Dec 19

Charts – 19 December 2025

Posted on Friday, December 19, 2025 by Paul in Music

I don’t normally do these on Fridays, but it’s the Christmas number one, so why not? Christmas is next Thursday, and so this will be the reigning number one on Christmas Day. Next week’s chart will also be overrun with Christmas records – even more so, in fact, because it’ll cover streaming in the seven days up to Christmas Day itself. But this is the one people care about.

1. Kylie Minogue – “XMAS”

No, it’s not Wham. This is an Amazon exclusive, which in theory puts it at a disadvantage (though its streams on YouTube will count, now that an official video has been released there). The flip side is that it gets heavily promoted on Amazon Music’s Christmas playlists… but that’s not why it’s number one. Gwen Stefani’s single is an Amazon Music exclusive too, and it’s at number 60.

More to the point, as a new release, it has a big advantage over the back catalogue tracks, since Christmas records from more than three years ago permanently downweighted. On a level playing field, this would actually be number 7. How you feel about that depends very much on what you think the charts are meant to be measuring, and whether back catalogue records have a place on them at all. But it’s a big asterisk.

Still, this is the most popular new song this week, and by a very comfortable margin. It’s only her eighth number 1 – the others were “I Should Be So Lucky” (1988), “Especially For You” (1988), “Hand On Your Heart” (1989), “Tears On My Pillow” (1990), “Spinning Around” (2000), “Can’t Get You Out Of My Head” (2001), and “Slow” (2003). Those years very much tell the tale of her career, and this late-career number 1 comes 22 years after its predecessor – though in fairness, she still racks up the occasional significant hit, with “Padam Padam” reaching the top 10 in 1988.

5. Together For Palestine, Nai Barghouti, Leigh-Anne & Neneh Cherry featuring Amena, Bastille, Brian Eno, Celeste, Kieran Brunt, Lana Lubany, the London Community Gospel Choir, Mabel, Nadine Shah, Sura Abdo, TYSON, Yasmeen Ayyashi & Ysee – “Lullaby”

Yes, that’s the official credit. It’s a charity single and here overwhelmingly on download sales – its streams are nothing to write home about. Despite that, it’s actually quite a good record on its merits; it’s a reworking of the Palestinian lullaby “Yamma Mwal El Hawa”, with English language lyrics by Peter Gabriel.

The extraordinarily long artist credit means that a lot of people get unlikely top 5 hits. Leigh-Anne is Leigh-Anne Pinnock from Little Mix, whose previous highest solo credit was number 11. Neneh Cherry hasn’t had a top 40 hit since 1999. Bastille’s last hit was in 2019. And we haven’t seen Mabel since 2021. Everyone else gets their first top 40 credit – including Brian Eno, because he doesn’t release singles.

36. Slade – “Merry Xmas Everybody”

Scraping in under the wire. The Christmas number 1 of 1973 used to reach the top 20 in 2016-2020, but it’s done less well since then. It got to number 26 last year.

38. Leona Lewis – “One More Sleep”

This reached number 3 on release in 2013, and it’s been back every year since 2017. It reached number 8 in 2018, but it’s tailed off in a big way since then. Last year, it reached number 34.

This week’s other climbers:

“Fairytale of New York” by the Pogues featuring Kirsty MacColl climbs 8-6, matching its position in the last two years.
“Step into Christmas” by Elton John climbs 18-9. That’s its highest position since 2019-2020, when it reached its all time peak of number 8.
“Merry Christmas Everyone” by Shakin’ Stevens climbs 12-11, beating last year’s position.
“It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” by Andy Williams climbs 20-16. Still some way below last year’s number 11.
“Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!” by Dean Martin climbs 19-17. Its all time peak was 13.
“Wonderful Christmastime” by Paul McCartney climbs 21-18.
“Sleigh Ride” by the Ronettes climbs 25-21.
“Happy Xmas (War is Over)” by John & Yoko and the Plastic Ono Band climbs 23-22. It’s above last year’s position.
“It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas” by Michael Bublé climbs 27-23. This is way below the last few years – it reached number 6 in 2022, 7 in 2023 and 14 last year.
“Feliz Navidad” by José Feliciano climbs 30-24.
“I Wish it Could Be Christmas Everyday” by Wizzard climbs 32-25.
“Snowman” by Sia climbs 31-26. Still some way off last year’s number 18 peak.
“The Christmas Song” by Nat King Cole climbs 39-31, which is a new all-time peak for the track.
“Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” by Darlene Love climbs 34-32.

The three tracks leaving the top 40 are:

“Mistletoe” by Justin Bieber, after two weeks and a peak of 36.
“Shake the Snow Globe” by Gwen Stefani, after a single week at number 40.
“So Easy (To Fall in Love)” by Olivia Dean, with a 11-week run and a peak of 6.

The top 10 non-Christmas records (and thus the top 10 in waiting) are:

1. Together for Palestine – “Lullaby” (number 5)
2. Dave & Tems – “Raindance” (number 7)
3. Olivia Dean – “Man I Need” (number 13)
4. Sam Fender & Olivia Dean – “Rein Me In” (number 14)
5. HAVEN. featuring Kaitlin Aragon – “I Run” (number 19)
6. Taylor Swift – “The Fate of Ophelia” (number 20)
7. Raye – “Where is my Husband” (number 27)
8. HUNTR/X – “Golden” (number 28)
9. Sienna Spiro – “Die on This Hill” (number 29)
10. Djo – “End of Beginning” (number 33)

Not quite the Christmas flood we’ve had in previous years – there are another three non-seasonal tracks inside the top 40. But next week should be the big week for streaming.

Finally, there are in fact a few new entries on the album chart, all of them reissues:

1. Pink Floyd – “Wish You Were Here”