Everything He Wants

George Michael performs in Hyde Park during the London portion of Live 8 on July 2, 2005. (MJ Kim/Getty Images)

Being a George Michael fan isn’t easy. For starters, the 43-year-old singer has one of the smallest discographies of any established contemporary hit maker. In the 20 years since Wham! broke up, Michael has produced only five albums — one of which (Songs from the Last Century) is a covers record. Not only are new albums a rarity, he’s reticent to tour, and in recent years, more likely to turn up in the tabloids than in the music press. And yet Michael has sold more than 85 million records, and his current world tour — his first in 15 years — has been a rousing success.

What explains his staying power? Twentyfive, Michael’s new greatest-hits compendium, amply demonstrates his gifts as a songwriter — tunes like Father Figure and Everything She Wants are as bracing as the day they were conceived. But there’s more to Michael’s success than a mere mastery of the verse-chorus-verse formula. More so than most mega-selling pop singers, Michael’s songs expose his complicated, conflicted character.

There was little evidence of such gravitas during his stint with Wham! With their frothy songs (Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go, Careless Whisper) and Club Med-ready attire, Michael and fellow Brit Andrew Ridgeley embodied the blithe hedonism of the ’80s. It was no secret that Michael’s knack for melody was what drove Wham!’s chart domination; while many reasons have been given for the band’s split in ’86, the most likely is Ridgeley’s feelings of irrelevance.

He's gotta have faith: George Michael in 1988. (Dave Hogan/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Michael toughened up his image when he went solo; with his leather jacket, ripped jeans and artful perma-stubble, Michael recast himself as a sexual outlaw. Shedding the coy flirtations of Wham!, Michael aimed for the groin. Faith (1987) pretty much heaves with desire. I Want Your Sex is a brazen advance, while the title track is a craftier seduction. The ethereal Father Figure, a sort of Eastern-flavoured gospel slow jam, describes a sexual apprenticeship from the mentor’s perspective; on One More Try, the roles are reversed.

While perceptive fans picked up subtle hints about Michael’s sexual bent on the next two records, Listen without Prejudice (1990) and Older (1996), the singer himself remained cagey. That is, until April 7, 1998, when he walked into a public washroom in Beverly Hills and unwittingly exposed himself to an undercover police officer. He was subsequently arrested for engaging in a lewd act. (Michael pleaded no contest to the charge. He paid a small fine and completed 80 hours of community service.) Weeks later, Michael appeared on CNN to explain himself, and confirm to the world that yes, he was gay.

You’d think that by publicly acknowledging his homosexuality Michael would be liberated musically as well. And yet the opposite is true: his music feels increasingly withdrawn. Other than the hit Freedom 90 — famous for a video featuring the supermodel class of 1990 — the only song to match the sexual frisson of Faith is the 1999 single Outside. Riding a Shaft-inspired disco groove, it’s a cheeky riposte to his arrest and a celebration of sex in all its kinky variations.

Has Michael been chastened by middle age? Unlikely. The fact that he smoked a joint on live British television in October suggests he still lives his life with youthful abandon. A better explanation for Michael’s seriousness on record is his longstanding — often exasperating — need to be viewed as an Artist. While mega-selling stars like Madonna and Elton John are able to tune out critical static and churn out new product, Michael needs validation. Given that some critics have credited Wham! with spurring the ’90s boy-band revival, his pretensions are understandable. Faith may have sold more than 20 million copies worldwide, but it was artistic cred that Michael was after. Desperate to distance himself from his dance-pop roots, Michael’s next record was composed of world-weary ballads — some of which, like Praying for Time and Mothers Pride, were as gorgeously crafted as anything he had written. He titled the album Listen without Prejudice as a way to pre-empt a critical backlash. Sadly, unfairly, reviews of the album were mixed. Even now, despite his notorious attention to detail, Michael is not what you’d call a critical darling.

George Michael performs in Sweden on his current European tour. (Mans Langhjelm/Associated Press)

Another factor that has greatly influenced his work is the passing of his longtime partner, Anselmo Feleppa, to an AIDS-related condition in 1993. The effect was such that during the ’90s, Michael battled depression and for several years simply refused to make music. When he finally did get down to recording, the results were sombre and emotionally quite potent. Dedicated to Feleppa’s memory, the album Older is Michael at his most introspective. The disc is full of mournful ballads, the most affecting of which is Jesus to a Child: “You smiled at me / like Jesus to a child / loveless and cold / with your last breath you saved my soul.” The sadness is so palpable that even Fastlove, Michael’s upbeat paean to casual sex, feels strangely cheerless.

The dearth of club cuts on recent records has certainly had a diminishing effect on Michael’s album sales. Not that the man needs more scratch. (His estimated fortune is $120 million US.) Madonna remains a more consistent chart topper, but her lyrics don’t reveal anything meaningful about her. What makes Michael so compelling is his willingness to meet his demons head on. The songs on Twentyfive are split into two categories, “For Living” and “For Loving,” a reminder of Michael’s personal struggles. But even when songs are as solemn as You Have Been Loved and Heal the Pain, their aim is to uplift.

While Michael is now living happily with American clothing executive Kenny Goss — they’ve even talked about marriage — he’s still a fixture in the tabloids. In July, Michael was spotted emerging from a bush in London’s Hampstead Heath (a well-known gay haunt) with a 58-year-old man. Several years ago, Michael revealed that he’s been cruising for sex, on and off, since he was a teen. He broached the issue, and Goss’s liberal attitude towards it, in Amazing, a single from his 2004 album Patience: “You tried to save me from myself / Said, ‘Darling, kiss as many as you want! / My love’s still available / and I know you’re insatiable.’”

While Goss seems cool with Michael’s conduct, Sony/BMG, Michael’s record label, is watching the star with growing consternation — Sony/BMG has even warned they might drop him from their roster. It’s not a threat to be taken lightly, but Michael has faced adversity before. And there are millions of listeners who can’t wait to see how he translates his latest crisis into cathartic song.

Twentyfive is in stores now.

Andre Mayer writes about the arts for CBC.ca.

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