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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 New Wham! “Last Christmas” 40th Anniversary CDs and Vinyl

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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Wham!

Wham! Documentary Nominated for Best Music Documentary

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The Wham! documentary has been nominated for Best Music Documentary at the 2024 Grierson Awards.

The awards ceremony will take place on November 6, 2024, at Roundhouse – the iconic music and arts venue in Camden, London.

Tickets are now on sale for the 2024 Grierson Awards ceremony.

The Wham! documentary is listed as the following:

Chris Smith, John Battsek, Simon Halfon, Gregor Lyon, Alex Black

A Netflix Documentary, Ventureland, Passion Pictures, Library Films, Nemperor Production – Netflix

In 1982, teenagers George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley set out to conquer the world as WHAM! By June of 1986 they played their very last gig at Wembley Stadium having done exactly that. Now for the very first time, told in their own words, the amazing story of how in four years they dominated the charts around the world with timeless and classic pop songs.

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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Wham!

Vote for Wham! as Your Ultimate British Group

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Wham! is on the shortlist for the BBCs Ultimate British Group.

On Saturday, October 19, we will celebrate National Album Day. Radio 2 will be crowning the Ultimate British Group.

Wham! is one of 54 artists, spanning from the 1960s to the 2010s. A panel voted from a list of nearly 100 artists to produce a final list of 54.

BBC Sounds will have a special program on Friday, October 11, 2024, with the results. The show will also be broadcast on Radio 2 on Saturday, October 19, from 1-3 p.m.

You can vote for Wham! as Your Ultimate British Group here. You can vote for up to five of your top acts. Voting closes at 4 p.m. on Friday, September 27, 2024.

According to the rules, a British group is defined as an act containing two or members that is made-up wholly of, or where the majority are, people who were born, live or hold British citizenship.

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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Wham!

Calling all Wham! Fans about Last Christmas

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It looks like we are going to be getting a Christmas gift from Wham!

Wham! will be celebrating the 40th anniversary of the song “Last Christmas” and wants to hear “Last Christmas” stories from fans.

Calling All WHAM! Fans

We invite you to help us celebrate the 40th anniversary of Last Christmas! As part of an exciting new project, we want to hear your Last Christmas stories.

Do you have a personal connection to the song? Do you have any videos, photos or stories? Have you ever performed your own version?

Please get in touch here: hello@whamchristmas.com

Wham!

It looks like we will be getting a new website at www.whamchristmas.com too.

This looks like another fun project. A similar call for fans’ help came before the Netflix Wham! documentary.

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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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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Wham!

Wham! If You Were There Documentary First Screening

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When George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley as Wham! went to China in 1985, director Lindsay Anderson was charged with the documentary for this historic event.

For the first time, Anderson’s documentary of Wham! in China, If You Were There, will be screened for the public on May 25 and May 31, 2024. Unfortunately, tickets have already sold out.

The 79-minute documentary is described as the following:

In 1985, at the height of their success, WHAM! were invited to be the first western pop group to tour Communist China since the Cultural Revolution. Accepting the offer, the duo made an unlikely approach to Anderson, asking him to direct a documentary record of the tour. However, the collaboration ended awkwardly when his cut of the film was rejected by the band. The film was subsequently re-edited to incorporate more concert footage and released as WHAM! In China: Foreign Skies. Anderson’s cut, titled If You Were There… has never before been screened publicly, making this a not-to-be-missed, potentially once-only opportunity to see it.

Thanks to Andrew Ridgeley, and to Chris Organ and David Austin of George Michael Entertainment for their co-operation in connection with this screening.

According to The Guardian:

The exact sequence of events leading to Anderson’s dismissal are not easy to discern from his papers. Napier-Bell wrote that the first cut of the film was “achingly boring” and that Michael thought a second version appeared to be “scornful” of Wham!.

“It should have been possible for Lindsay – or any director with an ounce of compromise in him – to have adjusted it to what Wham! needed as a promo tool,” says Napier-Bell today. “But he obviously felt it beneath him to compromise with two upstart kids. He was always a difficult old bugger, full of guilt at his own public school education, but suffering from the superiority it had given him.”

Dead dogs, capitalist critique and only four songs: when Wham! squashed Lindsay Anderson’s China film

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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Wham!

Fantastic and Make It Big Vinyl Release Today

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Wham!’s Fantastic (sponsored link) and Make It Big (sponsored link) are being rereleased on vinyl today.

Check out our previous post with all the information on these vinyl rereleases.

The Official Wham! Facebook page is celebrating with the following videos:

Will you be buying Fantastic or Make It Big on vinyl? Let us know in the comments!

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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Wham!

Wham! Documentary Loses at BAFTA Awards

The Wham! documentary lost to “20 Days in Mariupol” at the BAFTA awards.

Simon Halfon had the following to say about the loss:

You can see the entire list of winners for the BAFTA awards here.

Do you think Wham! should have won best documentary? Let us know in the comments.

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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Wham!

New Netflix Wham! Documentary Inside Look

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Netflix has added a new video on YouTube with an inside look of the Wham! documentary.

Producers John Battsek and Simon Halfon provide some background information on the making of the documentary WHAM! with Andrew Ridgeley.

You couldn’t have a better best friend than Andrew Ridgeley. He not only encouraged George Michael to start a band, but he also stepped back to let George shine.

The Wham! documentary has been nominated as best documentary at the BAFTA awards which will be on Sunday, February 18, 2024.

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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Wham!

Wham! Documentary Nominated for BAFTA Awards

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The Wham! documentary has been nominated for the BAFTA Awards in the documentary category.

The competition includes:

  • 20 Days in Mariupol
  • American Symphony
  • Beyond Utopia
  • Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie

Will you be watching on Sunday, February 18, to find out if Wham! won best documentary? Let us know in the comments!

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.