Tag: Wham!

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George Michael: Portrait of an Artist at Cannes

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Simon Napier-Bell’s George Michael documentary, “George Michael: Portrait of an Artist,” (Amazon Ad) will be on Kaleidoscope Film Distribution’s Cannes slate, according to Variety.

The documentary was directed by Simon Napier-Bell, the manager of Wham! in the mid 1980s who masterminded the historic Wham! trip to China. “George Michael: Portrait of an Artist” includes interviews with Stevie Wonder, Sanandra Maitreya, Stephen Fry, Kenny Goss, Chris Cameron, Rufus Wainwright, Piers Morgan, and Jo Whiley.

The 2023 documentary is described as:

Packed with rare archive footage and candid interviews from the likes of Stevie Wonder, Stephen Fry, and many more of his close friends and colleagues, witness George Michael’s meteoric rise to superstardom like never before. This fascinating documentary exposes, honestly and respectfully, the man who he was, with unprecedent insights into both his professional persona as a world-renowned celebrity, and his tumultuous personal life that nearly brought his career to an early end.

Kaleidoscope Film Distribution

More information is available at the official site for George Michael: Portrait of an Artist.

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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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Awards

George Michael’s “Careless Whisper” Tops Smooth’s All Time Top 500 for 7th Year

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George Michael’s “Careless Whisper” is #1 on 2024’s All Time Top 500 for Smooth Radio. It is the sixth year in a row that “Careless Whisper” has topped the chart, and the seventh year at #1.

George Michael Entertainment released the following statement about this achievement:

On behalf of George Michael Entertainment, we are delighted that Smooth Radio listeners and George’s loyal fans have once again, for the 6th consecutive year, voted for George Michael’s Careless Whisper as their number one song in Smooth’s “All Time Top 500” for 2024.

In this year, the 40th anniversary of its release, this is an incredible achievement as Careless Whisper has now topped Smooth’s chart for a total of 7 years.

We know that George would be proud and truly grateful just as we are, for the continued support of Smooth Radio, its listeners and his loyal fans around the world.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts,

George Michael Entertainment

George Michael’s “A Different Corner” ranked at #3 for another year.

George Michael had a total of 20 songs in Smooth’s Top 500. Here is the ranking:

#1 “Careless Whisper”
#3 “A Different Corner”
#11 “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me” (duet with Elton John)
#31 “Jesus to a Child”
#48 “Father Figure”
#80 “Somebody to Love” (with Queen)
#104 “FastLove”
#105 “Club Tropicana”
#109 “One More Try”
#114 “I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)” (duet with Aretha Franklin)
#116 “Faith”
#138 “Praying for Time”
#140 “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go”
#163 “I’m Your Man”
#169 “Freedom 90”
#178 “Everything She Wants”
#284 “The Edge of Heaven”
#313 “As” (duet with Mary J. Blige)
#320 “Freedom”
#453 “Heal the Pain”

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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Awards

Vote for George Michael Top 10 Placement

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If we want George Michael to have more songs in the Top 10 of Smooth’s All Time Top 500, then we should focus on voting for the songs that did well in 2023.

Here are the George Michael or Wham! songs that did well in 2023 in the Top 200:

  • “Careless Whisper” #1
  • “A Different Corner” #3
  • “Jesus to a Child” #11
  • “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me” #17
  • “Father Figure” #26
  • “One More Try” #56
  • “Praying for Time” #64
  • “Faith” #72
  • “Kissing a Fool” #76
  • “I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)” #80
  • “Somebody to Love” #82
  • “FastLove” #95
  • “Everything She Wants” #125
  • “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” #136
  • “Club Tropicana” #145
  • “Freedom 90” #160

It’s probably best to focus on the ten songs that did the best if we want George to have 3 or more songs in the Top 10. “Jesus to a Child” was close to being in the Top 10 last year. Possibly we should team up with the Elton John and Aretha Franklin fans to get more votes for the duets.

You can pick up to 10 George Michael songs in order of preference, choosing your number 1 song first. You can vote here.

Smooth’s All Time Top 500 will be counted down from Friday, May 3rd, at 10 a.m. to Monday, May 6th, at 7p.m.

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.