Odds slashed on Last Christmas being Xmas number one year after George Michael's death

The odds on Last Christmas by Wham! becoming Christmas number one have been slashed.

Bookmakers Betway have cut their odds from 11/4 to 4/6 in recent days, the same odds Paddy Power is offering for a George Michael song making Christmas number one.

The singer died on Christmas Day 2016.

William Hill are also offering 4/6 on either George Michael or Wham! topping the charts on 25 December.

Last Christmas was kept off the coveted spot on its first release in 1984 by Band Aid's charity single Do They Know It's Christmas?

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Its highest UK chart position was number two, but in the wake of his death, it reached the top 10 for the first time in 31 years.

The song, which regularly re-enters the charts over the festive period, has sold more than two million copies as of January 2017, making it the biggest-selling single in UK chart history not to reach number one.

The 53-year-old star, who had a heart condition, was found dead at his home in Goring-on-Thames, Oxfordshire.

An inquest found he died of natural causes .

Michael was born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou in 1963.

He sold more than 100 million albums, firstly as a member of Wham!, then as a solo artist.