Cher Breaks UK Chart Record With Christmas Song
Pop icon Cher breaks UK Official Chart records today with “DJ Play a Christmas Song.”
Cher becomes the first female artist to achieve a Top 40 hit with new material on the Official Singles Chart across seven consecutive decades. While Cher’s UK chart debut originally came in the form of Sonny & Cher’s chart-topping duet I Got You Babe in 1965, her debut solo single All I Really Want To Do broke the UK Top 40 the same month, and Cher has gone on to chart a solo single of new material in the Top 40 in every decade since.
At 77 years, 7 months old, Cher also becomes the oldest solo female performer to secure a Top 40 on the Official Singles Chart with the lead single from her 27th studio album Christmas. DJ Play a Christmas Song breaks all the way in to the Top 20 at Number 20 this week.
This means she surpasses previous record-holder Shirley Bassey, the Welsh singer-songwriter being 70 years, 4 months old when The Living Tree peaked at Number 37 in 2007.
Captain Sir Tom Moore holds the record for the oldest artist to score a UK Number 1 single, being 99 years, 11 months old when Michael Ball collaboration You’ll Never Walk Alone reached Number 1 in 2020.
DJ Play a Christmas Song also becomes Cher’s highest-charting single in the UK in over two decades, to boot. Her last to achieve Top 20 success was The Music’s No Good Without You, which peaked at Number 8 in 2001.
She also becomes the first-ever female artist to secure UK Top 40 singles spanning seven decades with original material.
Since the release of Sonny & Cher‘s chart-topping I Got You Babe in 1965, Cher’s scored at least one Top 40 hit in each decade since.
The decade in which she notched-up the most UK Top 40 singles was the 1990s, with the icon amassing a staggering 23 over a 10-year period.
This, of course, includes what was arguably her career renaissance with 1998 Number 1 record Believe, which celebrated its 25th anniversary earlier this year.
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