(Credits: Spotify)
Mon 2 March 2026 5:00, UK
By the time George Michael passed away, he had achieved the kind of success that most artists only dream of.
He could have easily been a pinup star forever after conquering the world with Andrew Ridgeley, but the minute that Faith came out, people started to see him for the raw talent he truly was whenever he got behind the microphone. He was a far more complex musical thinker, and he never took a second of his time onstage for granted whenever he got the chance to play to as many people as possible.
But when Michael first struck out on his own, he didn’t want to see himself as a pinup star anymore. He never felt that secure being looked at as some teen heartthrob, and while he did lean into it every now and again on tunes like ‘I Want Your Sex’, ‘Freedom ‘90’ was about more than telling the story of the past few years. It was his opportunity to walk away from the limelight and focus on becoming the star that he was always meant to be.
Because when you think about it, Michael wanted to go down in history with the greatest songwriters of his time rather than be a pop star. He had the vision of matching what Michael Jackson and Prince had done with their music, but he never forgot the lessons that he was taught when he listened to all of those old David Bowie and Elton John records when he was a kid.
And while Wembley Stadium gave him the biggest rush that anyone could have had as his farewell concert for Wham!, there was a lot more ground for him to cover when he started writing songs like his idols. Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1 was already an excuse to pay tribute to artists like John Lennon and Paul McCartney, but it seemed like the air was taken out of his sails the minute that Freddie Mercury passed away.
Despite being one of the most engaging singers that the rock and roll world had ever seen, Michael was focusing on Mercury’s songwriting more than anything else. There was no one more brave than Queen when it came to releasing oddball rock and roll songs, and if they could walk away with one of the greatest songs in rock history like ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, Michael wanted the chance to go in that direction as well.
He may have been well into his dance phase by the time that Mercury’s tribute concert was being put on, but when he felt the energy from the crowd singing a song like ‘Somebody to Love’, he knew it was something that he was never going to feel again, saying, “It was the most incredible crowd I’ve ever seen. Everybody knew every single word. There’s a spinetingling moment for me on ‘Somebody to Love’, where they not only sang the note, but that sang the descending scale that Freddie had done.”
Michael certainly had his fair share of moments like that whenever he kicked off tunes like ‘Careless Whisper’, but for any crowd of that magnitude, it was about more than anyone on that stage. Mercury was practically a saint in the rock and roll world, and despite him not being an angel behind the scenes, every single heart in that audience was going to remember how it felt listening to Queen for the first time when Michael sang.
So while Michael kept trying to entertain his audience in whatever way he knew how, there’s a point where you have to give it up for the true hymns that bring people together. Rock and roll was meant to be party music, but there’s a good chance no one knew what they had on their hands when Mercury emerged for the first time.