‘We always had our eyes on the prize’: Inside the triumphant Kylie Christmas No.1 campaign for XMAS

Kylie Minogue has the Christmas No.1 single with XMAS following an audacious – and infectiously fun – campaign that made for a genuinely exciting chart battle.

Competing against festive perennials from the likes of Wham! and Mariah Carey, Minogue’s single came out on top thanks to a few factors – not the least of which was the star’s commitment to her Christmas campaign. It moved from No.16 to No.1 with 55,926 units, an increase in consumption of 154.8% week-on-week.

XMAS (Rhino/Warner) was helped by ACR chart rules on streaming that benefit new songs over catalogue, but that was tempered by the fact it is an Amazon Original and only available on that platform (with the exception of the video on YouTube, which dropped for the final week). 

“It’s been quite the ride!” Polly Bhowmik, Minogue’s manager at Context Management, told Music Week. “Kylie has had so many extraordinary moments in her career, but there’s something uniquely special about a Christmas chart race. The energy from her fans, media and the wider industry has been incredible.”

As well as almost 4.5 million streams, Kylie’s Christmas cracker was also supported by the physical vinyl and CD single (7,901 units) and 10,286 downloads. 

“The key was that nothing existed in isolation,” said Bhowmik. “The song is joyful and classic at its core, but the video, choreography and promotional moments all helped bring it to life in a very 2025 way. The creative built on the visual language of the Tension era, including the red latex styling, but was developed to stand confidently in its own right. It was festive without being nostalgic, which is a difficult balance to strike.”

The Christmas No.1 for Minogue follows the chart-topping result for her festive album reissue, Kylie Christmas (Fully Wrapped). 

“The timing felt important,” said Bhowmik. “It was the 10-year anniversary of the original Kylie Christmas album, which naturally prompted conversations about how to mark the moment. Kylie actually had the idea for XMAS in 2015, so it felt like the perfect time for her to finish the track and celebrate Kylie Christmas with a new single.”

Kylie Minogue and Polly Bhowmik at Madison Square Garden

Bhowmik underlined the ambition behind this Christmas chart campaign.

“We were very clear from the outset that we didn’t want to do a standard re-pack,” she said. “If we were going to return to the project, it had to feel meaningful which is why Kylie made the decision to record four brand new songs. That shifted the conversation from something purely retrospective to something current and exciting, and to create a new visual identity for the project was very important.”

Amazon Music has a track record of success with its Originals at Christmas. Minogue and Rhino also teamed with the retailer on physical editions of the Christmas album with exclusive editions featuring the XMAS single.

“Working with Amazon had already been on the cards for a different idea, but this quickly felt like the perfect partnership opportunity,” said Bhowmik. “Given their history with Warner artists and their track record around Christmas singles, there was a strong shared understanding of the scale and ambition required. Once that alignment was there between us at Context Management, the team at Warner and Amazon, everything moved very smoothly.”

Following the Amazon exclusivity, XMAS will appear across other streaming platforms in 2026 – a move that could give it a strong shot at No.1 next year.

“As for whether XMAS becomes a perennial, that’s ultimately up to the public, but the signs are very encouraging,” said Bhowmik. “It already feels like a song people are choosing to return to, and if it earns a place in people’s Christmas traditions over the years, that would be the greatest success of all.” 

The energy from her fans, media and the wider industry has been incredible

Polly Bhowmik

Following Minogue’s success with BMG on a run of No.1 albums, on this occasion she has been reunited with the Warner Music catalogue team for the album reissue and single. Here, Darina Connolly, VP, brand and audience services, global catalogue takes Music Week inside a label campaign that started almost a year ago… 

We should first acknowledge your success with the album reissue, how did the partnership with Amazon help that No.1 campaign?

“It was a true partnership, not only with Kylie’s team from the very beginning, but also bringing Amazon in as a partner. The first conversation I had when I came back in January earlier this year was with the team here – Stuart Wheeley, Dirk Ewald and Lee Alexander – who highlighted firstly that 2025 was the 10th anniversary of the original Kylie Christmas album. There had been a conversation with Polly and Gemma [Reilly-Hammond] at Kylie’s management team, and they were aware that it was the 10th anniversary. So all the conversations started getting really exciting. But then very early doors, the idea of partnering with someone like Amazon to give this the biggest push we possibly can came to the table. So there was a very early doors conversation with Amazon earlier this year, with Hazel Berry and Alex Nutton.

“We were very aware of the fact that XMAS was going to be when it all came together; it was going to be the Amazon exclusive single. We also had a 10th anniversary [album] and new tracks outside of XMAS to add to the deluxe version. We had an exclusive single and some exclusive formats with Amazon, but we worked really hard to make sure that other retailers, digital and physical, also had their own version, so we have a huge number of physical formats that we have put together. XMAS is only available on the Amazon version of the album, but we have worked hard to make sure that our other digital partners and physical partners also have something special to offer consumers as well.”

How did XMAS and the new tracks emerge from the Kylie Christmas era a decade ago to become new releases for 2025?

“XMAS, I believe, was actually drafted for the original Kylie Christmas album, but for whatever reason it didn’t feel like the right thing for Kylie to release it at that time. They all needed to be finished off, and they all needed to feel [right for] 2025 and something that Kylie was very happy with. I remember very clearly the first time I heard the single. I heard it once in a boardroom with Polly and Gemma and the rest of the team, and I didn’t hear it again for about two months because it was in the process of being mastered and finished. But I could have sung it for anybody who endured me singing it – it was such an instant earworm. That very rarely happens, that you could just hum the chorus for months, having even heard it just once. So we knew then we had something really special, and that management and Kylie felt the same. Amazon came on board to partner and, being in the room with them when they heard it for the first time, we all just looked at each other and realised we really have something special here.”

Does this demonstrate the power of a catalogue team with the album reaching a new peak and, unusually, new music off the back of that?

“That was something that felt like a bit of a gift to us, here in Rhino, that we and Warner have the rights to the original Christmas album. When Kylie wanted to be Kylie at Christmas again and she had new tracks, we were like, ‘This is what we can put together with the album that was released in 2015’ – and it all came together quite quickly, really. But I agree it is a slightly unusual situation that a label that is working off roster catalogue would be working essentially a frontline record at the same time. It is a huge testament to the talent of the team. Lee Alexander, the marketing director, Stuart Wheeley, who’s VP of catalogue development, Sophie Lathom-Sharp [marketing], Thomas Sparrow, on the A&R team. It demonstrates how hard everybody works, and how much talent there is within a team, and how they can turn their hands at absolutely revamping catalogue music and making it relevant for 2025, but also absolutely working a frontline release. It wasn’t the team’s first rodeo here. There was a No.2 Christmas single with Sam Ryder back in 2023. So when it came to putting this plan together for Kylie, I knew that we could do that.”

Does it almost set a precedent in terms of the possibilities for catalogue and artists revisiting unfinished material?

“Absolutely, and I remember saying this in an interview with Music Week in my previous role at TikTok. New music just depends on the time of someone’s life that they hear it. So working frontline tracks and working new release tracks and working catalogue tracks and catalogue artists are not actually that different. Catalogues should be worked with the power and the passion of a frontline release. Obviously the boundaries are a little bit different. But I think if you can work one, you can work the other. Could we do it again outside of Christmas, outside of anything else? I think 100%.”

You touched on this earlier but how long has this campaign for the single been developing? And at what point did you seriously think you had a shot at number one?

 “The plan had been developing for a year. Honestly, we had our sights set on a Christmas No.1 album and the Christmas No.1 single since January 2025 – dead seriously. As things started to progress, that was the plan. I always believed, and I think a lot of the team believed, that we were going to do the double. When we started to see the charts roll in and everything else, and securing Amazon as a partner, of course, that gave it that kind of foundation. But we always had our eyes on the prize for the whole year.” 

Darina Connolly

How has Kylie supported the campaign? 

“She’s been an absolute superstar. Honestly, I’ve never worked with an artist who has worked as hard as she has. I mean, we had our eyes on the prize, as did Amazon, but she certainly did, and Polly and Gemma at the management side as well. She’s done a bunch of TV promo. She did Strictly Come Dancing, Jingle Bell Ball. She’s done a load of radio as well. She’s been doing the rounds properly and also signing loads of albums. We had a promotion where you could have a personalised message from Kylie written on your album. One of the memories from last week was seeing the team here with a bunch of albums and post-it notes that they were literally hand-delivering to Kylie. She has worked incredibly hard, and she’s really been very serious about being Kylie at Christmas. She’s gone for it and it’s been amazing.”

And the YMCA-style XMAS dance has clearly taken off…

“No one is taking credit for that except for Kylie, because I think that was her intention all along. But the song just lends itself to a sense of fun, that’s what Christmas should be, right? It should be fun. It should be silly. It should be something that feels good. You just get a bit unserious at Christmas, you have fun and you do something like a TikTok dance, or you dance around your kitchen to XMAS. Kylie brought that to the table, and we had a lot of conversations around when was the right time to roll out the dance. And she was like, ‘let’s just go for it’. And that was kind of the ethos of the whole campaign. Just go for it. Just have fun and just do the dance and if people get involved, that will be great. There’s also a lot of traction on short form of people doing it. I think that this track will grow and grow. You know, this is not just one shot. This is going to be a big deal for us for a long time, we’re fully committed both to the record and to the XMAS single to make it a real perennial Christmas favourite. It’s a tune and people are loving it. We’re looking forward to Christmas 2026 and I’m not even joking, those conversations have already started!”

How exciting was the chart race? Because with the differing consumption profiles it was hard to tell how close it might be as the week progressed…

“Yeah, we definitely didn’t take anything for granted at all, and we always had a plan for how we were going to push this in the final stretch. We had all the physical formats with Amazon, but a key part of the plan was pushing the downloads this week. Downloads are still incredibly important for the chart, especially, and we had some extra versions in our back pocket. There’s an instrumental, an extended mix, an a cappella. We dropped a club mix [Gingey’s Party Mix] for the final stretch. It’s all about having fun and Kylie’s fans have been absolutely incredible in terms of getting behind this. It’s giving fans an option to own different versions, just to help on that race to No.1, which has been a really important part of the plan.”

Kylie has built up an incredibly strong fanbase over the years, hasn’t she?

“She’s incredible. Actually, I was remembering this as I was coming into work. In 1988, I got a Christmas present of the first Kylie album on tape and a Walkman. Now coming to Christmas 2025 and I’m working on the Kylie Christmas campaign, and we’ve got a double number one. It’s amazing.”

Did you identify the strong potential for physical music in the gifting season?

“Absolutely. Working in catalogue, physical is still an incredibly important thing for us. People want to physically own something. Having that ability to be able to gift music that isn’t just on a digital gift card, but something really special and limited, or maybe something signed, a brand new colourway or a zoetrope [vinyl], still feels really special. Certainly part of the campaign was gifting. Music is still incredibly giftable, especially when you can put it in a really beautiful format.”

I’ve never worked with an artist who has worked as hard as Kylie – she’s been an absolute superstar

Darina Connolly

As an Amazon exclusive, how important was Alexa and smart speakers to the Christmas No.1 this year? 

“It was certainly really important. It was part of the partnership with Amazon that we would, of course, respect their editorial freedom, but that there would be a basis of promotion that would be given to the single. But also the physical formats were really important as well. So yes, there was an Alexa streaming element, something that Kylie herself got behind by posting some really nice short forms of her giving the Alexa commands for XMAS, and it was a significant part of the partnership.”

Does the excitement show that the Christmas No.1 still matters to the public?

“Absolutely. It’s an enormous achievement for Kylie. It’s her first No.1 since Slow in 2003, but also it will be Rhino’s first Christmas No.1 single ever. For a label that’s known as a catalogue label to achieve that is pretty incredible. We also had Kate Bush, which was before my time, a few years ago. But yeah, it does really mean something, and I’m really glad that the Christmas chart still means something. Having that really healthy competition with our competitors, and having that kind of sense of anticipation, it’s a real uniting factor within the company as well. It’s always nice to have a No.1 record, single or album, or both, but there is something special about the Christmas No.1, and it does still mean something. It’s very exciting.”

Finally, are you now thinking about your bid for the 2026 Christmas No.1?

“We have thought about Kylie. We do actually have an anniversary for the The Pogues’ Fairytale Of New York [feat. Kirsty MacColl] next year.” 

That’s peaked at No.2 so far hasn’t it?

“It has, and maybe that will be our first conversation in January 2026 as to how we get No.1 with Fairytale Of New York.”

Click here to read our Amazon Music interview on the XMAS campaign.