"Last Christmas" Turns 40 This Year

As we bid farewell to long summer days and autumn settles in, many people will be looking forward to Christmas. As an ESL teacher, I know what that means – the song “Last Christmas” playing repeatedly! It certainly seems to be a favourite here in Poland. The song was originally released on December 3, 1984, and George Michael's melodious tale of jilted love has since been absorbed into Christmas tradition, to the extent that wherever you are in Europe during the festive season you seem unable to escape this timeless piece of synth-pop. Regardless of whether you love it or hate it, “Last Christmas” has been around for forty years now – yes, forty years! – and its popularity shows no signs of fading, despite attempts to ban it from the airwaves.

When the Wham! track initially hit the UK Singles Chart, it managed to stay at number two for five consecutive weeks, held back from the top spot by Band Aid's “Do They Know It's Christmas?”, the lyrics of which poignantly recall how Ethiopia was beset by famine in the mid-1980s. By stark contrast, the world I was growing up in then seemed to have food in abundance. You will be glad to know that Wham! donated all the royalties from their hit song to help Ethiopians, which was likely to have been a considerable amount of money as the song topped the charts in several European countries and featured in the top ten in Canada, Australia, and the US. Fast-forward to 2016 and the song reaches number seven in the UK following the death of George Michael on Christmas Day, a fitting end to the generous singer's career.

So why is the song so popular? It has a catchy tune for one thing, and the chorus is easy to remember, certainly after it has been drummed into your head a million times! ESL teachers will find no shortage of materials when it comes to examining the grammar and vocabulary that make up the lyrics. This website has a nice listening activity, and ISL Collective has no less than 57 worksheets based on the song. As an additional activity, you could get your students to come up with a list of the best Christmas songs and see if anyone chooses to omit “Last Christmas”. Surely there are some people out there who don't like this song, but I dare say they are in a minority. I went through a phase of hating it, mainly because it was overplayed – and still is overplayed – but I now just accept it in much the same way as I accept the change of the seasons.

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