity single ‘Lullaby’ by Together For Palestine completed the top five.

‘Xmas’—pronounced X-M-A-S—is accompanied by a music video featuring Minogue teaching a dance routine to a diverse group of children and adults, with a special cameo from ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus. The song adds to Minogue’s impressive list of chart-topping singles, which includes classics such as ‘I Should Be So Lucky’, ‘Can’t Get You Out of My Head’, and ‘Slow’.

Martin Talbot, chief executive of the Official Charts Company, praised the singer’s achievement, suggesting she could now challenge Mariah Carey’s unofficial status as the ‘queen of Christmas’. The last Australian artist to achieve a Christmas number one in the UK was Nicole Kidman in 2001, making Minogue’s success both a personal and national milestone.