Christmas songs are sometimes met with divided opinions, however one couple hate Wham!’s 1984 anthem ‘Final Christmas’ a lot, they’ve raised £50,000 to purchase the licensing rights to allow them to scrub it from existence.
Talking to the South West Information Service (through the Each day Mail), Hannah Mazetti mentioned her contempt for the track started when she was 20 (she is now 33), when she labored at a café in Oxford and her boss would play it advert nauseam.
“The proprietor of the cafe had deliberate for a brilliant cosy vacation season and had his personal made CD with various ‘hits’ on it,” she defined. “He was solely in at times, so he didn’t absolutely recognize the agony the remainder of the employees felt when ‘Final Christmas’ performed for the 111th time of the working day.”
Mazetti went on to say that she and her husband, Tomas, had the concept to purchase the track’s rights after a good friend allow them to know such a feat might (theoretically) be achieved. On the origins of their endeavour, she mentioned: “It began final Christmas – pun not supposed – once we requested pals how a lot they’d be prepared to pay by no means to listen to the track once more. Quite a bit it turned out, and when the track began enjoying this November we had been reminded.
“Then somebody informed us it was theoretically attainable to purchase the rights to the track after which take it off all streaming platforms! We requested round amongst our pals and phrase unfold. It’s enjoyable as a result of folks both love or hate the concept! Possibly subsequent Christmas would be the final Christmas!”
To date, the Mazettis’ marketing campaign has raised just a little over £51,500 from round 330 contributors. Sadly for them, they’ve a couple of million quid to go: the rights to ‘Final Christmas’ are owned by Warner Chappell Music UK, and in accordance with the Each day Mail, have an estimated price ticket within the ballpark of £15-20million.
The couple have set their purpose on the decrease finish of that estimate. Ought to they obtain it, Mazetti mentioned, they’ll ship the grasp tapes off to a nuclear waste web site in Finland “the place it’ll relaxation for at the least two million years”.
Stressing that she and her husband don’t harbour any animosity in the direction of Wham! themselves, Mazetti asserted: “I’m sorry, however that is the best way it needs to be. We don’t hate Wham!, however we hate this track. It’s as a result of it’s being performed 5,000 occasions per day, however we felt one thing needed to be achieved to assist the those who endure like us.”
Mazetti additionally famous that some folks have reacted to the couple’s marketing campaign with disdain of their very own. “50 per cent get actually offended and 50 per cent get actually completely happy,” she mentioned. “Some folks appear to like to listen to the track 500 occasions a day. And people persons are our enemies.
“They mentioned that there are even worse songs that must be taken off earlier than this – like Mariah Carey‘s ‘All I Need For Christmas [Is You]’ – and that if we don’t prefer it we might put on headphones, and that it’s unusual to wish to take away one thing stunning for the remainder of humanity simply because we don’t prefer it.”
