Last night, the shocking news came that George Michael had died at the age of 53. Born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou, the artist created music that lived up to the title of WHAM!'s second album Make It Big. Michael's fearlessness was big; his ambition was big; his talent, of course, was big.
Whether crafting bright, ebullient and danceable pop, sensual balladry or funky dancefloor jams, the passionate Michael (as writer, producer, musician, and vocalist) wore his heart on his sleeve. Onstage and off, as well as on record, he was provocative. He frankly and bravely addressed his sexuality in the face of controversy, inspiring countless artists and fans along the way. He tirelessly campaigned for LGBT rights and HIV/AIDS charities. Indeed, George Michael was an artist for everybody, crossing gender, generation and racial gaps with honesty and effortlessness. Even when scandal cropped up, Michael's compact but powerful discography as a solo artist, one half of WHAM!, or even a duet partner with the illustrious likes of Elton John, Whitney Houston and Aretha Franklin remained relevant and significant.
His music has been part of the DNA of The Second Disc since this website's inception in 2010, and one of our proudest moments was Legacy Recordings' 2014 release of a 12-inch vinyl single of WHAM!'s timeless "Last Christmas" (including a previously unissued instrumental mix) co-produced by TSD's founder, Mike Duquette. "Last Christmas," now and forever a perennial part of any holiday festivities, is just one in a long list of contemporary standards penned by George Michael. He once titled an album by WHAM! Music from the Edge of Heaven, but it's now clearer than ever that his soulful songs were nothing short of heaven-sent.
Join us in further celebrating the music of George Michael with these stories:
Review: George Michael, Faith: Legacy Edition
Reissue Theory: George Michael's Different Corners
Review: WHAM!, "The Singles: Echoes from the Edge of Heaven" (7" Vinyl Box Set)
Release Round-Up: Week of July 7
Going for It: New Wham! Compilations Offer Singles, New to CD Mixes and More
The Weekend Stream: February 25, 2023
I loved him so much. I remember when I was 15, at my high school, only girls like Wham! I heard them and couldn't believe how great the songs were. Just perfect pop. I was the first male at my school to admit I loved them. It was probably the only time in my life I was first! LOL. A bunch of people started loving them after that. 53 is WAY too damn young obviously. 2016 has had a voracious appetite for our heroes.
It was a sloppy Christmas evening in the small town of North Bayern area. The clock was showing midnight but I still was not feeling sleepy at all. I was busy watching the news updates on the Internet. The caption of the “Stars that we lost in 2016” especially attracted my attention since there were so many undeniably famous and legendary personalities in the list, the death of whom I knew nothing about. However, the name of one of the celebrities was clinging in my memory – that guy was Pete Burns.
As I studied his biography, I could now recall the two hits that his band released in the mid-eighties. One of the songs “That’s the Way I Like It” oftentimes could be heard in the advertising sequences in the TV screens. Looking at this flamboyant but at the same time unique personality, my thoughts were reflecting the nation of the gay identity as such. As a result, I involuntarily compared his extravagant persona to the classy-polished legend of George Michael. Being both extremely confident artists, these two embraced their sexual orientation but showcased it in diamentrically opposite dimensions.
I loved George Michael, his music and artistry since I was probably 16 years old. His music helped me overcome the grief of losing my father. His cashmere voice was with me when I was graduating from technical college and writing my diploma project in the University, It helped me channel my concentration, focus my potential and achieve the desired expectations. Furthermore, I cannot recall that I listened to any other musician as long and profoundly as I did to George. Needless to say that it was the most important period of my developmental puberty. It was something that helped me to achieve the part of my progression of being who I am today.
So, at the moment when I found out that he unexpectedly passed away on CHRISTMAS DAY, I felt like part of my adolescence just died with him. The loneliness that I strangely cherished and which was (for me) undeniably associated with him just withered. During the several seconds when I was checking on the reliability of those news I felt some cutting tension in my heart. I was thinking – please God, let this not be true. But unfortunately it was true – this Christmas was really the last one for George…
As it always happens when some star dies, people start desperately listening to his/her tracks while the media pays extreme attention to some details that were not considerate before. It cannot happen in my case, because all these years George’s music was included in my playlist and I never stopped following him. However, after the disturbing sleepless night I spent the next day listening to his interviews, “keeping back” my “singing in the rain” and crying while watching his smiling handsome face. The feeling that I had back when I was 17 and listened to him almost every day suddenly came back to me as fresh as new. The only difference was that George’s physical presence was not longer there.
No matter how crazy it may sound, George was destined to gain his eternal peace on the Christmas Day. Being allegedly agnostic, George, however, seemingly believed in God. The lyrics of “To Be Forgiven” and “Praying for Time” can make somebody assume that he acknowledged God’s spirit. One can agree that George felt especial Godly attachment to the notion of Christmas as such after reading the lyrics of his “December Song”:
There was always Christmas time
Jesus came to stay
I could believe in peace on Earth
And I could watch TV all day
And so I dreamed of Christmas
Yes I dreamed like you
This one made me cry profusely. He dreamed of Christmas, he “gave his heart” on the last Christmas…So his heart failed him on this particular day…