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Andrew Ridgeley Careless Whisper George Michael Coin Last Christmas Pepsi & Shirlie Wham! Yours Only George

2024 Year in Review for George Michael’s Lovelies

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Wow! It’s been a fabulous year to be a George Michael fan. So many fun things have come to George Michael’s Lovelies this year! Here’s a quick recap:

In February, we were pleasantly surprised with a George Michael coin from the Royal Mint. George Michael collectable coins are part of the Music Legends series. The coins feature the Faith era look with his trademark sunglasses and an engraving of the refrain of Faith.

On March 22, 2024, Fantastic and Make It Big were released on Vinyl. Wham! also released deluxe editions of Fantastic and Make It Big on BluRay Audio.

“Careless Whisper” reached 1 billion streams on Spotify in May. Earlier in the year, “Careless Whisper” reached 1 billion YouTube views.

Also, in May, George Michael’s “Careless Whisper” topped Smooth’s All Time Top 500 for the 7th Year.

In June, Yours Only George celebrated its 27th anniversary. Thanks to all the fans who continue to visit the site and continue spreading the word about the site as it helps cover the webhosting costs to keep the website open year after year.

June 25th marked what would have been George Michael’s 61st birthday.

In October, we had the 40th anniversary release of “Careless Whisper,” which needless to say, topped the charts once again. With that, we had a number of “Careless Whisper” t-shirts and hoodies as new merchandise.

In November, an animated “Careless Whisper” was also released.

We were once again surprised by a 40th anniversary release of “Last Christmas,” with many “Last Christmas” goodies for our Christmas stockings.

December brought us Wham!: Last Christmas Unwrapped, a lovely special that brought the friends who starred in the “Last Christmas” back together.

“Last Christmas” topped the charts at number 1 for two weeks in December and topped the Christmas charts for the second year in a row. We also were gifted with a new animated “Last Christmas” video.

We also learned of The George Michael Fund, which will give grants to assist the organizations and issues which were close to George’s heart.

December 25, 2024, marked 8 years since we lost our George Michael.

Last but not least, “Last Christmas” topped the UK Charts for the 10th time for the last week of 2024.

I’m sure I missed a few things. Let me know what I missed in the comments!

Make sure to follow Yours Only George on Facebook, X, Threads, Bluesky, Instagram, and Pinterest. Join our mailing list for the latest news on George Michael.

About Melanie

Melanie is the co-founder of Yours Only George and has been the webmaster of the site since 1997. Melanie has been a George Michael and Wham! fan since "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" in 1984.

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Andrew Ridgeley Last Christmas Pepsi & Shirlie Wham!

“Last Christmas” Is Christmas Number 1!

40th Anniversary “Last Christmas” CD Single
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Happy Christmas indeed!

Wham!’s “Last Christmas” was number 1 in the UK last week and is the Christmas number 1 this week! This is the second consecutive year for “Last Christmas” to be the number 1 song for the week of Christmas in the UK!

Don’t miss out on Andrew Ridgeley’s response to “Last Christmas” topping the Christmas chart again this year:

George Michael would have been delighted that all his Lovelies keep bringing this lovely holiday classic to number 1 year after year! It’s especially wonderful as this is the 40th anniversary of the release of “Last Christmas,” which at the time only reached number 2 because Band Aid’s “Do They Know It’s Christmas” was 1984’s Christmas number 1.

“Last Christmas” also reached #3 on Billboard’s Top 100 on December 14, 2024.

Andrew Ridgeley gave an interview to Billboard and said of “Last Christmas” charting so high on Billboard:

“Well, extremely satisfying. You know, Yog [a nickname for Wham!’s other half, the late George Michael, who died in 2016], we placed a great deal of importance on being a success in the States. It was, for any artist, of that era… you were nowhere unless you were a big deal in the States. You could be a big noise in the U.K., but the States was the golden prize, really. We were fortunate enough… and one or two of our contemporaries, we had great success in the States.”

Andrew Ridgeley, Wham!’s Andrew Ridgeley on ‘Last Christmas’ Hitting New Hot 100 Peak: George Michael ‘Would Have Been Utterly Delighted’

We have also had the lovely Christmas gift of “Wham!: Last Christmas Unwrapped,” which is available for viewing on the BBC2, Roku, and Netflix. The show brings together most of the friends in the “Last Christmas” video, including Andrew Ridgeley, Shirlie Kemp, and Pepsi DeMacque.

What did you think of WHAM!: Last Christmas Unwrapped? Tell us in the comments.

Read more about the 40th anniversary of “Last Christmas” in the following articles:

Make sure to follow Yours Only George on Facebook, X, Threads, Bluesky, Instagram, and Pinterest. Join our mailing list for the latest news on George Michael.

About Melanie

Melanie is the co-founder of Yours Only George and has been the webmaster of the site since 1997. Melanie has been a George Michael and Wham! fan since "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" in 1984.

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Andrew Ridgeley Last Christmas Pepsi & Shirlie Wham!

WHAM!: Last Christmas Unwrapped Coming to BBC Two and BBC Music

40th Anniversary “Last Christmas” Vinyl
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In celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Christmas classic, “Last Christmas,” Wham! fans are getting an extra present this Christmas. BBC Two and BBC Music will be airing WHAM!: Last Christmas Unwrapped, an hour-long celebration from Blink Films and Sony Music Entertainment.

WHAM!: Last Christmas Unwrapped will feature a world exclusive first broadcast of George Michael performing “Last Christmas” at Wembley Arena in December 2006!

“It’s a privilege, 40 years on, to be able to have this opportunity to celebrate WHAM!’s wonderful and enduring musical homage to Christmas and I’m absolutely thrilled that WHAM! in partnership with The BBC will present this joyful and touching tribute to the nation this Christmas. Christmas was a special time of year for George and Christmas songs were a special type of song for him too and that was why he considered writing a Christmas classic one of the great achievements of his career. Only he will ever know quite what inspired him to such dizzying heights, but his songwriting genius led him to distil the quintessential essence of Christmas into a song whose breadth of appeal spans the generations. Revisiting Saas Fee, four decades on, with some of the closest friends of my youth was a very special experience and one which I know Yog would have loved to have shared in.”

Andrew Ridgeley

The December treat will feature new interviews with Andrew Ridgeley, Pepsi DeMacque-Crockett and Shirlie Kemp. It will also include archive footage of George Michael.

The special will also include interviews with Mary J Blige, Sir Bob Geldof, Neil Tennant and Sam Smith.

Some of the features are Andrew, Pepsi, Shirlie, and friends revisiting the video location, never-seen-before outtakes from the original 35mm music video footage, and George and Andrew’s personal photographs.

“Last Christmas remains as iconic today as it was 40 years ago, continuing to capture the essence of Christmas with the same magic and emotion. This year marks the 40th anniversary of the song, a true testament to George Michael’s songwriting brilliance. A timeless holiday classic, it holds a place among the greatest Christmas songs ever written, resonating with listeners of all ages and inspiring new generations today as it did 40 years ago. As we celebrate this incredible milestone, we are proud to be involved in this heartfelt tribute to the song, the video, and those involved. It offers fans the chance to relive the magic and gain fresh insight into the making of this beloved masterpiece, allowing us to share its enduring legacy with the public and fans around the world.”

George Michael Entertainment

Sony Pictures Entertainment handles distribution outside of the UK.

Will you be watching WHAM!: Last Christmas Unwrapped? Tell us in the comments.

Read more about the 40th anniversary of “Last Christmas” in the following articles:

Make sure to follow Yours Only George on Facebook, X, Threads, and Bluesky, and join our mailing list for the latest news on George Michael.

About Melanie

Melanie is the co-founder of Yours Only George and has been the webmaster of the site since 1997. Melanie has been a George Michael and Wham! fan since "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" in 1984.

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Pepsi & Shirlie Yours Only George

Yours Only George Celebrates 27th Anniversary

On June 1, 2024, Yours Only George is celebrating its 27th anniversary. Shannon and I started this site in 1997 back when AOL gave free space for web sites. We later moved it to a webhost and bought the domain www.yogworld.com.

We had our first fan club in 1986 and came up with the name “Yours Only George” in the early 1990s. The name not only represented fans dedicated to George Michael, but also spelled out “YOG,” George Michael’s nickname. The name “Yog” was originally given to George Michael by Wham! partner Andrew Ridgeley.

I am forever thankful to Shannon for her friendship and support. There is no better friend in this world than Shannon. This site would not be here without her.

Over the past five months, I have been going page by page to update the site. Considering that it is two sites in one and it has about 500 pages, there is a lot to work on!

I am posting my Top 5 Favorite things about the site from the last 27 years:

5

The George Michael Links section is really the beginning of the entire Yours Only George web site. Back in the mid 1990s, I had gone to a seminar, and the gist was that links were a key to success. It was only later that we became known for the George Michael news. At one point, I think there were at least 400 links. I recently deleted any that were no longer available.

4

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I remember being shocked when I saw the Yours Only George website listed as a source for a few George Michael biographies. The first one is George Michael: The Biography (Amazon Ad) by Rob Jovanovic. The second one is George Michael: A Life (Amazon Ad) by James Gavin. I was also recently approached to write a George Michael book. Maybe some day I will!

3

When George Michael died, one tabloid picked up on the fact that Andrew Ridgeley called George Michael “Yog” in his Twitter post about George Michael dying. The writer wrongly said Andrew’s nickname of Yog stood for “Yours Only George.” The nickname “Yog” derives from the Greek pronunciation of George’s given name: Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou. The “G” on “Georgios” is pronounced with a “y” sound like “yogurt.” Unfortunately, this inaccurate information has propagated to other sites.

2

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It was an absolute thrill when we interviewed Shirlie Kemp. I wish I had dated the article. I think it was in February 1998. We interviewed Shirlie when she was running the George Michael fan club during the Aegean record label era. Some day I hope to interview Shirlie again.

1

My absolute favorite memory was finding out that George Michael not only knew about the Yours Only George web site, but George Michael also had the Yours Only George web site bookmarked on his computer! This was in 2004. Jill Taylor, a DJ, did an Internet search before her interview with George Michael, and she found the Yours Only George web site. She mentioned the site during the interview. George was very nice, said he knew about the site, and even had it bookmarked on his computer.

I never had the chance to meet George Michael, but knowing George visited the site is the next best thing.

I will be posting a second article with the Top 5 saddest things that have happened over the last 27 years on the Yours Only George site.

Make sure to follow Yours Only George on Facebook and X, and join our mailing list for the latest news on George Michael.

About Melanie

Melanie is the co-founder of Yours Only George and has been the webmaster of the site since 1997. Melanie has been a George Michael and Wham! fan since "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" in 1984.

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Andrew Ridgeley Death Pepsi & Shirlie

George Michael Buried at Highgate Cemetery

George Michael was buried on March 29, 2017, in Highgate Cemetery in North London. His mother, Lesley Panayiotou, who died of cancer in 1997, is buried next to him.

His burial site is on the private part of the cemetery. While tours are available, George Michael’s grave will not be included in the tour.

George Michael’s family released the following statement:

We can confirm that the funeral of the singer George Michael took place today. Family and close friends gathered for the small, private ceremony to say goodbye to their beloved son, brother and friend.

 

George Michael’s family would like to thank his fans across the world for their many messages of love and support. We ask that the family’s wish for privacy be respected so that they can continue to live their lives privately, away from any media intrusion.

Fadi Fawaz, Kenny Goss, Andrew Ridgeley, Martin Kemp, Shirlie Kemp, and Pepsi DeMacque were just a few of those in attendance.

George Michael died of natural causes (dilated cardiomyopathy with myocarditis and fatty liver) at his home in Goring-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, on Christmas Day.

About Melanie

Melanie is the co-founder of Yours Only George and has been the webmaster of the site since 1997. Melanie has been a George Michael and Wham! fan since "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" in 1984.