Wham!'s classic song Last Christmas has finally earned a Christmas No 1 in the UK, 39 years after the song was released.

The song, penned by George Michael, was ironically denied the festive spot by Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas?, on which Michael also sang.

The song was streamed 13.3 million times this week, and was helped along by special vinyl and CD editions.

Last Christmas has topped the charts around Christmas before, but never on it.

Wham!’s Andrew Ridgeley said: “George would be beside himself [that] after all of these years, [we’ve] finally obtained Christmas No 1. Yog [George] said that he wrote Last Christmas with the intention of writing a Christmas No 1. It’s mission accomplished!

“It was a huge disappointment to us both when it didn’t reach No 1 [in 1984] because, in our opinion, it was nailed-on… Thwarted for many years subsequent to that – the perennial bridesmaid – over recent years it seems it’s become part of the fabric of Christmas for a lot of people.”

George Michael died on Christmas Day, 2016.

Former Eurovision Song Contest runner-up Sam Ryder, The Pogues and Mariah Carey were all battling it out to be crowned this year's Christmas number one.