To wonder what happened to George Michael

[DonnaBanana]

I'm a 70s baby so grew up loving Wham and had the posters and everything so I ended up loving George Michael solo career as well. I didn't like his later stuff so much so stopped following him after a while but he seemed like such a creative spirit. What happened? You never about him anymore like you do with Britney or others 80s stars like Kate Bush or Michael Jackson or even Elton John. I think the next generations are missing out on a lot.

Okay, thanks, that is very reassuring to me. I just want his spirit to live on in the next generations. He was one in a million.

This.

If you listen to Smooth radio his tracks are played all the time.

There’s a new musical, MJ which is proving popular and has boosted Michael Jackson’s profile recently. I get that his music was huge and had a real impact in the 80s, but I slightly surprised with all the allegations against him that
he’s still so high profile.

I have teens and they know GM songs like Wake me up before you go go, Last Christmas, Freedom and Careless Whisper.

You raise an interesting point about legacy and who is remembered and who is not but his songs will never be forgotten imo.

I know what you mean OP and I think it's to do with his profile in the USA and consequently globally. He did very well in that market both with Wham and his early solo work. Then his record company got nasty and he got arrested and the unapologetic way he handled both made the socially conservative airtime honchos in the USA nervous, so he kind of rejected it all, over there.

The sax solo in Careless Whisper is used as a TikTok sound very frequently so arguably his legacy lives on!

I don't know about the rest of his music but Last Christmas is very popular with kids/teens. Mine listened to it on a loop all last year, into this year. They are 16 and 12.
Children at the school I work at were singing it in the playground constantly - Maybe it had been on TikTok!

Bless him. I still miss him.

Given that it wasn't just the sun that went down on him maybe what happened to him brings back his unpalatable hobby... .
See how I got 2 puns in there....?!

He's probably partying with David Bowie and Freddie Mercury in the ether...

Elvis has left the building us forever. And Buddy now has his own Angel wings ( sorry, tasteless)

One hell of party going on up there.

Seriously, I read the other day that George’s fabulous art collection was sold and is being used to fund a variety of charities which give out generous grants and support many good causes, so thanks for that George, wherever you are.

And Elvis.

There are lots of documentaries, he has half a million followers on tiktok, and wham was Christmas number 1 last year.

His legacy still lives on.

My teens know about George Michael and like his music. They fall about with laughter when I tell them that my friends and I all fancied him and we had no clue he was gay.

There’s a great documentary on Netflix about Wham - highly recommend if you haven’t seen it.

' Heehee this tickled me' surely? 😁

There's been a fair bit of programming about George Michael on BBC4 lately...Parkinson interviews, biogs etc.

This. My teens watched it and now there is quite a lot of Wham going on in my house.

Are you not in any public space or have the radio on in the month of December? He definitely lives on, and on, and on. It’s all they bloody play, you can’t avoid it no matter what generation you are.

I knew what you meant OP!

tbh I said to my mum lately that for a long time I actually never realised how talented he was, I’d only really heard the more frothy pop songs. Wasn’t until I saw him sing The Grave on Graham Norton’s show that I realised he could really sing.

He diedhow could you not know?

I also loved the Netflix doc about Wham.
(I've said before Wake Me up before you Go Go is the perfect pop song, bouncy, infectious and irresistible. )
But George was also seriously talented and although I wasn't much of a fan in the 80s I really appreciate his work now.
He was quite ill before he died, he had a serious illness or series of illnesses that were treated in Austria, seemed to recover from that but died a year or so later. So sad.