GEORGE MICHAEL - FUNKY, FAITHFUL AND FLAWLESS 1963-2016
By DJ FR8-O
2016 was a brutal year for the music scene with the passing of so many artists who defined not just one, but several generations. David Bowie, Prince, Maurice White of Earth, Wind & Fire, and Pete Burns of Dead or Alive are just a few of the incredibly gifted musicians who took their final bow last year. Just when the worst year ever was finally coming to an end and we thought we couldn’t possibly lose anyone else, word of George Michael’s passing brought our holiday celebrations to a screeching halt. In an instant we went from praising the baby Jesus to mourning the loss one of the most divine recording artists of our time. But George Michael was more than a musician. Over the last three decades, he made us dance, made us think, made us act and made a difference in the world.
We got our first taste of George Michael’s talents in the early ‘80s as half of the pop duo Wham!. Although they’d already reached No. 1 status in the UK and spawned a few top 10 singles with their debut album Fantastic (1983), it wasn’t until Michael and band mate Andrew Ridgeley’s follow-up Make It Big (1984) that the pair did indeed make it big. Like the neon colors that dominated the era’s bold fashion trends, Wham!’s video for the lead single “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” illuminated the TV screens of every Gen-Xer with access to MTV. It was hard to tell what lit up the screen more, their neon outfits or Michael’s dimples. Either way, that song was just what the 21-year-old former high school classmates needed to catapult their careers into worldwide success.
The years that followed took the boys around the globe several times over as they churned out hits like “Freedom,” “Everything She Wants” and Michael’s iconic solo debut “Careless Whisper,” which dominated the charts in 24 countries; but all that fame and success wasn’t enough to keep the band together. In 1986, Wham! released their farewell single “The Edge of Heaven” before officially going their separate ways. The following year, the former frontman’s debut solo album Faith (1987) was unveiled, spawning six top 5 singles and snagging several trophies including a Grammy for Album of the Year, proving that Michael’s career was far from over. By the end of its run, Faith spent 51 non-consecutive weeks in the top 10 of the Billboard 200, including 12 weeks at No. 1.
As the '80s came to a close, Michael’s view of the world began to mature, which became clear in both his personal life as well as his music. He became involved with several philanthropies such as the Rainbow Trust Children’s Charity, Macmillan Cancer Support and Elton John AIDS Foundation, donating his time, talents and money to help others. His follow-up solo album, Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1 (1990) marked the beginning of a pivotal decade for the singer. He traded in his pretty-boy facade and songs about sex and love for a more serious image and more socially-aware themes like “Praying for Time,” “Waiting for That Day” and the anthem that never gets old, “Freedom '90.” However, creative friction with Sony caused the demise of Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 2 and the singer’s eventual departure from the label. With lawsuits pending, and the future of his music career in limbo, the singer didn’t stop sharing his gift with the world. He donated three songs from the scrapped album, including “Too Funky” to Red Hot + Dance, a project benefiting the Red Hot Organization, which raised money for AIDS awareness. After a long legal battle and brief hiatus, Michael came out of seclusion with the haunting ballad “Jesus to a Child” and “Fastlove” followed by Older – his first studio album in six years. Five of Older’s singles broke the top 3 spot on the UK charts, making it the most successful album of Michael’s career.
Lawsuits weren’t the only legal issues that threatened Michael’s career. In 1998, he was arrested for “engaging in a lewd act” during a sting in Beverly Hills. The embarrassing scandal would’ve destroyed anyone else’s career, but Michael faced it head-on with “Outside,” a cheeky disco-anthem about getting it on in the great outdoors. He even topped it off with a video featuring glittery urinals, sexy dancers and smooching cops. As Y2K rolled in, we saw less and less of the English singer. He released his fifth and final studio album Patience in 2004, followed by a second “Greatest Hits” album Twenty-Five (2006) and his first and only live album Symphonica in 2014.
It seems surreal that we would lose George Michael on Christmas Day considering how synonymous he was with the holidays. In 1984, he joined dozens of other singers and musicians on the original “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” for famine relief in Ethiopia and simultaneously donated the profits from his single “Last Christmas” to charity. Both songs have become holiday soundtrack staples ever since, and will now carry extra meaning for years to come. George Michael has sold more than 100 million records worldwide. Faith alone sold more than 25 million copies. He achieved seven No. 1 singles in the UK and eight No. 1s on Billboard’s US Hot 100. He is one of the best-selling British acts of all time, and in 2008 Billboard ranked him as the 40th Greatest Artist of All Time. He’s won three BRIT Awards, four VMAs, three American Music Awards, two Grammys and was awarded 'Songwriter of The Year’ three times over by the Ivor Novello Awards. George Michael was more than just a musician or an icon. He was a voice for those who cared about the world and the people in it. He was a role model for the LGBTQ community. And as a human being, he was – and will always be – absolutely flawless.
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This was originally published in Wire Magazine Issue 02.2017