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Last Christmas: The passing of a star who understood pop music intuitively

MusicLast Christmas: The passing of a star who understood pop music intuitively
On 25 December 2016, sometime around the evening, a certain musician’s music videos were streamed by hundreds of thousands on the Internet. As each track came to a  close and one scrolled down the screen a large number of comments became visible. All these comments read only two distinct phrases: “R.I.P.” and “2016 is cursed.” Well, the fact that 2016 has gained global notoriety for being the year when the world lost a large number of its favorite golden canaries has been made more than evident in tweets and other media. Even The New Yorker  released a darkly funny cartoon on 19 December 2016 of a heavenly figure requesting a cloaked figure with a scythe in hand to lay off the “beloved celebrities”. The point being that our focus has been on cursing the year more than on trying to take this time to know our favourite artists. On Christmas Day the world lost George Michael, who embodied a rich history in himself of the melding of pop and R&B, tremors in sexuality and its discovery, and a life of benevolent efforts.

To go to the beginning: born in 1963, George Michael came from a humble origin, his family legacy made of a unique blend of a Greek restaurateur from Cyprus for a father, and an English dancer for a mother. He spent most of his youth doing street performances of  Queen in the London tube. This small start took time to become something big, because he moved on to performing only as a DJ in neighborhood schools and clubs next. Once he met Andrew Ridgeley, the other young lad with whom he went on to form Wham!,  he began hitting the UK Charts.

Wham! was a duo segment which came out of another band called The Executive. And it was Michael’s decision to start the duo. Even though the duo lasted for only five years, it still was a fecund patch in Michael’s life, both in terms of music and self-realisation.  He was only 18 years old, under the influence of Queen and David Cassidy, when he released his first album as part of the duo, Fantastic. It was an emblem of 1980s pop and made it to #1 on the UK charts upon release. If you have no clue of the album then just know that George Michael’s most played and turned-into-ringtone single “Careless Whisper” was released in this album. It was certain that “Careless Whisper” marked out George Michael as true potential and this went on to perhaps affect his decision to step out of the duo later on. But on this album were other fine hits like “Wake me up before you go-go” and “Freedom”.  Having paved his way into the global music scene, Michael was exposed to a facet with which he struggled all through his career: stardom. The primary fear was the coming of his homosexuality to light since he didn’t want his family to know and had up till the end of Wham! considered himself a bisexual. Wham! ended with another classic of the period in 1986 called “The Edge of Heaven” where the duo sang together for one last time.

In the final two decades of the 20th century Michael created volumes of music, his albums flooded the market with one great hit after another.’ 

During his solo career, George Michael started off with a single with his own favourite Aretha Franklin and went on to perform with Dolly Parton. Michael’s solo career is clearly divided into his work up from 1990 to 2000 and his work post-2000. In the final two decades of the 20th century Michael created volumes of music, his albums flooded the market with one great hit after another. He was topping the charts both in the UK and the US. His first solo album, Faith, went on to sell over 10 million copies and caused the Rolling Stones magazine to declare him as one with an “intuitive understanding of pop music”. He released five albums in the two decades that amassed him a following that was mind-boggling even by popstar standards. He was followed by the young and the old, and all sorts of sexualities and gender borders had been broken by his work. He spoke of all uniting symbols like love in his music and also went onto to become a proponent of monogamy. His song “I Want Your Sex”, which garnered criticism from the censorship boards and radio stations, contained a prelude where he spoke of the beauty of sex in monogamous relationships.

When he came into the 2000s, his output was limited in terms of album releases. His last album was Patience, which came out in 2004. But this was a period when he headlined more global audience stages than one can count. This was a period of a brilliant display of live shows coming from a man who didn’t always agree with the extreme sense of exposure in stardom. His voice has been called creamy and silky since it was the truest accompaniment to the saxophone in “Careless Whisper”.

George Michael struggled with the matter of his sexuality through many years, though later on his travails turned into arduous efforts for social causes. Having realised his emotional attachment to men being more substantial than his early physical bonds with women, George Michael went on to support the cause of the Pride and LGBT communities. His struggle in terms of “coming out” was just as real as his dedication to the cause. Another bright aspect to his persona other than the glistening crucifix ear ring he wore was his support of medical-scientific research and relief programmes. In 1984, he was the original performer in the Band Aid to present “Do they know it’s Christmas?” for famine relief. Through his charity work, he supported many terminally ill children and research in HIV/AIDS.

George Michael is many things, but most prominently a man like his voice was soft. He protested against war, preached love and practiced it in all the forms he could. He struggled with many difficulties through the course of his life but the final end was peaceful, for he died in his sleep and was discovered by his partner, Fadi Fawaz. George Michael has taken his place in the pantheon of classics  that define their age.  

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