“Last Easter…” This could have started the hit by the British group Wham!, which always returns to the global hit charts during the holiday season — although many can no longer stand it.
The song becomes omnipresent in the period leading up to Christmas. It’s impossible to escape: it plays on the radio and echoes through the loudspeakers in the markets. None playlist Christmas is complete without the “Last Christmas” of the Wham!.
The song has versions in Spanish, German, French, Italian, Japanese, Swedish, Portuguese and many other languages and dialects, such as Kölsch, from Cologne. The covers are countless, ranging from salsa, metal, folk and R&B. New versions appear every year, including performed by prominent artists – even Taylor Swift has played it.
When it was released in 1984, the song reached number two in the British charts in the week before Christmas. First place went to Do They Know It’s Christmas?, da Band Aid – a group of British pop stars who came together to raise funds to fight famine in Ethiopia.
It was only in 2021 that “Last Christmas” reached number one in the UK. , reaching the top of the British charts again, 39 years after its release.
The music video was republished on YouTube 15 years ago and currently has almost billion viewspositioning itself as the 31st most viewed video ever on the platform.
To avoid more tears…
In the plot of the music video, the protagonist (George Michaellead singer of Wham!) meets a woman at Christmas, falls in love with her and offers her a heart-shaped blowjob. The next day, she leaves him. A year later, they meet again: a group of young people gather in a snow-covered cabin, including George with his new girlfriend, and the woman in question with her new partner (Andrew Ridgeley, George’s partner in Wham!).
During the reunion, the two exchange longing glances, but George notices that Andrew is wearing the brooch he had given his wife the year before. So, he promises himself that, that year, he will only fall in love with someone very special, to avoid any more tears.
AND typical of the 80snot only because of the languid looks of the protagonists, but also because of the blurred and soft image, as well as the voluminous hairstyles so characteristic of the time.
Fun fact: The music video was filmed in the winter sports resort of Saas Fee, Switzerland. The cabin where the action takes place is only visible in the video from the outside, as the Wham! He was unable to access the interior due to lack of a key. Therefore, the internal scenes were recorded at the local cultural center.
“Last… Easter?”
Legend has it that in the summer of 1984, George Michael, who in 2016, wrote the first verses of the song in a notebook while riding the bus to his parents’ house with Andrew Ridgeley. At the time, both were already successful with Wham!, having reached number one in the UK and US charts with ““.
Wham!
But pop stars also suffer heartbreak. Thus, George Michael turned his own frustration into a song sketch. Interestingly, the original title was Last Easter (Last Easter).
As Ridgeley told Smooth radio in November 2023, George disappeared for a few hours in his parents’ bedroom and came back excited, as if I had discovered gold. He then played the melody that would become one of the most famous pop songs in the world.
“George created musical alchemy and captured the essence of Christmas in music. With the story of a failed love, he managed to touch hearts. It’s a masterpiece,” Ridgeley said. The record company decided to release the song as a Christmas song on November 30, 1984 — and not wait for Easter. So Last Easter became Last Christmas.
The song touched a sensitive point: that of so many people who spend Christmas alone and mourn lost loves. The melody, ingeniously composed by George Michael, hides the simplicity of being accompanied by just four chords.
Escape from “Whamageddon”
Despite being a masterpiece, the song is considered by many one of the most annoying Christmas songs ever — next to . It’s practically impossible to escape it at Christmas time, but there are those who try.
Since 2016, the comedy Facebook page has been challenging its followers to do everything they can not to listen to the original version of the song between December 1st and 24th. Whoever succeeds can consider themselves a “survivor”.
But this task is almost impossible. Social networks, with their countless reels and videos on TikTok, ensure that no one escapes the music.
