CASE STUDY: GEORGE MICHAEL

George Michael is a global icon, an internati onal arti st of the highest order who has sold over 100 mill ion albums in a world where Germany's populati on is 82 mill ion; the United Kingdom's is 62 mill ion and Australia's is 23 mill ion. He has topped charts from Austria to Australia. He's sold-out stadiums from Tokyo to Tampa. He re-defi ned popular music with his debut solo album, 1987's Faith and went on to build a groundbreaking, substanti al and enormously popular body of work.

ABOUT GEORGE MICHAEL

As Wham!, the duo who would defi ne the early-'80s. From their fi rst single, 1982's "Wham Rap" , to their last, 1986's "The Edge Of Heaven/Where Did Your Heart Go" , they sold 25 million records across the globe, they kept each other's friendship and they departed in a blaze of glory before 72,000 people at London's Wembley Stadium on June 26 1986. Wham! never got old and never lost their exclamati on mark, but along the way, George won the fi rst of his three presti gious Ivor Novello Songwriter Of The Year awards in 1985.

BEFORE GOING SOLO

They had two US Number 1 singles and a Number 1 album - ti tled Make It Big in honour of their Bushey Meads dreams - they became fi rst western band to play China and George began his long but mercifully mostly hush-hush commitment to charity work with a performance on Band Aid's ‘Do They Know It's Christmas’ and by donati ng all Wham! royalti es from their "Last Christmas/Everything She Wants" single to Ethiopian famine relief.

WHAM!

NEARING THE END OF HIS GROUP CAREER

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izGwDsrQ1eQ&ob=av2e

He'd already dipped a toe in solo waters in 1984 with a song he'd writt en as a 17-year-old ("a very precocious lyr ic!" he quipped) whi le r iding the number 32 bus home as a teenager. Careless Whisper (credited to Wham! Featuring George Michael in the US) not only featured one of the great l ines in popular music, "gui lty feet have got no rhythm", but showed there was more to George Michael than the instant joy of Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go and Young Guns (Go For It) . "Careless Whisper" charged to Number 1 in America and topped the charts in Austral ia, Canada, France, Hol land, Italy, Ireland, South Africa, Switzerland and the UK, amongst others.

WHAM! STILL GOING STRONG

Even when Wham! were in their pomp and George was contributi ng to his friend and sparring partner Elton John's ‘Nikita’ and ‘Wrap Her Up’, it was plain that George's desti ny was solo and that his new, more mature songs were too worldly, too adult to fi t into the format of good-ti me duo.

There was storm-in-a-teacup controversy, the I r ish and Dutch Number 1, “I Want Your Sex ” (" I expected the BBC to ban i t ," George admitt ed, " I became the anti christ for a couple of weeks") ; there was funk in the c latt ering drug abuse saga “Monkey ” ; there was the horror of spousal abuse in “Look At Your Hands” and there was extraordinary beauty in the Canadian Number 1 “Kissing A Fool” , “Father F igure” and the I r ish Number 1 “One More Try ” , which remains George's personal pick of an astonishing bunch. There was even an anti -Margaret Thatcher pol iti cal aspect to “Hand To Mouth” . Amazing as i t seemed then, amazing as i t seems now, he was sti l l only 24. Not that he was especial ly happy in himself : "one of the reasons the record was so successful ," he mused in 2010, " is that people can recognise the lonel iness."

CONTROVERSIAL MUSIC

More instant ly, the success of the Faith a lbum enabled the legendary Faith tour, which covered 137 dates in 19 countr ies from February 1988 to June 1989, was choreographed by Paula Abdul and took in a three-song covers set at the Nelson Mandela Freedom Concert at Wembley. George p layed Wham! and solo mater ia l , p lus the occas ional cover. The magnifi cent spectac le helped ensure that nobody would se l l more records than George in the United States in 1988. He was del ighted: " I never met anyone who was a re luctant star," he admitt ed, just as enthus iasti cal ly as he admitt ed to h is then- insati able ambiti on. A coveted Best Br iti sh Male Br i t was h is and he contr ibuted to both h is bass ist Deon Estus 's a lbum Spel l and the myster ious Boogie Box High, led by h is cous in Andros Georg iou.

SOLO CAREER PROGRESSING

Aside from winning a career-encompassing Video Vanguard award at the MTV Europe Video Music Awards, George took 1989 off , "to sort my head out". Head sorted, George unvei led his second solo album, the Beatles-infl uenced Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1 in September 1990. Oh and the ti tle wasn't a plea to l isten to George without prejudice: he real ly wasn't that self-absorbed. This ti me though the mood was darker and more adult sti l l , but that didn't stop his Briti sh audience from sending it to Number 1 and the Americans to Number 2.

SECOND ALBUM OF SOLO CAREER

In keeping with his desire to do things diff erent ly, when George returned to the stage in 1991, the Cover To Cover tour was exact ly what i t impl ied on the ti n: a d izzying , cover-heavy romp across the United Kingdom, United States, Braz i l , Japan and Canada, which featured Stevie Wonder 's “L iv ing For The City ”, Adamski 's “Ki l ler ”, Leonard Cohen's “Suzanne” and perhaps most notably, E lton John's “Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me” . The pair 's l ive duet of E lton's song (recorded on the Faith tour) was another Br iti sh, American, French, Dutch and Swiss Number 1. Proceeds went to the Aids hospice London L ighthouse and the Rainbow Trust chi ldren's char ity.

NOTABLE PERFORMANCES & CHARITY WORK

Once he'd formal ly left Sony and s igned to V i rg in (exc lud ing the US) and DreamWorks (US on ly ) , May 1996 saw Older , the th i rd George Michael a lbum: " I t ' s my fi rst complete ly honest a lbum," he exp la ined of what at the ti me ( i .e . pre Sp ice Gi r l s ) was the V i rg in label ' s fastest se l ler. Musica l ly adventurous and lyr ica l ly brave, i t spawned a record s ix Br iti sh Top 3 s ing les and that year he would win Best Br iti sh Male at both the MTV Europe Awards and the BRITs; h is th i rd Ivor Novel lo Songwri ter Of The Year Award and he would reta in h is Capi ta l Rad io 's Best Male S inger ti t le . “Fast love” would win the Internati onal V iewers ' Choice Award at the MTV Video Music Awards and the Older a lbum would spend 147 weeks in the Br iti sh charts , which , of course, i t topped as i t d id those in Austr ia , Austra l ia , Norway, Nether land and Sweden.

THIRD ALBUM OF SOLO CAREER

1997 saw a second Best British Male Brit Award, a reissue of Older which included a second disc, Upper, comprising four remixes, two newish songs and an interactive element, plus a guest spot of Toby Bourke's British Top 10 single “Waltz Away Dreaming”. Oh, and there was a Wham! best of, If You Were There.

2001 was professional ly quiet, but 2002 found George s igned to Polydor records, at Number 1 in Croati a, Denmark, I taly, Portugal and Spain and back in the UK Top 10 with the super-funky “Freeek!” , h is fi rst self-penned single s ince 1998's “Outside” . Joseph Kahn's sci -fi ti nged, sexual ly charged video was a boundary-pushing, sense-ti ngl ing feast which featured George as businessman, scienti st, cowboy and leather-clad dog-handler. There was more fun in the shape of the sati rical “Shoot The Dog ” , which sampled The Human League and, via i ts animated video, poked fun at George Bush, Tony Blair and David Seaman. Its message though could hardly have been more serious. At the ti me, to the deris ion of some, George was a lone, brave voice in the wilderness, speaking out against the Iraq war. Almost a decade later, i t 's clear he was r ight al l along.

NEW RECORD LABEL

Pati ence had everything but an accompanying tour. 2006 was the moment to put that r ight once Tony Bennett 's Duets: An American Classic album was concluded by a duet with George on “How Do You Keep The Music Playing?” Starti ng in Barcelona in September 2006 and fi nishing in Copenhagen in August 2008, two and a half mil l ion people in 27 countries ( including his fi rst American shows in 17 years) saw the universal ly acclaimed 25 Live tour (ti tled as a celebrati on of his 25 years at the musical coalface) at arenas, and stadia. I t included the fi rst gig at the renovated Wembley Stadium and a more inti mate charity show for Briti sh nurses at the Roundhouse, Camden Town, North London.

FOURTH ALBUM OF SOLO CAREER

As George toured, Twenty Five , a comprehensive compilati on was released and its three new songs included a duet with Paul McCartney. Naturally it was a Briti sh Number 1 a global Top 10 hit and there was a 40-song DVD too. If that wasn't enough, George was also given the rare honour of a second South Bank Show to himself.

GREATEST HITS: “TWENTY FIVE”

In 2009, the Live In London DVD, fi lmed taken from two Earl 's Court concerts on the 25 Live tour reached the top of the UK DVD charts. George also appeared with Beyonce to sing “If I Were A Boy” at London's 02 Arena and with Joe McElderry on the Briti sh talent show X Factor, where the pair duett ed on “Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me” .

STILL CONTINUING HIS MUSIC CAREER

2010 undoubtedly had its moments, chief amongst them, three rip-roaring, sell-out dates in Perth, Sydney and Melbourne, featuring songs from “I'm Your Man” to “Amazing ”, George's fi rst shows in Australia since the Faith tour in 1988.

And now, in 2011, it's ti me for Faith , again. Aft er that, expect only the unexpected...

2010 & 2011