You either love this song or you want to play it half-heartedly when you hear it. Because it is inevitable during the holiday season. Wham! For almost four decades, this duet accompanies us with the song "Last Christmas". How did it come about?
A song that comes from everywhere - we can't escape it: it's playing on the radio, it's number 1 in the charts, it's blaring from the loudspeakers of Christmas fairs, it can be heard regularly in supermarkets, between advertisements for holiday sales. Without "Last Christmas" (Last Christmas) has no Christmas playlist, and thus no Christmas celebration.
There are versions in Spanish, German, French, Italian, Japanese, Swedish, Portuguese and many other languages and dialects. It is impossible to count all the covers - from salsa, to metal, from folk, to R&B.
What is the song about?
According to the Deutsche Welle, main character (singer of the band Wham! George Michael) meets a woman on Christmas Day, falls in love, gives her his heart and a brooch. The next day his wife leaves him. A year later, there's a reunion: a group of young people meet in a snowy cabin, including George and his new girlfriend and the aforementioned woman with her new partner (George's Wham! co-star Andrew Ridgeley).
During a new meeting, sparks fly again between the two, and George notices that the brooch he gave his beloved last year is now being worn by Andrew. He swears that he will only fall in love with someone very special this year, in order to protect himself from further tears.
The music video is hard to beat in terms of XNUMXs kitsch – not only for the love gazes of the main characters, but also for the lavish use of soft-focus effects and the slicked-back hairstyles that were popular at the time.
Interestingly, the video was shot in the Swiss winter center Zas Fe (Saas-Fee). The house where the action takes place is visible only from the outside in the entire video. Wham! the team could not enter it because no one in the village had a key. That is why the interior scenes were filmed in the Zas Fe Cultural Center.
The sorrows of love make miracles
In the summer of 1984, George Michael (1963-2016) jotted down a few lines in a notebook when he was on a bus with his bandmate Andrew Ridgeley, on the way to his parents. They were already successful with the band then "Wham!". They had a big hit. "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" which was number 1 in England and the US.
Even pop stars don't avoid love woes - so George Michael wrote a story about his own unhappy love. Later, at his parents' house, George retired to his room and reappeared very excited, Ridgely told "Smoothradio" in November 2023. It was as if he had struck gold. A colleague from the band then played a melody that would become one of the most famous pop songs in the world.
"George performed musical alchemy and distilled the essence of Christmas into music," said Ridgely. He touched hearts with the story of betrayed love, it was masterful. So they decided to release the song as a Christmas song on November 30, 1984.
As it quickly turned out, the song touched the feelings of many people who are sitting alone at home on Christmas Day and grieving over a lost love. The melody that Michael came up with is so ingenious that you hardly notice that the song consists of only four chords.
Escape attempt with Whamageddon
As great as the song is, it's not only one of the most successful Christmas songs of all time, but - along with "All I Want for Christmas" Mariah Carey - and one of the most boring. It's hard to avoid during the Christmas holidays, but there are still attempts.
Since 2016, on the page "Whamaggeddon" there is a challenge on Facebook. People are urged to do whatever it takes to avoid hearing this song (in the original) between December 1st and 24th. Those who succeed can call themselves "survivors" from December 24.
But the danger is that you "Last Christmas" surprise now it has grown significantly. Although during the past decades that song never managed to conquer the top of the charts, that has changed since the corona virus pandemic. During the winter of 2020/2021, the song reached number 1 for the first time in England, and the following year in Germany. It's the same this year too - constant radio airplay is guaranteed. And there are social networks with Reels and TikTok videos, so no one has a chance to avoid "Last Christmas".
The only solution - at least in Germany - is to include "Radio Bob", which promises "last christmas no song zone".
However, it is impossible to stop or erase the song that will celebrate its 40th birthday next year, because love woes and Christmas will exist as long as there are people. Regardless "Last Christmas", George Michael was an extraordinary musician and songwriter whose career continued after Wham! (1986) until his death. Ironically, he died on Christmas Day, aged just 53, on December 25, 2016.
KM/DW
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