![]() The album only landed two Stateside Top Tens versus Faith‘s five. Michael insisted on holding back and, as a result, he believed that Sony under-marketed Listen Without Prejudice in the U.S. “Recording an album and then saying, ‘I’m not going to promote it or I’m not going to market it or I’m not going to participate,’ a serious detriment to an album,” asserts legendary Sony executive Clive Davis. Michael’s distaste for publicity also led to a prolonged dispute with Sony. The C-Word Is Everywhere Right Now - And Not in a Bad WayĨ. “That was the lasting memory of the whole video shoot: The cost of the girls and the fees charged on a daily basis. And it was a revolutionary thing.”Īndy Stephens, an executive at Michael’s label at the time, remembers the video slightly differently. “It changed the whole face of how videos were done: The video said everything,” asserts Elton John. In an attempt to protect his sanity, Michael started avoiding traditional promotional duties, refusing to appear in the video for his hit single “Freedom ’90.” Instead, he recruited five models – Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, Tatjana Patitz, Christy Turlington, and Cindy Crawford – to appear in his stead. Michael’s refusal to be in his own “Freedom ’90” video changed music video culture. “I actually believed that was the work of a publicist, not the work of a genius.”ħ. “I don’t think wrote the letter,” the singer says. Swing … And no more of that talk about ‘the tragedy of fame.’ The tragedy of fame is when no one shows up and you’re singing to the cleaning lady in some empty joint that hasn’t seen a paying customer since Saint Swithin’s Day.” His record label was not particularly sympathetic funnily enough, neither was Frank Sinatra, who felt the need to chide Michael in an open letter to the singer. Michael became increasingly public about what he viewed as the deleterious side effects of pop stardom. Frank Sinatra’s public rebuke to Michael stung. And actually when he sings it, it sounds like a Paul McCartney record!”Ħ. I didn’t dream McCartney would ever sing it. “I made one record to show how much I loved Lennon, I made another record to show how much I loved McCartney. “I was big into Abbey Road and Revolver,” Michael notes. It was also influenced by a period of infatuation with the Beatles. I just felt it was sad that white and black people recording together was dancing with the enemy. “I see their point I saw their point at the time. “I won these two awards that were traditionally received by black artists, and I think there was a perception that it had gone too far,” Michael says. “… If could compete in the same category George Michael competes in, that would be a whole ‘nother thing.” “The black male artist works very hard to get his due,” Gladys Knight said in a 1990 interview. “His music broke through to everybody.” In an incident that presaged modern critiques of the Grammy Awards and Sam Smith’s no-show at the BET Awards in 2015, Michael later won two American Music Awards in the Soul/R&B category, which traditionally went to black singers who were kept out of competition in the pop categories. “You heard George Michael on urban stations right after Luther Vandross,” Blige remembers. Michael’s music did a reverse crossover, moving from pop stations to R&B stations and leading to accusations of cultural appropriation. “The idea that just because I was wearing ridiculous shorts would actually stop people from noticing that, when I look back, still kind of stunning.”ģ. “I knew how to make these records and how to make them jump out of the radio,” he says. He still bristles when considering the reception of his Eighties mega-hits. The documentary establishes this central tension immediately as it races through Michael’s career in the duo Wham! “I have a musical ability that as a teenager was powered by this desperate ambition to be famous and be loved and be respected and whatever,” the singer says. Michael always wanted to be a star, even though he knew the demands of stardom could be debilitating. Blige and supermodels such as Naomi Campbell and Kate Moss pay tribute to Michael’s talents. In addition, a parade of musical veterans, including Nile Rodgers, Stevie Wonder and Mary J. He worked on it until his sudden death on December 25th, 2016, serving as both a narrator and a co-director. Unusually for a posthumous film project, Michael was closely involved with Freedom, set to premiere on Showtime on October 21st. Though most listeners know George Michael as the man behind a series of indelible, million-selling pop hits – many of which still play on radio today – the new Showtime documentary Freedom looks to redefine the singer as a warrior in the never-ending battle against exploitative record contracts, an aficionado of soul music and an advocate for stars’ privacy in a world that places cruel pressures on public figures.
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