Pepsi & Shirlie have lifted the lid on making Wham’s Last Christmas and reveal what the late George Michael would have made of its success four decades on.
The pair were backing singers and dancers for Andrew Ridgeley and Michael’s ’80s pop duo and appear in a new BBC documentary celebrating the beloved song’s milestone anniversary.
Following its initial release in 1984, the song spent five consecutive weeks at number two in the UK singles chart after being held off of the top spot at Christmas by Band Aid's Do They Know It's Christmas? on which Michael also performed.
Then, after many chart runs in subsequent years, which included three more weeks at number two, the song finally reached number one on New Year’s Day 2021, 36 years after it was first released.
Two years later, Last Christmas returned to the top of the charts again and achieved the coveted Christmas number one spot and they are hoping that lightening will strike twice with the release of a Last Christmas’ 40th anniversary EP.
The song also inspired a romantic comedy starring Emilia Clarke and Henry Golding in 2019.
While they admit that when recording the song the “couldn’t even think of the next 40 days let alone 40 years”, Michael - who also penned the track - would have “loved” all of it Pepsi told The Standard.
“My god, yeah!” agreed Shirlie, who was also his best friend. “He would be like ‘make sure you talk about me! Make sure my song’s played’. It’s like, I can hear him saying it and that’s why it’s so important to keep it going and not just let it fade away - I know it will never fade away.”
Last Christmas officially ranks as the fourth highest-selling single of all time in the UK and has been covered by numerous artists over the years, including Beyonce, Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande and Sabrina Carpenter to name a few.
Drawn on why they think the song has stood the test of time, Pepsi said: “it’s the perfect pop song and that’s what George always wanted to write, the perfect pop song.
“The good pop song is something that you just can’t get rid of, you hear it once and there’s something about the melody and the energy and the vibe of it and that’s why it’s still here.”
Shirlie - who is married to former Spandau Ballet star Martin Kemp - added: “It’s the simplicity of it and also the bells. It’s everything.”
While making the one-hour film, which will air on BBC 2 on December 14, they, along with Ridgley, were given the opportunity to return to ski resort Sass-Fee in Switzerland where they filmed the now iconic Last Christmas music video.
They described the experience as “emotional” and while they were sad that Michael - who died on Christmas Day in 2016 aged 53 - could not join them, they could “feel him all around us”.
“Everyone loves that video as much as the song,” said Shirlie. “We were really teary talking about someone that was no longer there that we could feel all around us and wish he was there, you what I mean, in flesh and blood, but he was there in spirit.it’s lovely because he loved his friends and he would have loved that trip we did back to Sass-Fee.”
Pepsi added: “We were there as his ambassadors as it were and as we speak to you now where we feel like we’re here to honour him and the song but to really do good for him. We understood how much this would have meant to him.”
Michael was also the biggest Christmas fan on the planet according to Shirlie.
“We used to compare each other’s Christmas trees. He’d look at mine and go ‘oh, it’s nice, but not as good as mine!’” she laughed.
While Pepsi is godmother to Shirlie’s daughter Harleymoon Kemp - a singer-songwriter in her own right - they don’t get to meet up as much as they would like to these days as Pepsi now lives in St Lucia most of the time.
Living on the island has inspired her upcoming book Island Song, which is due to be released at the end of January.
The ‘Last Christmas’ 40th anniversary EP is out now – listen and order here. Wham!: Last Christmas Unwrapped airs on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer on Saturday December 14.
